ECO-DISCOURSE
AND POLITICS
Part One: History and Context
Case Study: Hong Kong waste production
What is a discourse?
• Basis for understanding “discourse”: Michele Foucault
• a French philosopher (1926–1984) affiliated with the philosophy of poststructuralism (though he denied the label)
• Foucault’s definition: “systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes,
courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the
subjects and the worlds of which they speak."
• John S. Dryzek says Foucault and followers see discourses in hegemonic terms,
but Dryzek disagrees, saying that…
• …Industrialism was a hegemonic discourse, which disintegrated into a variety
of environmentalist discourses (the basis for eco-discourse is industrialism).
• “Environmentalism is composed of a variety of discourses, sometimes
complementing one another, but often competing”
Transition from last week
• So …. if “framing” is HOW information is
communicated
• Discourse analysis highlights the reason WHY.
• Why does an activist frame an issue one way?
• Why do businessmen and politicians both
frame the same issue completely differently?
• Because they look at the world from different
perspectives…
• …each belongs to a different discourse!
The four environmental discourses
(according to John S. Dryzek’s “The Politics of the Earth)
1. Survivalism
o Promethean response
2. Problem-solving
•
•
•
Administrative Rationalism
Democratic Pragmatism
Economic Rationalism
3. Sustainability
•
•
Sustainable Development
Ecological Modernization
4. Green Radicalism
•
•
Green Consciousness
Green Politics
Classification of discourses
PROSAIC
REFORMIST
RADICAL
PROBLEMSOLVING
SURVIVALISM
IMAGINATIVE SUSTAINABILITY GREEN
RADICALISM
Case Study:
Hong Kong waste problem
• Video: “Hong Kong choking on food waste”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC_Uw5
HbRcg (Jan. 13, 2010 - SCMP)
• Print: “Refuse mountain makes HK most
wasteful place in world,” by Cheung Chi-fai
(Tues., Oct. 26, 2010 – SCMP)
Looming Tragedy vs. Growth Forever
Discourse Analysis of Survivalism
Promethean Discourse Analysis
1. Basic Entities Recognized or constructed
Finite stocks of resources
Carrying capacity of ecosystems
Populations
Elites
2. Assumptions about natural relationships
Conflicts
Hierarchy and control
3. Agents and their motives
Elites; motivation is up for grabs
4. Key Metaphors and other rhetorical devices
Overshoot and collapse
Commons
Spaceship Earth
Lily Pond
Cancer
Virus
Computers
Images of doom and redemption
1. Basic Entities Recognized or constructed
Nature as only brute matter
Markets
Prices
Energy
Technology
People
2. Assumptions about natural relationships
Hierarchy of humans over everything else
Competition
3. Agents and their motives
Everyone; motivated by material self-interest
4. Key Metaphors and other rhetorical devices
Mechanistic
Trends
Leave it to the experts/people/markets
Discourse Analysis of
Administrative Rationalism
Discourse Analysis of Democratic
Pragmatism
Discourse Analysis of Economic
Rationalism
1. Basic Entities Recognized or
constructed
Liberal capitalism
Administrative state
Experts
Managers
2. Assumptions about natural
relationships
Nature subordinate to human
problem solving
People subordinate to state
Experts and managers control state
3. Agents and their motives
Experts and managers
Motivated by public interest,
defined in unitary terms
4. Key Metaphors and other
rhetorical devices
Mixture of concern and
reassurance
The administrative mind
1. Basic Entities Recognized or
constructed
Liberal capitalism
Citizens
2. Assumptions about natural
relationships
Equality among citizens
Interactive political relationships,
mixing competition and cooperation
3. Agents and their motives
Many different agents
Motivation a mix of material selfinterest and multiple conceptions of
public interest
4. Key Metaphors and other
rhetorical devices
Public policy as a resultant of forces
Policy like scientific experimentation
Thermostat
Network
1. Basic Entities Recognized or
constructed
Homo economicus
Markets
Prices
Property
Governments (not citizens)
2. Assumptions about natural
relationships
Competition
Hierarchy based on expertise
Subordination of nature
3. Agents and their motives
Homo economicus, self-interested
Some government officials must be
motivated by public interest
4. Key Metaphors and other
rhetorical devices
Mechanistic
Stigmatizing regulation as
‘command and control’
Connection with freedom
Horror stories
Environmentally benign growth, or,
industrial society and beyond
Discourse Analysis of Sustainable Development
Discourse Analysis of Ecological Modernization
1. Basic Entities Recognized or constructed
Nested and networked social and ecological systems
Capitalist economy
Ambiguity concerning existence of limits
2. Assumptions about natural relationships
Cooperation
Nature subordinate
Economic growth, environmental protection,
distributive justice
3. Agents and their motives
Many agents at different levels, transnational and local
as well as the state; motivated by the public good
4. Key Metaphors and other rhetorical devices
Organic growth
Nature as natural capital
Connection to progress
Reassurance
1. Basic Entities Recognized or constructed
Complex systems
Nature as waste treatment plant
Capitalist economy
The state
2. Assumptions about natural relationships
Partnerships encompassing governments,
business, environmentalists, scientists
Subordination of nature
Environmental protection and economic
prosperity go together
3. Agents and their motives
Partners, motivated by public good
4. Key Metaphors and other rhetorical devices
Tidy household
Connection to progress
Reassurance
Changing people, or, changing society
Discourse Analysis of Green Consciousness Change
Discourse Analysis of Green Politics
1. Basic Entities Recognized or constructed
Global limits
Nature
Unnatural practices
Ideas
2. Assumptions about natural relationships
Natural relationships between humans and nature
that have been violated
Equality across people and nature
3. Agents and their motives
Human subjects, some more ecologically aware than
others
Agency can exist in nature too
4. Key Metaphors and other rhetorical devices
Wide range of biological and organic metaphors
Passion
Appeals to emotions, institutions
1. Basic Entities Recognized or constructed
Global limits
Nature as complex ecosystems
Humans with broad capacities
Social, economic and political structures
2. Assumptions about natural relationships
Equality among people
Complex interconnections between
humans and nature
3. Agents and their motives
Many individual and collective actors,
multidimensional motivation
Agency in nature downplayed though not
necessarily denied
4. Key Metaphors and other rhetorical
devices
Organic metaphors
Appeals to social learning
Link to progress
…Also
1. Nuclear Power Plant Field Trip?
2. Volunteers to meet with Common Core Curriculum interviewers?
3. Readings reminder!!! Read your specific discourse… also try to read the whole book!
4. Research your presentation topics!!!
• Primary sources are another way to supplement your research of the topic, in addition to an
exhaustive review of news coverage.
• Feel free to try to approaching primary sources after you have a solid background on the topic.
• IF YOU CHOOSE TO CONSULT PRIMARY SOURCES (not required)… sources could be in HK or
abroad: a journalist who covered the issue? A politician or activist who made an influential
comment? Someone whose life was affected. Be sure you have their full name (if possible) and
biographical background…
• Locally, examples could be:
– a HK (colonial official) during the negotiations to install Daya Bay?
– Someone who lived during the period of water rationing in Hong Kong (a relative would be
easy, and if you have a personal relationship, please be transparent with this connection)
– People at the local sushi company with the record-breaking purchase, or workers involved
with shark fin industry, fishermen, or even fish sellers in the wet market?
• International examples could be similarly wide-ranging, and might be approached through
contacts found online.
5. Grading criteria (for debate and presentation):
I will provide a more detailed rubric of grading after the reading week.