Framing Climate Change for Public Deliberation: What Role for Interpretive Social Sciences and Humanities?

Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning

Volume 18, Issue 1, 1 January 2016, Pages 67-84

  (Article)

Blue, G. 

 

Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada 

View references (93)

Abstract

Public deliberation is increasingly marshalled as a viable avenue for climate governance. Although climate change can be framed in multiple ways, it is widely assumed that the only relevant public meaning of climate change is that given by the natural sciences. Framing climate change as an inherently science-based public issue not only shields institutional power from scrutiny, but it can also foster an instrumental approach to public deliberation that can constrain imaginative engagement with present and future socio-environmental change. By fostering the normative value of pluralism as well as the substantive value of epistemic diversity, the interpretive social sciences and humanities can assist in opening up public deliberation on climate change such that alternative questions, neglected issues, marginalized perspectives and different possibilities can gain traction for policy purposes. Stakeholders of public deliberation are encouraged to reflect on the orchestration of the processes by which climate change is defined, solutions identified and political collectives convened. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.

Author keywords

climate change; environmental governance; framing; Public deliberation

ISSN: 1523908X CODEN: JEPNFSource Type: Journal Original language: English

DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2015.1053107Document Type: Article

Publisher: Routledge

Funding Details

Number; Acronym; Sponsor: 833-2009-4011; SSHRC; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Number; Acronym; Sponsor: 865-2008-0023; SSHRC; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

References (93)

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  Blue, G.; itDepartment of Geography, Universy of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Canada; email:ggblue@ucalgary.ca
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