288 research outputs found
Questioni etiche e resistenze nella transizione energetica: Quali sfide per le scienze sociali?
No full textPublic engagement and social acceptability in energy system change: A socio-psychological analysis of a regional case study
No full textThe transition towards distributed low-carbon energy systems coincides with the introduction and materialization of renewable energy technologies (RETs) and associated infrastructures at the local level and implies a complex re-organization of the territories and a careful consideration of the relationship between energy sources and technologies and the local scale. Indeed, the design and effective implementation of energy policies and technologies require engaging multiple actors across scales in identifying measures ideally fitting with the given political, socio-cultural, economic and territorial contexts, building the acceptability and support of diverse publics.
Social research on social acceptance of RETs and associated infrastructures has grown in the last decades proposing several conceptual frameworks. However, this literature still presents some limitations, such as the scarcity of studies on social acceptance of the whole energy system change instead of single technologies/projects. Moreover, studies often rely and focus only on a single level or dimension of social acceptance, notably community acceptance at the local level, or political and socio-economic acceptance at the national level. Thus, studies integrating market, socio-political and community aspects or triangulating/combining findings from different levels are limited.
This thesis presents a longitudinal and multi-scalar investigation of public discourse and stakeholders’ perspectives on energy policies and technologies in the Marche region (Italy) by connecting public and institutional arenas. The research adopts Social Representations, Justice and Identity Theories and a discursive analytical approach to investigate public engagement and social acceptability in energy system change. The research consists of three studies: a longitudinal discourse analysis of the public sphere (2011-2017), involving document materials and naturalistic data (i.e. local media, political and public debates) to examine the historicity and territorialisation of RETs and related people’s responses; an analysis of public consultations and environmental assessments' reports (2015-2016) regarding the regional energy plan 2020 and twenty-two narrative interviews (2017-2018) with key informants and actors operating at different scales (i.e. policy, market, expert and civil society actors).
The first study shows that people opposition to the territorialisation of RETs were motivated by different factors involving procedural (engagement, authorisation, regulation, guidelines, and assessment in RET deployment), distributional (environmental and social impacts, fit with place materiality and symbolic meanings, distribution of costs and benefits between places and actors) and recognition elements of justice (recognition and treatment of local communities and authorities).
Moreover, the study found that different RETs are conceptualized as strongly intertwined, considering the distributed generation of RETs as a physical aggression and multiplication of impacts devastating the territory. Territorial features and memories of unsustainable economies (overbuilding and soil consumption, widespread industries and pollution, landscape disruption) played a great role in public conceptualization of and responses to RETs considered as aggravating environmental criticalities, putting at risk local economies based on agriculture and tourism and reinforcing distrust toward firms and politics.
To face this situation, the Regional Government started a re-configuration process with the elaboration of energy and environmental policies by means of preliminary and inclusive participation. Despite the institutional participatory pathways have addressed many critical issues, enhancing the timely recognition and inclusion of different normative appraisals in planning and decision-making, and enhancing the overall quality and legitimacy of the plan, this remains constrained by different factors constraining the potential for a sustainable and effective implementation of the strategy and undermining socio-political, economic, and community acceptance.
The findings are discussed in light of the theoretical, methodological and applied (policy) implications of the research on social acceptance and deliberative governance
Dalla Marea Nera al Referendum. Un’indagine esplorativa sulle rappresentazioni delle trivellazioni nei quotidiani online (2010-2016)
No full textLo studio si inserisce all’interno della prospettiva teorica delle rappresentazioni sociali (Moscovici, 1961/76), da sempre interessata al ruolo che i media rivestono nella formazione delle conoscenze -in particolare su questioni tecnico-scientifiche.
Le rappresentazioni sociali sono per loro definizione soggette ad un processo di continua trasformazione, frutto del confronto dialogico tra attori e gruppi sociali, i quali possono entrare in competizione al fine di ottenere maggiore riconoscimento nella sfera pubblica e rendere la propria prospettiva legittima (Howarth, 2006; Bauer e Gaskell, 2008).
A questo proposito, i media provvedono non solo a selezionare e privilegiare determinati punti di vista, ma anche ad orientare l’attenzione dei fruitori verso particolari problemi all’ordine del giorno, e verso particolari ambiti e non altri (Bonnes e Sensales, 1998).
Il contributo si propone di analizzare il modo in cui all’interno dei quotidiani online vengono presentate e discusse le attività di estrazione dei combustibili fossili, note ai più come “trivellazioni”, esaminando i modi in cui il tema viene declinato nei suoi aspetti.
Il corpus di dati è costituito da 717 articoli pubblicati online da otto testate nazionali tra gennaio 2010 e aprile 2016, e raccolti all’interno del progetto TIPS (Tecnoscientific Issues in the Public Sphere) dell’Università di Padova.
L’analisi dei dati si è basata su metodi quali-quantitativi, con l’ausilio dei software TalTac2 (Bolasco, 2013) e IRAMUTEQ (Ratinaud, 2009) attraverso strumenti di statistica testuale e text mining, operando un confronto tra le diverse testate, e prestando attenzione al variare delle rappresentazioni e della copertura mediatica nel corso del tempo.
I risultati saranno discussi evidenziando come i lettori sono esposti e familiarizzati alle diverse posizioni sulle attività di estrazione di idrocarburi, e le possibili implicazioni in termini di partecipazione dei cittadini e di supporto alle politiche ambientali
Community involvement, public deliberation and environmental governance. Insights from Social Psychology
No full textPublic involvement has become a fundamental feature of the climate
change policy agenda, emphasizing the need for participatory and
deliberative mechanisms bringing together experts, policy-makers and
community stakeholders in environmental management.
The research interest in this field has grown over the years with a
prevailing political approach. Nevertheless, in order to find effective
strategies for the design, management and evaluation of participatory
processes, the psychosocial aspects of public/stakeholder participation
-remaining often on the background- deserve further attention (DevineWright,
2011).
The contribution describes an ongoing project aimed to investigate the
role of socio-psychological aspects of public participation -such as
framing, identity processes and social representations- in shaping
interaction and communication between actors within the deliberative
processes.
The project will investigate different case studies of public deliberation
through a multi-method perspective, and different levels of analysis -
social, situational and individual (Doise, 1989)-, referring to different
theoretical perspectives linked together: psychosocial literature on
participatory processes and deliberative democracy, the social
representations' approach, the discursive and environmental
psychology. Besides presenting the project, we explore what contribution the sociopsychological
research can offer for a better understanding of public
participation in sustainability policies
Socio-psychological aspects of grassroots participation in the Transition Movement: An Italian case study
No full textIn this article, we present a case study investigating the socio-psychological aspects of grassroots participation in a Transition Town Movement (TTM) community initiative. We analyzed the first Italian Transition initiative: Monteveglio (Bologna), the central hub of the Italian TTM and a key link with the global Transition Network. A qualitative methodology was used to collect and analyze the data consisting of interviews with key informants and ethnographic notes. The results provide further evidence supporting the role of social representations, shared social identities, and collective efficacy beliefs in promoting, sustaining, and shaping activists’ commitment. The movement seems to have great potential to inspire and engage citizens to tackle climate change at a community level. Grassroots engagement of local communities working together provides the vision and the material starting point for a viable pathway for the changes required. Attempting to ensure their future political relevance, the TTM adherents are striving to disseminate and materially consolidate inherently political and prefigurative movement frames – primarily community resilience and re-localization – within community socio-economic and political frameworks. However, cooperation with politics is perceived by most adherents as a frustrating and dissatisfying experience, and an attempted co-optation of the Transition initiative by institutions. It highlights a tension between the open and non-confrontational approach of the movement towards institutions and their practical experience. Corresponding to this tension, activists have to cope with conflicts, contradictions, and ambivalence of social representations about community action for sustainability, which threaten the sense of collective purpose, group cohesion and ultimately its survival
The identity-attitude nexus in the representation of energy transition in a coal region (Sulcis, Italy). An exploration through Structural Topic Model
No full textThis paper explores the contribution of Structural Topic Model (STM) to study the intertwining of social representations, attitudes, and identities. We examine newspapers’ discourse on energy transition in a coal-dependent region (Sulcis, Italy), whose identity and economy are built around mining and carbon-intensive industry. Drawing upon Social Representations Theory, we combined STM and qualitative content analysis to examine how newspapers represented the energy issue in Sulcis, and how these representations (including denotative and connotative facets) differed according to the social identities’ salience. Results show that coal is legitimated by discourses making salient local identities and providing continuity in the place-identity link, with no alternative to extractivism. When the Sardinian superordinate identity becomes salient, new themes emerge (e.g., renewables) but energy transition maintains ambivalent or negative connotations. Overall representations seem to replicate and reflect processes of domination and injustice hindering a just transition, potentially explaining negative attitudes and collective resistance toward decarbonisation
Phasing-out ‘coal tradition’ in favour of ‘renewable colonialism’: how the press contributes to the discursive (de)legitimization of coal and renewables in a coal region in transition.
No full textThis article examines the Sulcis coal region in Italy and illustrates how discursive dynamics can impede energy transition by
delegitimizing coal decline and the diffusion of renewable energies. Combining quantitative analyses of textual data and argumentative
discourse analysis, we analyze newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2021 in the national, regional, and local press. Our
findings reveal that shifts in topic salience and storylines reflect different transition phases (coal legitimacy, regime destabilization, and
reconfiguration). Throughout the analyzed period, newspapers have cultivated a discursive environment that weakens efforts to phase
out coal and promote low-carbon energy by amplifying particular storylines endorsed by competing discourse coalitions. Media
discourse consistently portrays decarbonization and coal phase-out as threatening, anticipating disruption to regional livelihoods and
traditions. Over time, renewable energies are marginalized or hindered by storylines promoting regime stability (coal legitimacy), soft
transformation (coal-to-gas transition), and, finally, a reconfiguration (utility-scale renewable transition) promoted by incumbents and
resisted by locally based discourse coalitions perceiving it as a form of colonialism. This study sheds light on the interplay between
discourse dynamics and the complexities and challenges of the destabilization–reconfiguration pathway of coal regions. It contends that
approaches combining both build-up and break-down dynamics into the analysis of transitions can offer a more nuanced, politically
sensitive understanding and practical insights to instigate and navigate more equitable destabilization–reconfiguration pathways
Coping with Territorial Stigma and Devalued Identities: How Do Social Representations of an Environmentally Degraded Place Affect Identity and Agency?
No full textThis article examines people-place relationships in a carbon-intensive area—i.e., heavily dependent on the steel industry and marked by severe environmental degradation—involved in the EU Just Transition Mechanism (Taranto, Italy). Drawing upon a psychosocial perspective grounded on social representations theory, this article focuses on intertwining the sense of place, identity processes, and agency to understand the dynamics of place stigma and identity devaluation. In-depth semi-structured interviews with active residents were thematically and discursively analyzed. The results suggest both theoretical and applied insights. Overall, they highlight a widely shared negative representation of the place related to territorial stigmatization, ambivalent place attachments, and devaluation of place-based and social identities. To cope with such processes and dynamics, identity processes seem to act as self-protective mechanisms both at a personal and social level. The article concludes by inviting a more comprehensive conceptualization of just transition, harm restoration, and related territorial planning to include the psychosocial processes underlying the community’s well-being and identity
PARTICIPATION AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE CASE OF AN ITALIAN TRANSITION TOWN.
No full textThe contribution explores the participation to the sustainability of the first Italian transition
town. We are not experiencing only an economic crisis, but also a social and
environmental one. The current situation requires major interventions in the way our
economic system is organised, as well as strong social and behavioural changes. A new
approach is needed that combines infrastructures, nature and people towards a
sustainable life. The “Transition Towns” (-TT- Hopkins, 2008) seems to go in this direction
bringing hope and practical solutions to many of the global problems, such as peak oil and
climate change.
This contribution explores the social participation in Monteveglio TT (Bologna, Italy),
focusing particularly on the processes involved in establishing a collective participation in
social sustainable activities. This research is part of the ACCESI project (socio-
Constructivist Analysis of the Italian Sustainable Energy Communities), which aims to
contribute to the empirical analysis of factors and processes that foster or hinder the use of
sustainable energies in Italy.
A qualitative, ethnographically-oriented methodology was used in this study for collecting
and analysing the data. The corpus of data consisted of semi-structured interviews with
key informants (i.e. the Mayor, the councillor, photovoltaic purchasing groups managers,
environment experts, transition movement exponents, executive managers of sustainable
education, citizens, farmers), municipality's newspaper, web-sites, blogs, and ethnographic
notes. Key informants were questioned about their representation of sustainable energy,
realistic and hopeful scenarios for the future of energy issues in their own local contexts,
and drivers and barriers towards implementation of such scenarios. The role of the
respondents was then investigated, stimulating opinion-sharing on their responsibilities
and sustainable daily activities. The purpose of these interviews was to understand how
motivations can encourage people to act in a pro-environment perspective, but also to
inquire the representations of sustainability and responsibilities of citizens and institutions.
Content analysis and critical discourse analysis were conducted to shown the critical
aspects highlighted in participants’ discourses, such as the perception of conflict or
cooperation between actors and social groups. The focus was on environmental
management processes at various levels, on positioning, on attitudes and on agency
involved in environmental risks.
According to the literature (McMillan & Chavis, 1986; McMillan, 1996; Mannarini & Fedi,
2008), these results show that several and interdependent factors determine the
participation: the perception of situations in terms of needs and problems, the sense of
belonging, self and community efficacy. Participatory action is made possible by selfempowerment
in a problematic situation, but it also requires an high sense of efficacy, high
need for belonging and high recognition by the community. Different typologies of
sustainability participation in TT citizen will be discussed
Communicating global warming: the framing effect of climate change in shaping attitudes and behaviors
No full textReinforced by the 5th International Panel of Climate Change report, tackle with climate change is one of the
major and urgent challenges for modern and industrialized societies. In order to engage the public with
climate change, persuasive communication and effective awareness raising activities are required.
Climate communication represents an important field of study for social sciences. Particularly, the research
has focused on the ways by which the media communicate, and consequently frame, climate change.
Empirical evidences (among them: Nisbet, 2009) showed the adoption of eight recurrent frames: scientific
certainty; scientific controversy; catastrophic and dramatic consequences; political issue and matter of
struggle among groups; opportunity for social progress; problem for economic competitiveness; opportunity
for economic competitiveness; moral and ethical issue.
Drawing on the value-beliefs-norms model of environmental commitment (Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano, &
Kalof, 1999; Stern, Dietz, & Kalof, 1993), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen &
Madden, 1986), the research proposal aims to investigate how media frames on climate change may affect:
environmental beliefs and institutional trust, attitudes, norms and intentions concerning ecological behaviors.
On the basis of previous framing studies on climate change, a deductive content analysis on Italian TV news
will be performed. Therefore, we’ll use a pretest-posttest experimental design in order to examine the effects
of climate change framing on the abovementioned variables.
From content analysis we’ll select eight representative video messages, one for each frame, which constitute
the experimental conditions.
To participants will be asked to complete a pre-test questionnaire, which consists of the following measures:
Environmental Beliefs, using the revised New Ecological Paradigm scale (Dunlap, 2008).
Institutional Trust, asking to participants to rate how much trust they have in political governments,
scientists, environmental organizations and media.
Attitudes, social and personal norms related to nine significant carbon-reduction behaviors (DEFRA, 2008).
Pro-environmental behavioral habits and behavioral intentions related to the same behaviors.
Socio-demographic data and political orientation.
Some week later participants will be assigned randomly to view one of the eight video message conditions,
and to a control group with no video message, asking them, after the video message, to complete the same
questionnaire administered in the pre-test phase.
Thus, it will be possible to run an analysis within and between subjects, in order to verify the presence of
significant effects for each frame, and the existence of significant differences among the effects of climate
frames on the dependent variables.
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational behavior and human decision
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Ajzen, I., & Madden, T. J. (1986). Prediction of goal-directed behavior: Attitudes, intentions, and perceived
behavioral control. Journal of experimental social psychology, 22(5), 453-474.
DEFRA. (2008). A Framework For Pro-Environmental Behaviours. London: DEFRA.
Dunlap, R. E. (2008). The new environmental paradigm scale: From marginality to worldwide use. Journal
of Environmental Education, 40, 3-18.
Nisbet, M. C. (2009). Communicating climate change: Why frames matter for public
engagement. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 51(2), 12-23.
Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T. D., Guagnano, G. A., & Kalof, L. (1999). A value-belief-norm theory of
support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Human ecology review, 6(2), 81.
Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., & Kalof, L. (1993). Value orientations, gender, and environmental
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