Activity 4.2 Environmental Policy Frameworks

 

Craig B. Davis Roy, J. Lewicki Environmental Conflict Resolution: Framing and Intractability— and Introduction (2003)	Todd Bryan Context in Environmental Conflict: Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit (2003)	Michael Elliott, Sandra Kaufman Building Civic Capacity to Resolve Environmental Conflicts  (2005)
Identity Frames How a person understands themselves by the question, “Who am I?” Their beliefs and values and social category they believe they are in.	Legal Environment  Laws and regulations that can have an effect on environmental policies and issues.	Civic Capacity  An individual ability of decision-making like in politics.
Characterization Frames  Statements made by individuals on what they believe the person is like by the question, “who are they?”  These statements can differentiate because of people belonging in different social groups.	Political Environment Environmental policies are developed by political administrations and carried out by agency representatives. "Characteristics of the political processes and institutions in a society.”	Civic Discourse Joint problem solving creating an agreeable solution between both parties.
Conflict Management Frames Focuses on how conflict should be managed when two parties disagree.	Economic Environment General prosperity of a region. Impact of industry actions influences the economic environment.	Disadvantage Low-income communities have less access to educational opportunities having an effect on civic capacity.
Fact Finding Frames  Technical experts approaching their roles in environmental disputes using technical information. The communication of technical information affects the relationships between information producers and users.	Cultural Environment  How an individual's customs, beliefs, and outlook in life has a role in effecting the environment.
Social Control Frames How decisions regarding social issues should be made is dependent on an individuals' views.	Demographic Environment  Characteristics of the populations that migrated (such as age, gender, race, religion and ethnic categories) that alter demographic context when conflict occurs.
Power Frames How an individual can gain power over other parties. It is used as a persuasive argument against a party to say they will have more power and gain then the others.	Technological Environment  The knowledge of science, medicine, transportation, etc. Has a big factor on the influence in managing issues.
Risk Frames Potential beliefs of gains and losses associated with disputed environmental actions.	Ecological Environment  The influence of someone's perspective of the physical environment like, climate change, pollution, and natural resources etc.

My Frames: These are the five that I concluded with after researching to be the most important frames.

1. Identity: The person's background, beliefs, values, and how they characterize themselves play a role in how they view environmental issues.

      2. Legal: Laws and regulations play a major role in environmental issues decision-making.

      3. Power: Having the upper hand in power can influence parties to argue that there is too much gain            for one party.

    

      4. Risk: The response of a person's belief can determine how the environmental issue should be                resolved. 

      5. Conflict Management: How two parties resolve conflict.

 A person's identity revolves around how they grew up and how they characterize themselves. Beliefs that they stand for and values have a significant role in the decisions for environmental issues. Someone who values the impact humans have on the environment is more likely to care about clean policies being placed. That can also be the opposite for somebody else. If they don't see it as crucial or worth fighting for, the use of fossil fuels would not be considered a big issue. That is why a person's beliefs and outlook determine the solution to an issue.

Legal laws and regulations that are already regulated can be a long process to change. For the most part, they have been there for years, and even with challenging opinions, they are still stable. To add more without breaking the regulations already there can also become a long process. The laws and regulations are considered a foundation for environmental safety in keeping it clean. Laws affect environmental issues solutions. Laws and regulations can't be ignored, even if there is disagreement on them. 

Power is something everyone will agree on not wanting another to have more than themselves. Having more gain than others can create a disagreement. It can have a party influence others so that one party will not get more leverage in a decision. However, they all would in the end want to have the extra leverage it's just all persuading to get what they want. Environmental issue solutions are affected by what they agree on when it comes to distributing power.

The risk framework is dependent; on a person's belief on what should be done right away or could wait. This opinion can influence somebody's exposure to hazardous issues from the environment. For example, if a country with no clean water and someone from there speaks up about the issue to them it is extremely important. While on the other hand, someone raised with clean water and continues to have clean water might not see the significance of the issue. If there is no action taken results for our environment will be seen everywhere, not just one country anymore.

Everyone will not agree with each other, so conflict management is a necessity. It focuses on how the process of conflict management should be managed. It's different solving styles discussed to solve an environmental issue. Political aspects and laws are put into consideration. This is what brings conflict between parties. 

References

Davis, C. B., & Lewicki, R. J. (2003). Environmental conflict resolution: Framing and intractability--an introduction. Environmental Practice, 5(3), 200-206.

Bryan, T. (2003). Context in environmental conflicts: Where you stand depends on where you sit. Environmental Practice, 5(3), 256-264.

"Building Civic Capacity to Resolve Environmental Conflicts," by Michael Elliott and Sanda Kaufman (2005) Retrieved from Environmental Framing Consortium (intractableconflict.org)