96 research outputs found

    Evidence about the policy assumptions about lay behaviour

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    This deliverable provides an analysis of the early fieldwork reports that have been produced as part of WP3. Its focus is on identifying the assumptions that are evident in the approaches of the policy partners to human behaviour around sustainability. The themes of this early work will form one focus of subsequent interactions with the policy partners and will be used as the basis for developing a schedule for further investigations to be deployed with policy makers in each countr

    Guidance on Stimulus Materials

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    PACHELBEL WP4 “Stimulus Materials” uses findings from WP3 (Policy Assumptions) and from additional sources to prepare stimulus materials for the group-based process “STAVE” implemented in WP5. The output was material to inform and stimulate the group-based process. The material was of two types: a set of questionnaires common to all partners (EVOC/CAPA/SIMI questionnaires), and material that is issue-specific and individually produced for each country. EVOC/CAPA/SIMI short questionnaires serve as a comparative tool between countries, giving insight on the social construction of “sustainable consumption” across the PACHELBEL population. Partners asked participants to fill out the set individually at the first meeting of the STAVE group, results were then analyzed and data were fed back for discussion by group participants at their second meeting. A “re-test” was then conducted at the third of three group meetings. The present report details the representations revealed through this methodology – but moreover the impact of applying such a technique in STAVE groups in France, Germany, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK (where the methodology was slightly altered). The issue-and-country-specific material consists of an informative simulated newspaper article on the particular issue addressed in a given STAVE process, and/or other materials (for example, humorous drawings). The report details how this material was developed, and the experience of applying these stimulus materials in each country. On this basis, guidance for future STAVE processes is offered. Foremost among observations is that PACHELBEL stimulus materials serve a purpose that is distinct from that of “group exercises” as developed in WP5. The materials contributing to the formation of a group identity, a reflexive group norm, and a shared information basis. As such, stimulus materials prepare the group for a cooperative investigative process

    Great deeds or great risks? Scientists’ social representations of nanotechnology

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    Nanotechnologies are becoming a larger presence in everyday life and are viewed by governments and economic actors as a key area for development. The theory of social representations suggests that specialist views eventually disseminate to shape representations among the public. Yet nanotechnologies remain relatively little known to the general public. The media emphasize potential benefits, while potential risks get less attention. The literature has not yet addressed whether representations by a well-informed population (scientists) are indeed structured in terms of the risk–benefit polarity that dominates research framing to date. We attempted a systematic assessment of how background knowledge about nanotechnology may influence experts’ perception. Study 1 delivered the first demonstration derived from a qualitative analysis confirming the existence of a polarized representation of nanotechnologies, contrasting opportunity (medical, economic, and technological) and risk. Interestingly, risk was distinguished at two levels: that associated with nanomaterial characteristics (toxicity, reactivity) and at the larger scale of impact (health, environment, legislation). Does this polarity indicate a ‘yes, but’ logic (nanotechnology carries opportunity but also risk), or two clusters of specialists (sensitive, respectively, to opportunity or to risk)? Study 2 surveyed a larger sample of experts who self-described their scientific background and role viz. nanotechnology. Role had no influence. Specialists consensually viewed that nanotechnology represents opportunity, but depending on scientific background they did not agree to the same extent that nanotechnology also constitutes a risk. Participants with a physics and chemistry background tended to represent nanotechnologies predominantly in terms of opportunities and not in terms of inherent risks or impacts. In contrast, toxicologists, life and social scientists appeared to explicitly incorporate both benefits and risks in their representation of this new technology. Environmental scientists were a more diverse group, divided between the two patterns of representation

    Policy addressing climate change & learning about consumer behaviour and everyday life : PACHELBEL

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    The main objective of PACHELBEL is the development, trialling and operationalisation of a tool called STAVE, which will be designed to support the work of policy-making for sustainability in real-world settings. The tool will support processes of knowledge brokerage, promoting the appropriate application of existing research findings, and the generation of new knowledge which is focused on specific policy objectives.L'objectiu principal del projecte PACHELBEL Ă©s desenvolupar, provar i operacionalitzar un instrument anomenat STAVE (Systematic Tool for Behavioural Assumption Validation and Exploration), que haurĂ  de servir per a donar suport als dissenyadors de polĂ­tiques pĂșbliques ambientals i per la sostenibilitat. Aquesta eina servirĂ  per gestionar millor els processos de transmissiĂł de coneixement entre el pĂșblic i les institucions polĂ­tiques, aixĂ­ com per a integrar millor els resultats de les recerques socials en l'elaboraciĂł de polĂ­tiques pĂșbliques i per a generar nou coneixement al respecte

    Participatory analysis for adaptation to climate change in Mediterranean agricultural systems: possible choices in process design (versĂŁo Pre Print)

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    There is an increasing call for local measures to adapt to climate change, based on foresight analyses in collaboration with actors. However, such analyses involve many challenges, particularly because the actors concerned may not consider climate change to be an urgent concern. This paper examines the methodological choices made by three research teams in the design and implementation of participatory foresight analyses to explore agricultural and water management options for adaptation to climate change. Case studies were conducted in coastal areas of France, Morocco, and Portugal where the groundwater is intensively used for irrigation, the aquifers are at risk or are currently overexploited, and a serious agricultural crisis is underway. When designing the participatory processes, the researchers had to address four main issues: whether to avoid or prepare dialogue between actors whose relations may be limited or tense; how to select participants and get them involved; how to facilitate discussion of issues that the actors may not initially consider to be of great concern; and finally, how to design and use scenarios. In each case, most of the invited actors responded and met to discuss and evaluate a series of scenarios. Strategies were discussed at different levels, from farming practices to aquifer management. It was shown that such participatory analyses can be implemented in situations which may initially appear to be unfavourable. This was made possible by the flexibility in the methodological choices, in particular the possibility of framing the climate change issue in a broader agenda for discussion with the actors

    Climate geoengineering: issues of path-dependence and socio-technical lock-in

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    As academic and policy interest in climate geoengineering grows, the potential irreversibility of technological developments in this domain has been raised as a pressing concern. The literature on socio-technical lock-in and path dependence is illuminating in helping to situate current concerns about climate geoengineering and irreversibility in the context of academic understandings of historical socio-technical development and persistence. This literature provides a wealth of material illustrating the pervasiveness of positive feedbacks of various types (from the discursive to the material) leading to complex socio-technical entanglements which may resist change and become inflexible even in the light of evidence of negative impacts. With regard to climate geoengineering, there are concerns that geoengineering technologies might contribute so-called ‘carbon lock-in’, or become irreversibly ‘locked-in’ themselves. In particular, the scale of infrastructures that geoengineering interventions would require, and the issue of the so-called ‘termination effect’ have been discussed in these terms. Despite the emergent and somewhat ill-defined nature of the field, some authors also suggest that the extant framings of geoengineering in academic and policy literatures may already demonstrate features recognizable as forms of cognitive lock-in, likely to have profound implications for future developments in this area. While the concepts of path-dependence and lock-in are the subject of ongoing academic critique, by drawing analytical attention to these pervasive processes of positive feedback and entanglement, this literature is highly relevant to current debates around geoengineering
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