by Silvia Musso
It will be held in Brescia (North Italy) on 23 and 24 September, the VIII National Conference of Sociologists of the Environment. Among the noteworthy actions in terms of environmental communication, we stress the Local Citizens Debates, a model example of a dialog on climate change, paper presented by Silvia Caprioglio, a Phd student at the Graduate School of Science and Communication Project at the University of Turin.
According to this research while climate change has gained a central role in the scientific, political and media arena, citizens, despite the interest shown in the balance of thematic relevance and the impact on daily life, however, are likely to be relegated to a role of mere passive receptors.
To return to the public a role of active participation in the debate on climate change, last April 2009 the European Commission launched the project called ACCENT, Action on Climate Change through Engagement, Networks and Tools, a 2 years program that has involved over fifteen science centers, science museums and aquariums in Europe and Israel. Besides the organization of workshops, demonstrations and scientific conferences, Observa, project partner and research center that promotes reflection and debate on the relationship between science and society, has developed a local debate format, called Local Citizens Debate (LCD). During the project 25 LCD were organized between Europe and Israel. Scientists from local research institutions, stakeholders, policy makers and civil society organizations dealing with citizens, met for a total of almost 700 people involved and more than 100 experts. Citizens have had the opportunity to discuss both among themselves and with panels of experts and to collect comments and recommendations on climate change at different levels - addressed to the media, scientists, local government, national or European - to be sent to EU.
From north to south of Europe has emerged as the climate change tends to be perceived as a distant phenomenon, which usually is not made in connection with local events. Regarding the causes of climate change, however, citizens do not seem to have doubts about the human contribution; the doubts, if anything, about the amount of liability with respect to human factors of natural origin. On this point the position of those who argue that the changes were introduced too fast on the Industrial Revolution - and especially in recent decades - collides with that of those who think that development is a process continuous and positive, that the more quickly the more you can provide new ways for further development.
Finally, in on one hand citizens are demanding more information and more research, to the other they feed suspicion about the independence of the media as much of the research institutions and highlight the role that each individual should and could play. It would be a change in lifestyle, particularly in relation to energy, food and transportation. According citizens it should be favored the use of products that do not involve long distance transport, the tap water instead of the bottle, a greater use of public transport and attention to LED lights and lit unnecessarily. Actions that could be encouraged also in terms of personal benefit (economic, health, welfare). But if it seems to be a spread awareness of the need for profound changes, the shooting toward a concrete individual effort for the most part still is hard to be realised; the progress of science and technology fastly advances and among citizens resist the hope that it will solve some of the current problems without having to get to actively question the lifestyle.
This is definitely a focal point for the social sciences as well as for science communication. How communication can tackle difficult environmental issues to bring them closer to citizens? How to design effective communication campaigns and what features should they have in order to drop in everyday life and common feeling issues such as climate change, energy crisis, waste reduction etc.?
The question is open. Who wants to find spaces for discussion and debate, especially from the standpoint of sociological reflection, can participate to this presentation or to the conference in general – we also recommend the session "Environmental education, sustainable lifestyles, patterns of production and consumption" moderated by Giorgio Osti, a member of the AICA Scientific Committee and professor at the University of Trieste – More info: http://www.sociologiadelterritorio.it/eventi.php, tel / fax + 39 0302406342, ilaria.beretta @ unicatt.it, valerio.corradi unicatt.it @, @ enrico.tacchi unicatt.it.
According to this research while climate change has gained a central role in the scientific, political and media arena, citizens, despite the interest shown in the balance of thematic relevance and the impact on daily life, however, are likely to be relegated to a role of mere passive receptors.
To return to the public a role of active participation in the debate on climate change, last April 2009 the European Commission launched the project called ACCENT, Action on Climate Change through Engagement, Networks and Tools, a 2 years program that has involved over fifteen science centers, science museums and aquariums in Europe and Israel. Besides the organization of workshops, demonstrations and scientific conferences, Observa, project partner and research center that promotes reflection and debate on the relationship between science and society, has developed a local debate format, called Local Citizens Debate (LCD). During the project 25 LCD were organized between Europe and Israel. Scientists from local research institutions, stakeholders, policy makers and civil society organizations dealing with citizens, met for a total of almost 700 people involved and more than 100 experts. Citizens have had the opportunity to discuss both among themselves and with panels of experts and to collect comments and recommendations on climate change at different levels - addressed to the media, scientists, local government, national or European - to be sent to EU.
From north to south of Europe has emerged as the climate change tends to be perceived as a distant phenomenon, which usually is not made in connection with local events. Regarding the causes of climate change, however, citizens do not seem to have doubts about the human contribution; the doubts, if anything, about the amount of liability with respect to human factors of natural origin. On this point the position of those who argue that the changes were introduced too fast on the Industrial Revolution - and especially in recent decades - collides with that of those who think that development is a process continuous and positive, that the more quickly the more you can provide new ways for further development.
Finally, in on one hand citizens are demanding more information and more research, to the other they feed suspicion about the independence of the media as much of the research institutions and highlight the role that each individual should and could play. It would be a change in lifestyle, particularly in relation to energy, food and transportation. According citizens it should be favored the use of products that do not involve long distance transport, the tap water instead of the bottle, a greater use of public transport and attention to LED lights and lit unnecessarily. Actions that could be encouraged also in terms of personal benefit (economic, health, welfare). But if it seems to be a spread awareness of the need for profound changes, the shooting toward a concrete individual effort for the most part still is hard to be realised; the progress of science and technology fastly advances and among citizens resist the hope that it will solve some of the current problems without having to get to actively question the lifestyle.
This is definitely a focal point for the social sciences as well as for science communication. How communication can tackle difficult environmental issues to bring them closer to citizens? How to design effective communication campaigns and what features should they have in order to drop in everyday life and common feeling issues such as climate change, energy crisis, waste reduction etc.?
The question is open. Who wants to find spaces for discussion and debate, especially from the standpoint of sociological reflection, can participate to this presentation or to the conference in general – we also recommend the session "Environmental education, sustainable lifestyles, patterns of production and consumption" moderated by Giorgio Osti, a member of the AICA Scientific Committee and professor at the University of Trieste – More info: http://www.sociologiadelterritorio.it/eventi.php, tel / fax + 39 0302406342, ilaria.beretta @ unicatt.it, valerio.corradi unicatt.it @, @ enrico.tacchi unicatt.it.
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