Environmental politics after disaster strikes : the cultural dynamics of public participation and mobilization
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Sociology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Chewinski, Max
issued: 2022-07-19T16:04:52Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: A central goal of my dissertation research is to better understand how cultural dynamics shape environmental politics and generate inequalities in decision-making processes. I draw on the 2014 Mount Polley mining disaster and subsequent water management plans to examine public participation and mobilization in Likely, British Columbia. I use 42 semi-structured interviews, 4,723 pages of documents including emails and letters associated with Mount Polley’s public liaison committee, and 208 news articles to assess the relationship between culture, inequality, and environmental politics. I begin by adopting a procedural justice framework to examine how cultural dynamics facilitate or constrain meaningful opportunities for residents to shape decision-making. I find that strategies of agenda denial (nonrecognition and symbolic placation) prevent residents from meaningfully participating in the definition of environmental problems and their proposed solutions. I develop the concept of manufactured confusion to highlight inequalities in meaning-making resources and capabilities. Manufactured confusion is a taken for granted condition that emerges from three practices: (1) a reliance on a large volume of scientific information (2) insufficient resources to interpret complex scientific data and (3) insufficient opportunities to discuss scientific data. Next, I examine how emotions shape the social relations and practices that structure environmental deliberations. I find that trauma from the disaster and experiences of procedural injustice sparked intense and durable negative emotions including anger, animosity, fear, and frustration. The presence of unmanaged negative emotions influences two related outcomes. First, negative emotions facilitate the emergence of polarization as empathy walls between stakeholders are secured instead of scaled. Second, often linked to the first, negative emotions facilitate disengagement as participants seek to avoid emotional harm. Finally, I…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/82164
note: ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AFTER DISASTER STRIKES: THE CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND MOBILIZATION by MAX CHEWINSKI B.A., York University, 2012 M.A., Carleton University, 2015 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Sociology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) July 2022 © Max Chewinski, 2022 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Environmental Politics After Disaster Strikes: The Cultural Dynamics of Public Participation and Mobilization submitted by Max Chewinski in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology Examining Committee: Catherine Corrigall-Brown, Professor, Sociology, UBC Supervisor Emily Huddart Kennedy, Associate Professor, Sociology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Rima Wilkes, Professor, Sociology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Thomas Kemple, Professor, Sociology, UBC University Examiner Leila Harris, Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC University Examiner iii Abstract A central goal of my dissertation research is to better understand how cultural dynamics shape environmental politics and generate inequalities in decision-making processes. I draw on the 2014 Mount Polley mining disaster and subsequent water management plans to examine public participation and mobilization in Likely, British Columbia. I use 42 semi-structured interviews, 4,723 pages of documents including emails and letters associated with Mount Polley’s public liaison committee, and 208 news articles to assess the relationship between culture, inequality, and environmental politics. I begin by adopting a procedural justice framework to examine how cultural dynamics facilitate or constrain meaningful opportunities for residents to shape de…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0416303
language: eng
degree discipline: Sociology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Corrigall-Brown, Catherine
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82164