An Analysis of Advocacy Within the Wildlife Profession

Conceptions of Speech Acts in the Theory and Practice of Argumentation: A Case Study of a Debate About Advocating

“…Related lists of potential speech acts by scientists include "Data, Interpretation, Advice, Counsel, Advocacy" (Blockstein, 2002, p. 92); reporting, answering questions, evaluating options, advocating (Scott, Rachlow, & Lackey, 2008p. 867, borrowing from Pielke, 2007; and educating, promoting, and advocating (Minnis & Stout McPeake, 2001). Although the debate among scientists over how to contribute to policymaking continues, my survey of it cannot.…”

What is “Responsible Advocacy” in Science? Good Advice.

“…The empirical work has largely relied upon a five part categorization developed by Steel and his colleagues based on interviews with ecologists (Lach et al, 2003): reporting, interpreting, integrating, advocating, and deciding. Blockstein (2002) identifies interpretation (which he also calls reporting), advice and counsel as alternatives to advocacy; Minnis and McPeake (2001) distinguish education and promotion from advocacy. Even those defending advocacy tend to refer to other communicative activities when discussing the details of what scientists ought to do: informing (Brussard & Tull, 2007), assessing (Meyer et al, 2010;Nelson & Vucetich, 2009), recommending (Meyer et al, 2010;Noss, 2007) and advising (Meyer et al, 2010).…”

Credibility

“…This debate began more than a century ago, when the first conservationists set out to build new professions that would promote rational, scientific, objective approaches to natural resource management. Today, even those conservation and wildlife biologists who believe in advocacy uphold this tradition by guarding their reputations of objectivity, and many of them hesitate to engage in the gritty politics of conservation planning (Minnis & Stout McPeake 2001).…”