Understanding People's Ideas on Natural Resource Management: Research on Social Representations of Nature

Ongoing fragmentation between social groups on the appropriate targets and relevant actors for nature conservation signals the need for further advancements in theorizing about the human–nature interaction. Through a focus on the complexity of social thought and confrontations between social groups, the theory of social representations may provide a useful addition to conventional approaches. However, environmental issues have so far not been among the primary topics studied by social representation scholars. This article sets out to fill this gap. After an introduction to the theory, we report on three case studies that illustrate the use of this theory in the context of natural resource management. These studies show how groups negotiate meanings, intentions, and action related to complex issues such as wolf management, invasive species, and conflicts over protected forests, landscapes, and national parks. We discuss strengths and weaknesses of the approach and suggest future challenges and opportunities.

[1]  W. Wagner.  Social Representations and beyond: Brute Facts, Symbolic Coping and Domesticated Worlds , 1998 .

[2]  I. Marková.  The Epistemological Significance of the Theory of Social Representations , 2008 .

[3]  M. Gervais.  Social representations of nature : the case of the 'Braer' oil spill in Shetland , 1997 .

[4]  J. Young,et al.  Looking beyond superficial knowledge gaps: Understanding public representations of biodiversity , 2008 .

[5]  Brian Wynne,et al.  May the sheep safely graze? A reflexive view of the expert-lay knowledge divide. , 2004 .

[6]  Tasos Hovardas,et al.  Environmental representations of local communities' spokespersons in protected areas , 2009 .

[7]  K. Skogen,et al.  Cry Wolf! Narratives of Wolf Recovery in France and Norway. , 2018 .

[8]  C. Mouro,et al.  The Conservation of Biodiversity in Protected Areas: Comparing the Presentation of Legal Innovations in the National and the Regional Press , 2012 .

[9]  Tasos Hovardas,et al.  Framing environmental policy by the local press: Case study from the Dadia Forest Reserve, Greece , 2008 .

[10]  Daniel R. Williams,et al.  Demographic Influences on Environmental Value Orientations and Normative Beliefs About National Forest Management , 2001 .

[11]  D. Medin,et al.  Cultural mosaics and mental models of nature , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[12]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Metaphors We Live by , 1982 .

[13]  Robert Liebendorfer.  Mind, self and society , 1960 .

[14]  S. Moscovici.  Social Representations: Explorations in Social Psychology , 2000 .

[15]  M. Lima,et al.  Old and New Ideas about the Environment and Science , 2001 .

[16]  J. B. Callicott,et al.  Choosing appropriate temporal and spatial scales for ecological restoration , 2002, Journal of Biosciences.

[17]  Ulla Connor,et al.  Intercultural Rhetoric Research: Beyond Texts. , 2004 .

[18]  Martin W. Bauer,et al.  Towards a Paradigm for Research on Social Representations , 1999 .

[19]  Patrick Devine-Wright,et al.  Beyond NIMBYism: towards an integrated framework for understanding public perceptions of wind energy , 2005 .

[20]  Martin W. Bauer,et al.  Biotechnology - the Making of a Global Controversy , 2002 .

[21]  S. Schwartz.  Normative Influences on Altruism , 1977 .

[22]  B. Kaltenborn,et al.  The Relationship of General Life Values to Attitudes Toward Large Carnivores , 2002 .

[23]  E. Durkheim.  FROM THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE , 1996, The New Economic Sociology.

[24]  Paula Castro,et al.  Social Representation, Change and Resistance: On the Difficulties of Generalizing New Norms , 2008 .

[25]  S. Jovchelovitch.  The Rehabilitation of Common Sense: Social Representations, Science and Cognitive Polyphasia , 2008 .

[26]  Caroline Howarth,et al.  How Social Representations of Attitudes Have Informed Attitude Theories , 2006 .

[27]  W. Wagner,et al.  How the sperm dominates the ovum — objectification by metaphor in the social representation of conception , 1995 .

[28]  T. Gieryn.  Boundary-work and the demarcation of science from non-science: Strains and interests in professional , 1983 .

[29]  P. Stern.  New Environmental Theories: Toward a Coherent Theory of Environmentally Significant Behavior , 2000 .

[30]  W. Doise,et al.  On the Knowledge of Politics and the Politics of Knowledge: How a Social Representations Approach Helps Us Rethink the Subject of Political Psychology , 2011 .

[31]  A. Pratt.  Discourses of rurality: Loose talk or social struggle? , 1996 .

[32]  A. Buijs.  Lay People's Images of Nature: Comprehensive Frameworks of Values, Beliefs, and Value Orientations , 2009 .

[33]  Keith Halfacree,et al.  Locality and social representation: Space, discourse and alternative definitions of the rural , 1993 .

[34]  P. Schultz.  THE STRUCTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN: CONCERN FOR SELF, OTHER PEOPLE, AND THE BIOSPHERE , 2001 .

[35]  Wolfgang Wagner,et al.  Vernacular science knowledge: its role in everyday life communication , 2007 .

[36]  G. Fry,et al.  The shared landscape: what does aesthetics have to do with ecology? , 2007, Landscape Ecology.

[37]  Derek Edwards,et al.  Social Representations and Discursive Psychology: From Cognition to Action , 1999 .

[38]  mile .QDurkheim mile Durkheim,et al.  The Elementary Forms of Religious Life , 1916 .

[39]  S. Jovchelovitch.  Knowledge in context : representations, community and culture (author summary) , 2006 .

[40]  Suzanne C. Thompson,et al.  Ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes toward the environment , 1994 .

[41]  B. Arts,et al.  Beyond environmental frames: The social representation and cultural resonance of nature in conflicts over a Dutch woodland , 2011 .

[42]  Maaris Raudsepp,et al.  Why Is It So Difficult to Understand the Theory of Social Representations? , 2005 .

[43]  K. Gergen,et al.  The Social Turn in the Science of Human Action , 2008 .

[44]  G. Stamou,et al.  Structural and Narrative Reconstruction of Rural Residents’ Representations of ‘Nature’, ‘Wildlife’, and ‘Landscape’ , 2006, Biodiversity & Conservation.

[45]  Paul Sambre,et al.  Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner, " The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities" , 2002 .

[46]  K. Skogen,et al.  Social representations of the wolf , 2011 .

[47]  Serge Moscovici,et al.  Psychoanalysis: Its image and its public , 2008 .

[48]  Martin W. Bauer,et al.  Social Representations Theory: A Progressive Research Programme for Social Psychology , 2008 .

[49]  Anke Fischer,et al.  How people familiarize themselves with complex ecological concepts—anchoring of social representations of invasive non‐native species , 2011 .

[50]  Caroline Howarth,et al.  A Review of Controversies about Social Representations Theory: A British Debate , 2005 .