Social Constructions of Nature: A Case Study of Conflicts over the Development of Rainham Marshes
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse social constructions of nature in different discursive contexts and the ways in which particular representations of nature are used to legitimate specific institutional policies and practices and explore the identification of distinctive myths of nature associated with particular sociopolitical formations within the discourses of developers, conservationists, the media and the public.
Abstract: This paper analyses social constructions of nature in different discursive contexts and the ways in which particular representations of nature are used to legitimate specific institutional policies and practices. The proposal to create a commercial and entertainment development on the Rainham Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in east London provides the case study. Drawing on arguments from media sociology and the sociology of risk, the paper explores the identification of distinctive myths of nature associated with particular sociopolitical formations within the discourses of developers, conservationists, the media and the public. Detailed ethnographic research reveals how the developers and conservationists employed different constructions of nature to justify their respective positions and how different local audiences made sense of competing claims about the relative worth of the 'nature' on their doorsteps.
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01 Jan 1997
1,196 citations
TL;DR: A review of 31 empirical and eighteen substantive papers by qualitative social geographers mainly using in-depth interviews reveals little explicit reference to the principle(s) adopted to enhance "rigour" and to ensure meaningful inference as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A review of 31 empirical and eighteen substantive papers by qualitative social geographers mainly using in-depth interviews reveals little explicit reference to the principle(s) adopted to enhance ‘rigour’ and to ensure meaningful inference. Given the modest explicit discussion of evaluative criteria in these papers, a scheme from evaluation research itself is critically reviewed. A set of evaluation questions derived from this review and their application to an empirical piece of qualitative work frame an argument for a general set of criteria rather than rigid rules for assessing qualitative work. Such criteria can serve as anchor points for qualitative evaluation.
1,135 citations
Cites methods from "Social Constructions of Nature: A C..."
...Various combinations of qualitative methods are often used and, increasingly, qualitative and quantitative methods are combined in the same study (e.g. Harrison and Burgess 1994; Leckie 1993)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the tensions between national policies that are based on an information deficit model of participation, and local research and experience that posits a more complex relationship between individuals and institutions.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with debates over the implementation of sustainability objectives. In particular, it focuses on policies that address the ‘value‐action gap’ in environmental policy. Using evidence from the author's research connected with the UK Going for Green Sustainable Communities Project in Huntingdonshire, the paper highlights the tensions between national policies that are based on an ‘information deficit’ model of participation, and local research and experience that posits a more complex relationship between individuals and institutions. While this suggests the need to develop more differentiated policies based on the restructuring of socioeconomic and political institutions, the paper warns against knee‐jerk calls for more local, community or public participation which simply replace one set of generalised appeals with another. The paper concludes that greater emphasis must be placed on the negotiation of partnerships that are more sensitive to local diversity, and which involve...
1,016 citations
TL;DR: This paper present a comparative analysis of how representatives from the public, private, and voluntary sectors of two cities [Nottingham (United Kingdom) and Eindhoven (The Netherlands)] responded to the challenge of communicating more effectively with citizens about issues of sustainability.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative analysis of how representatives from the public, private, and voluntary sectors of two cities [Nottingham (United Kingdom) and Eindhoven (The Netherlands)] responded to the challenge of communicating more effectively with citizens about issues of sustainability. The analysis is set in the context of literature about the need to widen participation in the determination of Local Agenda 21 policies, and the drive for more inclusionary forms of communication in planning and politics. Workshop members discussed the results of surveys and in-depth discussion groups with local residents which had revealed considerable scepticism and mistrust of environmental communications and environmental expertise. Three themes are explored. First, there is consensus in attributing responsibility for public alienation and resistance to environmental communications to the content and styles of media reporting. Second, there are contrasting discursive constructions of the ‘public’, which reflec...
487 citations
TL;DR: The authors distinguish two broad varieties of construction talk in the social sciences: construction-as-refutation and construction as-philosophical-critique, and identify four other, more radical sorts of constructions that use the construction metaphor to question the culture/nature, subject/object and representation/reality dualisms that provide the conventional philosophical foundation for distinguishing true conceptions of nature from false ones.
Abstract: This paper seeks to clarify what is meant by the ‘social construction of nature’, which has become a crude but common term used to describe very different understandings of nature, knowledge and the world. I distinguish two broad varieties of construction talk in the social sciences: construction-as-refutation and construction-as-philosophical-critique. The first uses the construction metaphor to refute false beliefs about the world and is consistent with orthodox philosophical stances, such as positivism and realism. By contrast, I identify four other, more radical sorts of construction-as-philosophical-critique that use the construction metaphor to question the culture/nature, subject/object and representation/reality dualisms that provide the conventional philosophical foundation for distinguishing true conceptions of nature from false ones. Another source of confusion has been the question of precisely what is meant by the term ‘nature’. Making distinctions among different senses of that term can prov...
345 citations
Cites background from "Social Constructions of Nature: A C..."
...…constructionists argue that ’cultural groups ... construct and redefine their realities ... through ongoing social interactions’ (Greider and Garkovich, 1994: 6; cf. Berger and Luckman, 1966; Harrison and Burgess, 1994; Eder, 1996; Hannigan, 1995; Macnaghten and Urry, 1998; Williams, 1998)....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: Postmodernism has been particularly important in acknowledging 'the multiple forms of otherness as they emerge from differences in subjectivity, gender and sexuality, race and class, temporal and spatial geographic locations and dislocations'.
Abstract: Postmodernism has been particularly important in acknowledging 'the multiple forms of otherness as they emerge from differences in subjectivity, gender and sexuality, race and class, temporal and spatial geographic locations and dislocations'. Postmodernism also ought to be looked at as mimetic of the social, economic, and political practices in society. The meta-narratives that the postmodernists decry were much more open, nuanced, and sophisticated than the critics admit. The rhetoric of postmodernism is dangerous for it avoids confronting the realities of political economy and the circumstances of global power. The sharp categorical distinction between modernism and postmodernism disappears, to be replaced by an examination of the flux of internal relations within capitalism as a whole. The reproduction of the social and symbolic order through the exploration of difference and 'otherness' is all too evident in the climate of postmodernism.
6,899 citations
"Social Constructions of Nature: A C..." refers background in this paper
...undoubtedly contributing to fundamental changes in human consciousness and subjectivity (Harvey 1989; Giddens 1991)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1991
1,722 citations
"Social Constructions of Nature: A C..." refers background in this paper
...Schwartz and Thompson (1990) link each of these 'myths and nature' with the institutional typology provided by Douglas....
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Book•
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01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine man's new relationship with nature ranging from consequences of the greenhouse effect, global heating, changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and evaporating rivers to changes in the world's economic and political power structure.
Abstract: This is an examination of man's new relationship with nature ranging from consequences of the greenhouse effect, global heating, changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and evaporating rivers to changes in the world's economic and political power structure. The author sees this new phase in our planet's history as profoundly sad as the comforting sense of predictability and permanence in the natural world is no longer valid. He contends that we have reached the end of nature as we know it. More a a conventional futuristic book, it considers man's moral and practical dilemma as he confronts environmental issues, and the author presents two philosophical alternatives for survival.
957 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: The Social Creation of Nature as mentioned in this paper explores the consequences of conventional understandings of nature, and also seeks a way around the limitations of a socially created nature in order to defend what is actually imperiled.
Abstract: One reason for our failure to "save the earth," argues Neil Evernden, is our disagreement about what "nature" really is-how it works, what constitutes a risk to it, and even whether we ourselves are part of it. Nature is as much a social entity as a physical one. In addition to the physical resources to be harnessed and transformed, it consists of a domain of norms that may be called upon in defense of certain social ideals. In exploring the consequences of conventional understandings of nature, The Social Creation of Nature also seeks a way around the limitations of a socially created nature in order to defend what is actually imperiled-"wildness," in which, Thoreau wrote, lies hope for "the preservation of the world."
385 citations
"Social Constructions of Nature: A C..." refers background in this paper
...A similar trend is evident in current rhetorical appeals to ecological principles to maintain 'balance' in human-environment interactions (Evernden 1992)....
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