Competing Frames of Environmental Contamination: Influences on Grassroots Community Mobilization

Robinson, Erin E.

doi:10.1080/02732170802480451

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Research has uncovered several ways communities respond to local environmental contamination. In some cases, communities mobilize to protest local polluters and call for remedial action (Adams, Shriver, and Webb 2014;Almeida and Stearns 1998;Brown and Masterson-Allen 1994;Bullard 2000;Robinson 2009;Tarbell and Arquette 2000). Yet in other cases communities remain quiescent in the wake of discovered environmental threats, failing to collectively challenge either polluting industries or regulatory agencies (Cable, Shriver, and Hastings 1999;Couch and Coles 2011;Zavestoski et al 2002).…”

Section: Culture Identity and Environmental Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective Identity and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Community Response to Environmental Hazards

2015

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Research has explored the ways in which communities respond to local polluting facilities. In some cases, residents mobilize to confront corporate and state polluters, whereas in other cases residents remain quiescent in the wake of documented environmental threats. The variation in community response is often linked to demographic variables, including age, gender, education, and length of residence; yet cultural factors remain largely unexamined. We examine how cultural factors such as community identity and memory mitigate the relationship between community residents and polluting facilities. We present a comparative study of two heavily polluted communities-Blackwell, Oklahoma, and Cañon City, Colorado-that had divergent responses to contamination. The data for these cases come from in-depth interviews with community residents and various officials (N = 105), content analyses of newspaper coverage and relevant organization documents, and direct observation of meetings and organizing activities. Our findings indicate that cultural factors play a critical role in understanding the relationship between local residents and polluting facilities. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research on rural communities and environmental contamination.

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Section: Culture Identity and Environmental Hazardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective Identity and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Community Response to Environmental Hazards

2015

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“…Third, some debtors engaged in motivated reasoning to make misinformation less upsetting: they downplay misinformation and direct blame away from the misinforming institutions. Taken together, these forces explain why people do not necessarily confront misinformation when it is exposed—in contrast to what most sociologists would have us expect (Beamish ; Brown ; Edelstein ; Levine ; Robinson ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…These findings are puzzling because they differ from those of previous social movement research. Previous narratives state that, when people realize they have been deceived by institutional agents, even those used to being misinformed become upset and frustrated with institutions, complain about them, lose trust in them, and believe activists' counterinformation instead (Auyero ; Beamish ; Brown ; Cable and Walsh ; Edelstein ; Robinson ). The case of Chilean debtors shows that such predictions are not always true.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Before proceeding to the substance of the article, I shall briefly note the significance of the case. As Robinson (:25) notes, we have not paid enough attention to individual‐level variation of meaning‐making processes within groups or communities exposed to both information and counterinformation . Fowlkes and Miller (), focusing on responses to contradictory information rather than clear misinformation, imply—without theorizing—that dispositions and desires to believe certain information or to undertake certain action motivate individuals' search and interpretation of information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Should I Trust the Bank or the Social Movement?” Motivated Reasoning and Debtors' Work to Accept Misinformation

Guzmán

2015

Sociological Forum

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How can people believe corporate and state misinformation even if a social movement organization in their community has been countering this misinformation for years? Why do people knowingly accept misinformation without even being upset about it? I address these questions by analyzing ethnographic data and interviews with 84 Chilean low‐income housing debtors, whom, like many Chileans, are victims of financial misinformation. While the state and banks had significant agency in inducing the unproblematic acceptance of misinformation, debtors also played an active role in the processes. First, debtors had to decide whom to trust, which was not only a cognitive problem about evidence but also a behavioral and practical problem involving risks. Second, debtors engaged in “motivated reasoning”—affect‐driven biased information processing—to dismiss the possibility of being misinformed, to downplay the significance of misinformation, and to direct blame away from misinforming institutions. The latter two practices reduced debtors' anger about being misinformed. The findings have implications for studies of social movement framing and counterinformation, for the cognitive psychology of misinformation, and for the sociology and social psychology of acquiescence.

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“…Drawing on the seminal work of prominent social movement scholars examining the role of collective action frames in mobilizing constituents for social action (e.g., Benford 1993Benford , 1997Benford and Snow 2000;Noakes and Johnston 2005;Benford 1988, 1992;Snow et al 1986), environmental sociologists have also used framing concepts and similar analytic tools to examine how competing groups socially construct a discursive interpretation of the environmental hazards, issues, and conflicts in their community (see, for example, Capek 1993;Gray 2003;Gunter and Kroll-Smith 2007;Krogman 1996;Ladd 2011;Messer, Shriver, and Kennedy 2009;Mika 2006;Mooney and Hunt 2009;Robinson 2009;Shriver 2001;Shriver, Adams, and Cable 2013;Shriver, Cable, and Kennedy 2008;Shriver and Kennedy 2005;Shriver and Peaden 2009;Shriver, White, and Kebede 1998;Vincent and Shriver 2009). In most environmental controversies, different stakeholders typically form a set of diagnostic beliefs about what they view as the problems at hand, as well as propose a set of prognostic actions or policies that should be adopted to solve these problems (Benford 1993;Krogman 1996;Vincent and Shriver 2009).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Disputes and Opportunity-Threat Impacts Surrounding Natural Gas Fracking in Louisiana

Ladd

2014

Social Currents

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Despite the increasing socioenvironmental controversy over the use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology in unconventional natural gas development (i.e., fracking), few sociological studies have used citizen interview narratives to examine attitudes toward shale fracking at the local level. Drawing on sociological research, discursive documents, and in-depth interview data collected from regional stakeholder groups/citizens, this article offers a qualitative analysis of the environmental disputes and opportunity-threat impacts perceived to surround natural gas exploration and hydraulic fracking in the Haynesville Shale region of Louisiana. The narratives reveal that the fracking dispute largely revolves around divergent diagnostic and prognostic beliefs about shale gas development, as well as whether the perceived economic opportunities of development outweigh the alleged socioenvironmental risks to the Haynesville community. Some conclusions about the utility of qualitative research for the study of environmental controversies like fracking, as well as the potential future direction of the growing national debate over shale gas and oil extraction, are discussed.

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Competing Frames of Environmental Contamination: Influences on Grassroots Community Mobilization

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

Collective Identity and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Community Response to Environmental Hazards

Collective Identity and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Community Response to Environmental Hazards

“Should I Trust the Bank or the Social Movement?” Motivated Reasoning and Debtors' Work to Accept Misinformation

Environmental Disputes and Opportunity-Threat Impacts Surrounding Natural Gas Fracking in Louisiana

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