Browsing by Subject "Political sociology"

This study focuses on citizen and interest group public engagement for deliberating on societal challenges, especially in an academic research planning context. The studied participatory event is the first Future Earth Townhall Meeting organized in Helsinki in May 2015. Using an extended case method and a theory-driven approach combined with mixed methods, this study aims to shed light on social and theoretical aspects framing the studied participatory event. The extended case study method was selected to support and direct inquiry as well as to enable reconstructing existing theory. This study combines participant observation, textual content analysis, word frequency analysis and visual analysis. In the social sciences demands to better take into account environmental issues have increased after the Second World War. The study’s ethnographic grassroots perspective situates the studied event into a wider framework of participation and political sociology. Analysis is organized through main frames local publics and global challenges. Local publics especially addresses the following research questions: How were local publics constructed? What voiced concerns frame participation? Global challenges in turn focuses on: How were thematic aims developed and articulated? The key concept global change awareness guides analysis of interdisciplinary work. Four planning stages of idea development (cf. Lempiälä 2011) illustrate main front end stages connected to the key challenges and activities. In the studied case the process has moved from international to local level. For global challenges, ARGIL is introduced to highlight a difference between broader Adaptation and socially coordinated Resources. Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge’s (1972) concept new public sphere of production is used as theoretical backbone on participation. Because the event was advertised as open to anyone interested in addition to experts, the studied event’s meeting hall sessions can be seen as front stage activities (cf. Goffman 1956; Lempiälä 2011). Participatory activities taking place after general concept approval can limit participants’ critical potential. At the same time, international grand challenges are widely used in various contexts, and increased awareness can thus be beneficial for participants. The studied event is situated at an intersection of global and local networks of influence. Future Earth aims to combine a focus on various levels, cooperating with different stakeholders and actors. The studied event’s thematic focus touches upon the UN’s sustainable development goals and the EU’s grand societal challenges.