Leadership and the Construction of Environmental Concern | springerprofessional.de

Springer Professional

nach oben

2017 | Buch

Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Leadership and the Construction of Environmental Concern

verfasst von: Bruce Tranter, Elizabeth Lester, Dr. Lyn McGaurr

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Buchreihe : Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Über dieses Buch

This book emerges from a three-year Australian Research Council-funded study that asks how the formation and (d)evolution of leadership has impacted on public environmental debate. To do this, it draws on extensive news text analysis and public opinion survey data, as well as qualitative interviews with Australian and international movement actors. The volume investigates environmental leadership in a period of rapid political and media change by examining the nature, variety and scope; specifically, how it is understood and generated and how it changes over time. For the first time, the interconnected roles of leaders and media in constructing environmental issues are researched together, providing new evidence-based understandings of the people and processes driving public debate on environmental futures.

Anzeige

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Environmental LeadershipEnvironmental Leadership in Transition

Abstract

Research seeking to explain how environmental threats and conflicts are publicly articulated faces a major challenge. In a social movement where the very notion of leadership is sometimes contested and often hidden, how are we to understand the role of environmental leaders in shaping political and public-issue agendas? Why are some leaders more influential than others? How do the sometimes conflicting interests of environmental leaders, Greens politicians and protest groups influence the way environmental concerns are negotiated? How do leaders and media interact in constructing environmental issues, and how has this changed with the major changes affecting media platforms, practices and technologies? This chapter introduces Leadership and the Construction of Environmental Concerns, providing an overview of key issues, related scholarship and the methods used for gathering and analysing the data on which this book is based.

Bruce Tranter, Libby Lester, Lyn McGaurr

Chapter 2. Who Cares About Climate ChangeClimate Change ?

Abstract

In this chapter we analyse national survey data from the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes to examine the relative importance of climate change vis a vis other environmental issues of concern to Australians. We ask to what extent Australians believe that climate change is occurring, and what they think causes it. We show how a range of social and political background characteristics, and the type of media Australians rely upon for their news and information, is associated with their attitudes toward climate change. We then seek to better understand how the Australian environmental movement has tackled (or failed to tackle) the issue, using our interview data to explore the issue from the perspective of EMO leaders and Greens politicians.

Bruce Tranter, Libby Lester, Lyn McGaurr

Chapter 3. Environmental ConcernsEnvironmental Concerns and the MediaMedia

Abstract

Several leaders quoted in Chap. 2 lamented that the environmental movement had not performed well on the issue of climate change. To test this, we compare the news representation of environmental issues and EMOs in Australian federal elections from 1990 to 2013. We are interested in whether that coverage has changed over time. We then focus in depth on the intensity and range of coverage of EMOs and environmental issues during the 2013 election campaign, particularly in relation to behind-the-scenes media practices of EMOs and their leaders, including the circulation of media releases and other campaign material, and levels of activity on social media and organisation websites. We find that this activity did not translate into high visibility in news media for EMOs and their leaders. We also offer tentative evidence of a link between the dominance of climate-change coverage and the poor visibility of EMOs and other environmental issues in metropolitan media.

Bruce Tranter, Libby Lester, Lyn McGaurr

Chapter 4. Locking the GateLock the Gate on CoalCoal and GasGas

Abstract

In this chapter we move out of Australia’s capital cities to the nation’s rural towns and farms to examine a surprising alliance formed in 2010, evocatively called Lock the Gate. Similar to its environmental predecessors, Lock the Gate is grass-roots-based. Yet, unlike earlier elements of the movement, almost 100,000 environmental activists, farmers, Indigenous people and, as contemporary politicians refer to them, ‘mum and dad Australians’, are united in their stance against ‘unsafe coal and gas mining’ (http://www.lockthegate.org.au/about_us). We examine the way the leaders of Lock the Gate constructed environmental issues to attract rural landholders to the alliance in its early years. Although the alliance attempts to prevent the expansion of key causes of anthropogenic climate change, our research findings raise questions about its willingness to publicise global warming as a key environmental issue.

Bruce Tranter, Libby Lester, Lyn McGaurr

Chapter 5. Indigenous EngagementIndigenous Engagement : Three Case Studies

Abstract

In this chapter we examine the relationship between environmental leaders and Indigenous Australians. The World Heritage Convention protects sites of universal natural and cultural values, sometimes in combination. In 2015, it was amended to incorporate references to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). International conventions are always in danger of becoming the handmaidens of their signatory states. When evidence emerges that they have succumbed, it fuels criticism of cosmopolitanism. At the same time, environmental leaders sometimes clash with Indigenous people over efforts to conserve the natural values of traditional lands for the ‘global good’. We ask how international instruments with cosmopolitan ambitions have influenced the discourse and practice of Australian environmentalists attempting to find common ground with Indigenous groups. Drawing on interviews with 25 members of our sample who mentioned Indigenous issues in their interviews, we find the World Heritage Convention and UNDRIP have encouraged a pragmatic cosmopolitan practice among environmentalists, despite continuing intercultural differences in some quarters.

Bruce Tranter, Libby Lester, Lyn McGaurr

Chapter 6. The New Media Politics of Environmental LeadershipEnvironmental Leadership

Abstract

We draw on our interviews at length in this chapter to consider the changing relationship between media and leadership, focusing on leadership and media careers, and changing media practices. We conclude with our reflections and those of interviewees on the still-emerging relationship between environmental leadership and twenty-first-century media and communications. Most of our interviewees note that the ‘jury is still out’. Of particular interest are the conditions under which environmental leaders must now operate when communicating risk and potential for disaster, and ask how these conditions influence movement leadership. We outline how environmental leaders adjust media practices according to their complex and tenuous relationship with publics and political power, and within the context of the rich history of environmental leadership and campaigning in Australia.

Bruce Tranter, Libby Lester, Lyn McGaurr

Backmatter

Titel: Leadership and the Construction of Environmental Concern
verfasst von: Bruce Tranter
Elizabeth Lester
Dr. Lyn McGaurr
Copyright-Jahr: 2017
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-56584-6
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56583-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56584-6

Weitere Formate
Fachgebiete
Bücher
Zeitschriften
Themenseiten
Jetzt Einzelzugang starten
Zugang für Unternehmen
Referenzkunden
SLX-Digitalkonferenz: Zukunftswerkstatt 2024