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Laying low

Laying low. Environmental knowledge and the public from a corporate perspective. This paper. Background Aims, objectives and methodology of research Introduces case studies Reports on results and compares that with literature Presents the major findings and discussion

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Laying low

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  1. Laying low Environmental knowledge and the public from a corporate perspective

  2. This paper • Background • Aims, objectives and methodology of research • Introduces case studies • Reports on results and compares that with literature • Presents the major findings and discussion • Explores implications and offers challenges

  3. Acknowledgements

  4. Research team • Dr Kate Burningham (of the Department of Sociology and CES) • Dr Julie Barnett (of the Department of Psychology) • Dr Walter Wehrmeyer (of CES) • Professor Roland Clift (of CES) • Dr Anna Carr (of the Department of Psychology and CES).

  5. Yes... aren’t they? The laymen are revolting!

  6. “House of horrors Sperm counts are falling and cancer levels are rising. Something is very wrong somewhere, but what? The answer …may be uncomfortably close to home…” The Guardian supplement, 13.01.04 page 9

  7. Background • Lay participation in environmental decision-making attracting increasing attention • Definition of lek • Functional arguments (ends-based) • Moral arguments (means-based)

  8. Previous studies • Theories of local, situated, ordinary or common knowledge • Controversial relationships • Risk and uncertainty • SUP & PUS

  9. The gap • Corporate sector missing from SiS • Environmentally strategic action needed • Beyond consultation & market research • To develop CUP

  10. Aim • to contribute to existing academic, corporate and public knowledge by providing a clear account of how lay environmental knowledge and concern is conceptualised, accessed and used by industry

  11. Objectives To define lay environmental knowledge and explore the way it has been conceptualised by corporations To identify what motivations and barriers exist for companies to make better use of lay environmental knowledge To evaluate the relationship between organisational functions and use of lay environmental knowledge To develop recommendations on how lay environmental knowledge can be incorporated more effectively within industry

  12. Methodology • 3 phases 1 Literature review 2 Case studies 3 Web-survey

  13. Case-studies

  14. Interviews Who was involved? How many people were interviewed? What has happened to the data? 4 sets of questions were asked definitional, about environment knowledge, on communication and on management

  15. The public • Confusing semantically • Builds on product-base and markets

  16. Markets=consumers=public • 56 million consumers • Dark/light green or red • Everyone • Weirdos • Gold-diggers

  17. Stakeholders = public • People in a work role • Different roles at different times • Traditional political role • Silent majority

  18. Citizens = public • Members of society • Context is everything • Cf public policy, public funds, public opinion

  19. Who are lay-people? • Not a well known term • Etymologically religious • Belief and trust • Need an authority • Hostility, skepticism

  20. Lay people are • Not knowers, non-expert, non specialist • Sponges, users, passive, average

  21. Occupy public spaces • Citizen consumers • Consumer citizens Critical or uncritical Vote with their feet Scientifically illiterate?

  22. Lay people R Us

  23. Not always ordinary

  24. Lay people are citizens

  25. Overview of results • Public = Consumers • Lay-people = Individual users • Public = stakeholders and opinion-formers • Lay-people =opinionated, outsiders • Citizens = public and lay actors • Careful and critical analysis required • Multiple roles and interactions

  26. Overview of literature • Similar confusion of public & lay roles • House-wives, civil servants and factory workers (Furnham 1988) • Disaffection, resistance resourced by broad cultural dynamics (Horst 2003) • Corporate perception of public changing

  27. Discussion • Era of unquestioning acceptance in products and of corporations over • Involvement of consumer citizens imperative • Language • New? • Dropping the tags? • Drop the concept

  28. Recap of major findings • Corporations do not see lay people solely as whistle-blowers or passive end-users and neither do they treat the public solely as consumers, time-wasters or weirdos. Underneath the use of ‘public’ or ‘lay’ as a sort of heuristic device there are much more nuanced ideas about the dimensions of publics which include taking an active citizen-consumer role in society and having a critical inquiring stance to knowledge.

  29. Implications • Corporations will seek new communication strategies with citizen consumers • New research is required to understand and assist this • Academics must stop thinking of corporations in uni-dimensional terms • STS scholars need new lay-expert model

  30. Challenges • How can corporations engage consumer citizens? Who initiates debates on this? • New research is required to understand and assist this • New models of consumer-citizenship are required • Fairer and better environmental decisions and outcomes may eventuate

  31. Visit us • www.surrey.ac.uk/uleki/ • Email: a.carr@surrey.ac.uk

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