Mark C J Stoddart
Prof. Stoddart's work focuses on eco-politics, social movements, and environmental communication in relation to climate change, oil and energy, and sustainable tourism development. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, and received the 2024 Memorial University HSS Dean's Award for Distinguished Scholarship.
Professor Stoddart led the SSHRC-funded research project, "The Oil-Tourism Interface and Social Ecological Change in the North Atlantic." This project examines connections and eco-political tensions between offshore oil and nature-oriented tourism as forms of social-ecological development and environmental governance at sites across the North Atlantic: Denmark, Iceland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Norway, and Scotland. The book based on this project, "Industrial Development and Eco-Tourisms: Can Oil-Extraction and Nature Conservation Co-Exist" is available from Springer (co-authored with Alice Mattoni and John McLevey).
He is also co-lead of the Canadian team of COMPON (COMParing climate change POlicy Networks), which is a large team international comparative project that examines climate change policy networks, media discourse networks, and the connections between political and media arenas of climate policy and public debate.
He is co-investigator of the ongoing SSHRC-funded research project, Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in Resource-Rich Communities: Comparative Cases from the Global South and High North (PI: Nathan Andrews). This international comparative project examines what constitutes meaningful community engagement in research extractive sectors (oil & gas, mining), drawing insights from comparative research on Canada, Chile, Ghana, and Norway.
Professor Stoddart completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2008. He held a Killam postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University (2009-2010) and has been working in the Sociology Department at Memorial University since 2010.
Supervisors: David B. Tindall, Howard Ramos, and William K. Carroll
Professor Stoddart led the SSHRC-funded research project, "The Oil-Tourism Interface and Social Ecological Change in the North Atlantic." This project examines connections and eco-political tensions between offshore oil and nature-oriented tourism as forms of social-ecological development and environmental governance at sites across the North Atlantic: Denmark, Iceland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Norway, and Scotland. The book based on this project, "Industrial Development and Eco-Tourisms: Can Oil-Extraction and Nature Conservation Co-Exist" is available from Springer (co-authored with Alice Mattoni and John McLevey).
He is also co-lead of the Canadian team of COMPON (COMParing climate change POlicy Networks), which is a large team international comparative project that examines climate change policy networks, media discourse networks, and the connections between political and media arenas of climate policy and public debate.
He is co-investigator of the ongoing SSHRC-funded research project, Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in Resource-Rich Communities: Comparative Cases from the Global South and High North (PI: Nathan Andrews). This international comparative project examines what constitutes meaningful community engagement in research extractive sectors (oil & gas, mining), drawing insights from comparative research on Canada, Chile, Ghana, and Norway.
Professor Stoddart completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2008. He held a Killam postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University (2009-2010) and has been working in the Sociology Department at Memorial University since 2010.
Supervisors: David B. Tindall, Howard Ramos, and William K. Carroll
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development looks like in practice. However, to make concrete progress toward the SDGs, it is essential to understand how they are
perceived and can be acted upon locally or regionally. In this study, we draw on survey and focus group research carried out in
Newfoundland and Labrador, on the east coast of Canada, to analyze how the SDGs are interpreted in a regional context. Our research
questions are as follows: Which SDGs have the highest salience for participants and may be leveraged for sustainability policy and
practice? Which political actors are seen as having the capacity to implement the goals into policy and practice? Sustainable development
goals aligned with economic sustainability are emphasized and seen as particularly important. However, economically oriented SDGs
are viewed as compatible with a broad range of SDGs. Overall, respondents view the provincial government as the most salient actor
with the capacity to implement sustainability policy and practice for the region. However, despite its perceived importance, participants
assess provincial government performance very poorly regarding SDG implementation. In terms of the governance dimension of
sustainability, our results highlight the importance of attending to the roles of mid-level political actors, as well as their relationships
with national and local/municipal governments, in pursuing regional sustainability.
impacts, climate change is an inherently multilevel issue.
Focusing on Atlantic Canada, we examine regional-local
dimensions of Canadian climate politics, drawing on data
from six legacy newspapers (two national outlets, four
regional outlets). Claims about the importance of provincial
governments and municipalities have low levels of media
visibility and are more salient in regional news outlets.
However, federal, provincial, local government and political
party sources articulate the ideas that regional and local
actors have important roles to play in climate action. While
these ideas are not highly visible, they are diffuse and high
consensus across multilevel political, civil society, and
other actors. Articulations of the importance of regional and
local climate governance tend to connect this with issues of
carbon pricing and other economic dimensions of climate
governance. While a few municipal actors are highly visible
in the mediated policy network, local policy actors
tend to receive little visibility in either national or regional
media spheres. By contrast, regional actors from provincial
governments and political parties are among the top tier of
actors in both national and provincial media. Our analysis
highlights the significance of regional political arenas and
actors that have received less attention than national governments
or municipalities as sites of climate governance.
UNFCCC processes. While the value and results of COP meetings
are often contested by researchers and activists, we highlight
three areas that deserve more attention in post-COP assessments.
First, the COP process creates an arena where state leaders,
researchers, climate activists, and private actors regularly meet,
which facilitates cooperation over time. Second, COP meetings
are sites of parallel multi-level games that often result in bilateral
or multilateral side agreements or initiatives. Third, COP meetings
are regularly scheduled critical events, where social movements
and civil society actors shape the public discourse around climate
change. Our brief analysis illustrates there is still an urgent need
for COP meetings as spaces that provide transparency for global
climate governance, as well as media and public visibility for civil
society voices, which would otherwise be lost.
climate change crisis and increasing global awareness of the
imperative for climate action, disrupting the post-Paris trajectory of
climate policy and media coverage of climate change. We examine
news media coverage from Canadian legacy newspapers and answer
three questions. First, did the COVID-19 pandemic work as a critical
event in its impacts on news media coverage of climate change, and if
so, in what ways? Second, did media framing of climate change shift in
response to this critical event, and if so, in what ways? Third, are there
notable differences between national and subnational media frames?
We find that COVID-19 is a critical event linked to a period of reduced
media coverage of climate change. However, this critical event also
opened new spaces for news framing that connects environmental and
economic dimensions of sustainability.
facilitate changing environmental practices. By gaining insight into the relationship between perceptions of change and environmental practices, we thereby learn how sustainability goals, such as those embodied by SDG11, can be translated into social practices at the community level.
development looks like in practice. However, to make concrete progress toward the SDGs, it is essential to understand how they are
perceived and can be acted upon locally or regionally. In this study, we draw on survey and focus group research carried out in
Newfoundland and Labrador, on the east coast of Canada, to analyze how the SDGs are interpreted in a regional context. Our research
questions are as follows: Which SDGs have the highest salience for participants and may be leveraged for sustainability policy and
practice? Which political actors are seen as having the capacity to implement the goals into policy and practice? Sustainable development
goals aligned with economic sustainability are emphasized and seen as particularly important. However, economically oriented SDGs
are viewed as compatible with a broad range of SDGs. Overall, respondents view the provincial government as the most salient actor
with the capacity to implement sustainability policy and practice for the region. However, despite its perceived importance, participants
assess provincial government performance very poorly regarding SDG implementation. In terms of the governance dimension of
sustainability, our results highlight the importance of attending to the roles of mid-level political actors, as well as their relationships
with national and local/municipal governments, in pursuing regional sustainability.
impacts, climate change is an inherently multilevel issue.
Focusing on Atlantic Canada, we examine regional-local
dimensions of Canadian climate politics, drawing on data
from six legacy newspapers (two national outlets, four
regional outlets). Claims about the importance of provincial
governments and municipalities have low levels of media
visibility and are more salient in regional news outlets.
However, federal, provincial, local government and political
party sources articulate the ideas that regional and local
actors have important roles to play in climate action. While
these ideas are not highly visible, they are diffuse and high
consensus across multilevel political, civil society, and
other actors. Articulations of the importance of regional and
local climate governance tend to connect this with issues of
carbon pricing and other economic dimensions of climate
governance. While a few municipal actors are highly visible
in the mediated policy network, local policy actors
tend to receive little visibility in either national or regional
media spheres. By contrast, regional actors from provincial
governments and political parties are among the top tier of
actors in both national and provincial media. Our analysis
highlights the significance of regional political arenas and
actors that have received less attention than national governments
or municipalities as sites of climate governance.
UNFCCC processes. While the value and results of COP meetings
are often contested by researchers and activists, we highlight
three areas that deserve more attention in post-COP assessments.
First, the COP process creates an arena where state leaders,
researchers, climate activists, and private actors regularly meet,
which facilitates cooperation over time. Second, COP meetings
are sites of parallel multi-level games that often result in bilateral
or multilateral side agreements or initiatives. Third, COP meetings
are regularly scheduled critical events, where social movements
and civil society actors shape the public discourse around climate
change. Our brief analysis illustrates there is still an urgent need
for COP meetings as spaces that provide transparency for global
climate governance, as well as media and public visibility for civil
society voices, which would otherwise be lost.
climate change crisis and increasing global awareness of the
imperative for climate action, disrupting the post-Paris trajectory of
climate policy and media coverage of climate change. We examine
news media coverage from Canadian legacy newspapers and answer
three questions. First, did the COVID-19 pandemic work as a critical
event in its impacts on news media coverage of climate change, and if
so, in what ways? Second, did media framing of climate change shift in
response to this critical event, and if so, in what ways? Third, are there
notable differences between national and subnational media frames?
We find that COVID-19 is a critical event linked to a period of reduced
media coverage of climate change. However, this critical event also
opened new spaces for news framing that connects environmental and
economic dimensions of sustainability.
facilitate changing environmental practices. By gaining insight into the relationship between perceptions of change and environmental practices, we thereby learn how sustainability goals, such as those embodied by SDG11, can be translated into social practices at the community level.
In Making Meaning out of Mountains, Mark Stoddart draws on interviews, field observations, and media analysis to explore how the ski industry in British Columbia has helped transform mountain environments and, in turn, how skiing has come to be inscribed with multiple, often conflicted meanings informed by power struggles rooted in race, class, and gender. Corporate leaders promote the skiing industry as sustainable development, while environmentalists and some First Nations argue that skiing sacrifices wildlife habitats and traditional lands to tourism and corporate gain. Skiers themselves appreciate the opportunity to commune with nature but are concerned about skiing's environmental effects.
Stoddart not only challenges us to reflect more seriously on skiing's negative impact on mountain environments, he also reveals how certain groups came to be viewed as the "natural" inhabitants and legitimate managers of mountain environments."
In Making Meaning out of Mountains, Mark Stoddart draws on interviews, field observations, and media analysis to explore how the ski industry in British Columbia has helped transform mountain environments and, in turn, how skiing has come to be inscribed with multiple, often conflicted meanings informed by power struggles rooted in race, class, and gender. Corporate leaders promote the skiing industry as sustainable development, while environmentalists and some First Nations argue that skiing sacrifices wildlife habitats and traditional lands to tourism and corporate gain. Skiers themselves appreciate the opportunity to commune with nature but are concerned about skiing's environmental effects.
Stoddart not only challenges us to reflect more seriously on skiing's negative impact on mountain environments, he also reveals how certain groups came to be viewed as the "natural" inhabitants and legitimate managers of mountain environments.
This report presents insights from our study of climate policy debates within provincial media as well as a network of policy actors in Atlantic Canada. Our analyses were guided by three main questions, exploring how issues align across media discourse and policy network, whether higher media visibility also means higher network visibility, and how media visibility relates to network influence, scientific communication and collaborative relationships. These dimensions shed light on the intricate connections between media visibility, policy influence, scientific communication, and collaboration. By delving into these questions and dimensions, we can uncover valuable insights regarding regional climate governance, media influence, and policy network relations. These insights contribute to a better understanding of effective climate action.
We adopt a “full-spectrum” definition of sustainability, which emphasizes the interconnection of the environmental, economic, social, and institutional (or governance) dimensions of sustainability (Foley et al. 2020). As such, the survey asked about participants’ perceptions of
multiple aspects of sustainability in Newfoundland and Labrador. Given the ongoing financial crisis facing Newfoundland and Labrador, we are particularly interested in perceptions of economic and institutional (or governance) sustainability, as well as how these relate to other dimensions of sustainability, including those articulated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Overall, we find that concerns about economic sustainability overshadow other dimensions of full-spectrum sustainability. Specifically, research results show that:
• Economic sustainability is considered as the most crucial, yet poorly managed, aspect of sustainability in NL. The province is perceived as currently economically unsustainable, with the Muskrat Falls project highlighted as an example of poor decision-making related to economic sustainability.
• The majority of participants believe that economic sustainability is compatible with protecting local heritage and culture, protecting natural resources, and addressing climate change. Most participants agree that NL’s economic sustainability would benefit from developing greater fiscal transparency and accountability.
• The provincial government is considered the most important institution for ensuring sustainability in NL.
• However, participants are largely dissatisfied with the performance of the provincial government, particularly regarding its role in managing NL’s economy. Similarly, a majority of participants are critical of provincial economic policies and strategies, as well as the provincial government’s ability to promote public awareness, or implement
regulations concerning economic sustainability.
• Focus group participants often note that the province has not benefitted adequately from its relationship with the Government of Canada. Provincial-international relationships are also generally viewed as underdeveloped, though participants note positive examples of more informal and business-oriented international relationships.
• Among the 17 United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), those related to the local economy are seen as the most relevant SDGs to the province. However, the province is seen as disengaged from the SDGs as a framework for action. Participants generally give moderate to low evaluations to the performance of the provincial government to date in striving to meet the SDGs by the 2030 target date, with universal access to clean drinking water cited as a notable issue within the province. Climate action is rated as the least successful sustainable development goal in terms of progress in NL.
• The majority of participants report positive personal attitudes towards sustainability practices in their daily lives. However, sustainability actions at the community or provincial level are largely seen as insufficient with room for improvement.
Overall, our results show that economic sustainability is the most critical, yet poorly managed, dimension of building a sustainable future for Newfoundland and Labrador. At the same time, participants generally see economic sustainability as compatible with protecting culture and heritage and protecting natural resources. Similarly, participants generally see climate change and climate action as linked to the economic sustainability of the province.
There is an appetite for this gap to be addressed by the provincial government, which is viewed as the most important public institution for ensuring the sustainability of the province. This can be done through policy measures that help increase fiscal transparency and accountability in the province, as well as measures that further improve capacity-building and advice for economic sustainability across key sectors of Newfoundland and Labrador.
We highlight that as problems began to emerge in the plan and economic conditions deteriorated, public officials and decision-makers continued to move forward on the project. Red flags were raised by independent bodies such as the Joint Federal-Provincial Environmental Assessment Review Panel and the Public Utilities Board, despite the limited scope of the reviews that they were directed to undertake. From the early days of project inception, concerns were also raised by several public intellectuals through blogs, reports, and media-work. Despite these early warning signs, management problems and expanding budgets were continually excused and minimized, leading to unprecedented financial vulnerability. These findings are discussed in greater depth and consideration in the Muskrat Falls Inquiry report but are outlined broadly within this work.
Additionally, we discuss the limited recognition of Indigenous rights and the subsequent Settler-Indigenous conflict that emerged because of the project. In particular, we discuss the implications of methylmercury contamination, the destabilization of the North Spur and the approaches that members of Inuit and Innu communities and their allies undertook to contest the project, including hunger strikes, litigation, and occupying the site. Recommendations from independent advisory bodies that supported Indigenous concerns were ignored or poorly integrated into project management.
We evaluate the impact of Muskrat Falls on the province’s ecological, socio-cultural, economic, and political sustainability. Ecological sustainability considers the poor attention to climate change alternatives under the province’s analysis. This experience mirrors that of BC with the Site C Hydro-Electric project. The limited options for analysis suggest a myopic and unsustainable approach to considering climate change and sustainability. The implications of methylmercury for downstream Indigenous communities also challenges claims about the ecological sustainability of the project. Socio-cultural sustainability is primarily considered through the impacts to the social fabric of Indigenous communities due to distrust in their food systems due to methylmercury contamination and the potential unravelling of their traditional way of life. Additionally, we consider the lack of legal mechanisms available for decision-makers related to Muskrat Falls, while Indigenous protesters have faced significant legal battles. Both consequences generate challenges for socio-cultural well-being. Economically, we consider the impacts to rate payers, taxpayers, the Federal government, and Indigenous governments because of this project. The level of provincial debt that this project will have generated is unsustainable and may in fact be so insurmountable that the province could face insolvency in the near future. In political sustainability terms, we discuss the continual utilization of inquiries and reviews to de-escalate and re-target political failures. The Muskrat Falls Inquiry, as well as other reviews similarly undertaken in NL’s history, are useful in compiling independent data and evaluating concerns. However, they have limited judicial consequences, nor do they necessarily change political culture.
We provide several recommendations to consider for moving towards a more sustainable future. These include:
• Economic recommendations around avoiding insolvency and accepting the province’s comparatively limited capacity to support mega-projects without funding from private and Federal partnerships. The case remains that the price of Muskrat Falls hydropower is likely uncompetitive on the Eastern seaboard and NL may have a significant power surplus. We suggest focusing economic development on diversified industries that consume power and follow existing successes, like aquaculture, mining, and tourism. To draw major power users, corporate power rates will likely need to be subsidized.
• The use of independent oversight like the Public Utilities Board must be strengthened, as well as legal recourse for those that do not exercise proper due diligence in provincial decision-making. We advocate the widespread use of alternatives analysis and the integration of adaptive management approaches. We highlight that if legal structures only supported criminal charges for those peacefully protesting on their traditional territory, without penalties for those that have driven NL towards insolvency, then structures must shift.
• We also call upon NL to integrate FPIC and better partner with Indigenous communities in future economic development to ensure mutual benefit and shared decision-making mandates.
• Finally, we recommend that NLers refocus on democratic processes, re-evaluating the culture from “patriotic correctness” towards accountability, as we have seen in Iceland post-banking crisis. Valuing rigorous journalism, as well as respecting public dissent and criticism, plays an important role in creating this shift in the provincial political culture.
In this research brief, we examine mass media coverage from four Atlantic Canadian legacy newspapers: The Telegram (St. John's, NL); The Guardian (Charlottetown, PEI); The Telegraph Journal (St. John, NB); and The Chronicle Herald (Halifax, NS). For comparison, we also examine the Globe and Mail and National Post. We answer two questions: 1) What happened to the climate change within the media issue attention cycle between September 2019 and August 2020? 2) For media stories that connect climate change and COVID-19, what are the main themes that define the relationship between these two crises?
In this research brief, we examine mass media coverage from four Atlantic Canadian legacy newspapers: The Telegram (St. John's, NL); The Guardian (Charlottetown, PEI); The Telegraph Journal (St. John, NB); and The Chronicle Herald (Halifax, NS). For comparison, we also examine the Globe and Mail and National Post. We answer two questions: 1) What happened to the climate change within the media issue attention cycle between September 2019 and August 2020? 2) For media stories that connect climate change and COVID-19, what are the main themes that define the relationship between these two crises?
Six types of contact points are identified through this research:
• Conflicts between oil and gas exploration and the tourism sector: While ongoing oil extraction often does not face opposition, conflict does emerge in relation to specific projects where oil development infringes on established tourism economies. In these episodes of conflict, tourism is often seen as a more sustainable alterative to oil extraction.
• Oil as a tourism attractor: While not a dominant theme, there are notable educational and touristic spaces, such as museums and science centres, that communicate narratives about the social importance of oil for host communities. In these spaces, critical reflection on the social or environmental costs of the oil sector is presented only occasionally.
• Oil industry supports tourism development: These are instances where oil sector sponsorship helps support tourism sites, or cultural events and community recreation infrastructure that is used by tourists as well as local communities.
• Oil infrastructure supports tourism development: While not a dominant theme, participants in oil sector cities like Esberg or Aberdeen noted that the infrastructure needed for the oil sector (i.e. airline connectivity, hotel capacity) has spill-over benefits for tourism development.
• Tourism is carbon intensive: Tourism development in the North Atlantic is heavily dependent on carbon-intensive forms of airplane, car, bus, cruise ship, ferry, and boat tour travel. The carbon intensity of tourism is often taken for granted. While there are specific projects to reduce the carbon intensity of tourism through electrification, the carbon footprint of tourism deserves greater consideration in terms of developing sustainable tourism.
• Tourism environments are impacted by climate change: Conversations about climate change are generally broader than tourism, but important tourism landscapes are also impacted by coastal erosion, sea level rise, flooding, melting glaciers, and increased extreme weather. Conversely, climate change is opening new tourism travel routes in the high north and Arctic.
The oil sector and tourism sector are often treated as separate development paths until episodes of conflict emerge. Our research highlights a range of conflictual and collaborative points of connection across these sectors. This leads us to call for more connective ways of thinking and management across different forms of development that share coastal landscapes and seascapes.
The workshop included participants from Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Luxembourg, and the United States. Participants also represented a range of disciplines including Sociology, Geography, Political Science, and Environmental Studies, as well as community speakers. The presentations and discussions generated new insight into how energy systems may be reconfigured to address the problem of climate change and promote social-ecological wellbeing. Transdisciplinary and international contributions focused on the social challenges, possibilities and trade-offs involved in pursuing fossil fuels, nuclear power, hydro-electric, and emerging renewable energy technologies.
Focusing on emerging and established tourism regions in Newfoundland and Labrador, the results of this project provide insight into tourism operators’ perceptions of the industry, and allow us to better understand what factors facilitate or act as barriers to regional tourism network-building. In this final report, we provide the results of an online survey conducted with tourism operators in the Bonne Bay, Burin Peninsula, Labrador Straits, and Northern Peninsula regions.
Our main research findings include:
• Tourism offers economic benefits through revenue and employment. Beyond its economic impacts, tourism development can create positive social impacts through the preservation of culture and history, and by improving the quality of life for local residents through the maintenance of amenities and public spaces.
• Currently, most tourists use the Burin as a throughway to St. Pierre et Miquelon.
• A significant number of tourists to the region are families or retirees from other parts of Newfoundland or other Canadian provinces.
• The long drive from Newfoundland’s main highway, lower-than-expected quality of customer service and restaurant options, limited space for modern recreational vehicles, and the short tourism season are challenges that can detract from tourists' experience of the region.
• Burin peninsula tourism is primarily promoted online.
• Tourism promoters and operators in the region feel marginalized from provincial tourism promotion efforts, though this may be changing with the creation of the Eastern Destination Management Organization.
Several key strategies that may help build tourism development in the region are:
• Continue to build multi-layered tourism networks between community, regional, and provincial organizations and key actors.
• Develop a stronger regional “tourism destination image.”
• Prioritize long term tourism-oriented projects that also benefit local communities.
• Extend the tourist season.
• Develop thematic connections between tourist attractions on the Burin peninsula and tourism anchors in other parts of Newfoundland.
• Develop cross-promotion strategies with St. Pierre et Miquelon.
• Emphasize both cultural activities and outdoor, recreational, and nature-oriented activities.
• Market the drive between the Trans-Canada highway and the Burin Peninsula a part of the tourism experience, as opposed to an inconvenience.
• Increase quality of restaurant offerings and customer service.
• Diversify and expand the online presence and promotion of the region.
mining is facilitated where there are particularly dramatic examples of violations of social or environmental wellbeing. However, flows of oil and minerals are so diffuse and pervasive throughout twenty-first-century consumer culture that targeting a single stage of the commodity chain, a single company, or a particular resource type may prove too narrow a strategy for a holistic approach to sustainable development.
colonization. Second, where there are alignments between Indigenous and environmental opposition against oil projects, appeals to treaty agreements and environmental justice are used by both indigenous and non-indigenous anti-oil activists to challenge energy projects.
The general public obtain much of their information about climate change and other environmental issues from the media, either directly or indirectly through sources like social media. Media have their own internal logic, and getting one’s message into the media is not straightforward. A variety of factors influence what gets into the media,
including media practices, and research shows that media matter in influencing public opinion.
A variety of media practices affect reporting on climate change─one example is the journalistic norm of balance, which directs that actors on both sides of a controversy be given relatively equal attention by media outlets. In the context of global warming and climate change, in the United States, this norm has led to the distortion of the public’s
understanding of these processes. Researchers have found that, in the scientific literature, there is a very strong consensus among scientists that human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change is happening. Yet media in the United States often portray the issue as a heated debate between two equal sides.
Subscription to, and readership of, print newspapers have declined among the general public; nevertheless, particular newspapers continue to be important. Despite the decline of traditional media, politicians, academics, NGO leaders, business leaders, policymakers, and other opinion leaders continue to consume the media. Furthermore, articles from particular outlets have significant readership via new media access points, such as Facebook and Twitter.
An important concept in the communication literature is the notion of framing. “Frames” are the interpretive schemas individuals use to perceive, identify, and label events in the world. Social movements have been important actors in discourse about climate change policy and in mobilizing the public to pressure governments to act. Social movements
play a particularly important role in framing issues and in influencing public opinion. In the United States, the climate change denial countermovement, which has strong links to conservative think tanks, has been particularly influential. This countermovement is much
more influential in the United States than in other countries. The power of the movement has been a barrier to the federal government taking significant policy action on climate change in the United States and has had consequences for international agreements and processes.
Even though people pay attention to images of oil-soaked birds in the aftermath of oil spills, researchers know that another, less perceptible, issue is the death of algae from the use of chemical dispersants after these disasters. Although people focus on shifting to hybrid cars to reduce their carbon footprint, researchers show that we also need to also think about methane emissions from the global livestock industry. Though people promote the environmental benefits of digitization in our workplaces and media consumption, researchers remind us that this shift generates massive amounts of e-waste with its own ecological footprint. Despite nearly universal scientific
consensus about the harmful impacts of climate change, government and the public keep ignoring it. Three environmental communication dilemmas help to explain: The scale of environmental issues, difficulties portraying environmental problems and a tendency to individualize problems. By recognizing how these factors structure media coverage of environmental issues, scientists and academics can strategically work with them as opportunities to play a greater role in public debates.
1. Professionalization: Developing your research program, grant crafting, and presenting your work.
2. Academic Writing: Understanding academic writing as a craft and its importance in sociology.
3. Sociology of Sociology: Examining how the global and Canadian fields of sociology are evolving and the emerging questions and debates in the 21st century.
The workshop included participants from Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Luxembourg, and the United States. Participants also represented a range of disciplines including Sociology, Geography, Political Science, and Environmental Studies, as well as community speakers. The presentations and discussions generated new insight into how energy systems may be reconfigured to address the problem of climate change and promote social- ecological wellbeing. Transdisciplinary and international contributions focused on the social challenges, possibilities and trade-offs involved in pursuing fossil fuels, nuclear power, hydro- electric, and emerging renewable energy technologies.
The presentations and group discussion identified four core themes that can help guide further research collaboration, as well as researcher engagement with policy and practice communities:
1. “Transformation” is the keyword. We need to identify key leverage points for envisioning and implementing new low-carbon energy futures. Energy futures are processes of transformation involving a range of social actors, so it is essential to adopt diverse approaches to talking about energy futures with diverse partners.
2. Research and policy-making needs to bridge the global and the local scales. The scale of problems related to climate and energy futures are global, yet the scale of social meaning, place belonging, and sites of social action are local.
3. Bridging research and policy requires identification of specific leverage points. This includes generating new modes of interdisciplinary research on energy futures that integrate distinct disciplinary fields. It also calls for increasing the flow of communication and engagement between more theoretical and more applied analyses.
4. Work on climate change and energy futures is not just about predicting the future. Social futures research needs to provoke key questions such as: Energy futures for whom? Who gets to envision and enact energy futures? Who are energy futures enacted upon? These questions highlight that the politics of climate change and energy futures is also fundamentally about social power, inequality and social justice.