자연주의적 탐구조사(Naturalistic Inquiry)

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

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The Environmental Protection Agency

Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace

Recent studies assert that rural residents support the protection of environmental quality of life features over environmentally insensitive economic development strategies. Rural development policy, however, is not typically created by common rural citizens. Instead, officials from state government agencies, non-profit corporations, national associations, and private business firms create strategies, often hand-in-hand with local interest groups and elites. Research into the attitudes of development officials could play an important role in understanding rural environmental and economic development policy. This study uses a national sample of 305 rural development administrators to define a group of green rural development officials (GRDOs) based on age, organization of employment, and educational background. The findings demonstrate that GRDOs possess strong environmental attitudes on all three areas tested: rural environmental problems, environmental rural policy options, and environmental policy consi...

The greening of state rural development officials: a call for research

The proposed opening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico has generated a flurry of studies that examine public percep­ tions of the hazards involved in transporting radioactive waste to that site. Presently, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico are most affected by the potential WIPP opening and future shipments of wastes. This study synthesizes the findings of independent surveys among residents in those states regarding their concerns. Five topics are commonly measured: trust, safety of highway shipments, moving waste versus maintaining the present temporary storage, risk perceptions, and economic impact. People in the four states report high levels of trust for scientists and low levels for federal officials. Of the four populations, Idahoans are most likely to support moving the waste. Respondents agreed that traffic accidents are likely but this is also true of shipping other cargo such as toxic chemicals. Residents in New Mexico and Colorado perceive the greatest economic gains while Oregonians think that transporting radioactive waste will have adverse effects in their state. These findings will assist public officials in making decisions regarding the eventual shipments. Suggestions for public officials are included.

Mark K. McBeth

Papers

The greening of state rural development officials: a call for research

Citizen Views of Transporting Radioactive Waste in Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico

Using a Survey in the Rural Planning Process

Critiques of the Rational Model

Policy Analysis: Narrative Policy Framework