Donna Lybecker

Trash or treasure: recycling narratives and reducing political polarisation

Recycling is an increasingly important tool in global and national efforts for sustainability. Yet, particularly in the United States, there remains disconnect between those who view recycling as a necessity and those who see it as a waste: many conservatives do not support recycling activities, while many liberals do. However, recycling can be framed in language that draws support from both conservatives and liberals. Data from a survey sample of 429 individuals shows that conservative frames of recycling are supported by both conservatives and liberals, whereas liberal frames are supported only by liberals. Similarly ‘duty-based’ citizenship frames are supported by both duty-based and engaged citizens, while ‘engaged’ citizenship frames are supported mainly by engaged citizens. The implications for researchers, educators, administrators, and others involved in recycling are detailed.

The Narrative Policy Framework and the Practitioner: Communicating Recycling Policy

The narrative policy framework (NPF) studies the role that policy narratives play in the public policy process. Much of that work (e.g., Jones and McBeth 2010; Shanahan et al. (2013) focuses on the academic implications of NPF for those who study public policy. Somewhat neglected in NPF research is the practitioner. Practitioners who work with politicians as experts (public administrators, scientists, analysts, and evaluators) often try to use science and data to convince elected officials and the public of the desirability of a certain policy. However, they also have to deal with the political realities of an organized opposition who weave policy narratives that do not always correspond to how the practitioner views the particular policy issue (e.g., Miller and Fox 2006; Miller 2002). Indeed, today’s policy environment encountered by the practitioner more closely resembles the business environment of marketing (McBeth and Shanahan 2004) than the “fact-based” scientific environment favored by scientists and policy analysts.

Content matters: Stakeholder assessment of river stories or river science

Stakeholders include scientists, interest groups, leaders, professionals, government and NGO employees, and activists; they are individuals or groups that play an increasingly important role in public policy. As such, stakeholders are frequently used as a source to better inform public decision making. Given the growing importance of stakeholders’ understanding and thus communication concerning the issues on which they inform the public, it is timely to ask: How do stakeholders comprehend, or mentally construct an understanding of the policy issues upon which they are asked to weigh in? In an attempt to address this issue, this paper uses a case study of a policy issue, river restoration. Results from a survey of 85 stakeholders and a follow up interview of 20 stakeholders shed light on whether stakeholders predominantly prefer to think of river restoration in terms of science or through policy narratives. The findings indicate that stakeholders prefer explanations that use science and the engaged citizen narrative when they think about the river’s restoration. Additionally, stakeholders who work for government particularly emphasize that the river should be described in scientific terms. We use this data to further analyze what elements of science and narratives are divisive to stakeholders and which are not and conclude with advice on how stakeholders can speak in a non-divisive way to the public and other stakeholders.

The Social Construction of a Border: The US–Canada Border

ABSTRACT This study argues that boundaries represent socially and politically constructed policy realities and that media policy narratives play an important role in this construction. Traditionally borders are described, and their image is created or at least reified, via traditional media sources such as newspapers and television. In today’s world of increasing access to new media, this trend appears to be shifting. Thus, it is timely to ask, What is the image of the US–Canada border as presented through new media outlets such as YouTube? Does YouTube present narratives that discuss topics different from those in the traditional media? And, Do these narratives describe the issues and people of the border in a deserving or undeserving light? This paper uses the Narrative Policy Framework and Schneider and Ingram’s Social Construction of Policy Design to analyze how YouTube videos construct the US–Canada border. A total of 56 YouTube videos, posted between February 2009 and May 2015, were analyzed. Results show the most common issue within videos involved security on the border. Most frequently viewed were videos involving life on the border and security. Characters common in the videos were villains and victims, rather than heroes. Overall, the analysis found 64% of videos presented a deserving construction of the border and 36% presented an undeserving construction. The implications of these findings for the study of the US and Canada border are discussed.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation as a model for promoting sustainable development in the Americas

The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has been touted as a regional model for strengthening environmental cooperation and sustainable development related to free trade regimes. This study reviews CECs development since 1994 in the context of its ambitious North American Free Trade Agreement related mandate. Drawing on its own documents, government records and scholarly assessments, the study traces the CECs steady decline in response to limited support by its member governments. The CEC has nevertheless gained a valuable niche in North American environmental management, spotlighting problems, strengthening public participation and building capacity for environmental cooperation in critical areas of regional environmental importance. Thus we argue the CEC is at least a partial template for building environmental protection into free trade agreements in the hemisphere. Future agreements should be informed by the CECs shortcomings as well as its successes if they wish to strengthen trade-related environmental protection in the Americas.

Land conservation can mitigate freshwater ecosystem services degradation due to climate change in a semiarid catchment: The case of the Portneuf River catchment, Idaho, USA

There is increasing evidence of environmental change impacts on freshwater ecosystem services especially through land use and climate change. However, little is known about how land conservation could help mitigate adverse water-sustainability impacts. In this paper, we utilized the InVEST tool and the Residual Trends method to assess the joint effects and relative contributions of climate change and land conservation on freshwater ecosystem services in the Portneuf River catchment in Idaho, USA. We developed five hypothesized scenarios regarding gain and loss in the enrollment of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest agricultural land-retirement program in the U.S., plus riparian buffer and assessed their interactions with climate change. Results suggest that the realized water yield in the Portneuf River catchment would possibly be 56% less due to climate change and 24% less due to the decline of CRP enrollment. On the contrary, if CRP enrollment is promoted by ~30% and riparian buffer protection is implemented, the water supply reduction in the year 2050 could be changed from 56% to 26%, the total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) export would be reduced by 10% and 11%, and the total suspended sediment (TSS) reduced by 17%. This study suggests that increasing implementation of the CRP would likely preserve key freshwater ecosystem services and assist proactive mitigation, especially for semiarid regions vulnerable to changing climate conditions.

A comparative study of urban fragmentation patterns in small and mid-sized cities of Idaho

Urbanization has a massive impact on ecological function and impedes the provisioning of environmental services. The interaction between urbanization and the environment has been researched extensively. However, the existing research focused on the urbanization characteristics of large metropolitan areas. In this paper, we investigate the urban fragmentation patterns of small and mid-sized cities in Idaho, USA. To capture the urban morphology for each site within the study we use both concentric ring and transect analysis as well as several spatial/landscape metrics. Our results show that the characteristics of urbanization in small and mid-sized cities (and those in second-tier regions that attract relatively little scholarly attention) are consistent with growth phase theory of urbanization, urbanization along a gradient, and urbanization patterns of metropolises.

Correction to: A comparative study of urban fragmentation patterns in small and mid-sized cities of Idaho

The Acknowledgements contained an error: In the original statement “This research was supported by the National Science Foundation award IIA – 1301792 from the National Science Foundation Idaho Environmental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Program.”

Use of the legal-institutional analysis model in mexican environmental disputes

The article reports the results from a natural resourcenegotiation model, the Legal-Institutional Analysis Model (LIAM), in two Mexican case studies: the Lerma River-Lake Chapala water system and water concerns in the Paso del Norte region. Although the LIAM was designed for use with U.S. based natural resource issues, this paper discusses results of the LIAM in non-U.S. cases. Results reveal limitations surrounding the assumption that economic and ecological values are mutually exclusive, and the need for greater assessment of power sources. Findings show that the general assumptions behind the LIAM were applicable to Mexico, and that the model produced helpful assessments of the two situations. It is recommended that limitations in the model should be addressed to achieve more accurate analyses.