Ambivalent Effect of Environmental Discourse

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  • 環境問題における抑圧と解放
  • カンキョウ モンダイ ニ オケル ヨクアツ ト カイホウ

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The purpose of this paper is to point out the ambiguity of environmental problems, which arises from an interaction between uncertainty and certain norms, and to discuss the role of sociology. Environmental problems have unique characteristics as social problems in that there is a diffusion of cause and effect, uncertainty, and irreversible change. Therefore, social decision making has to be based on incomplete information. Paradoxically, this causes environmental discourse to become a kind of norm. This case study shows that this interaction has an effect on people that acts both as a form of repression and of deliverance. In rural areas, in particular, the "environment" becomes a resource for the activation of local society. It is not easy to deny environmental discourse completely, even if it is ambiguous. Therefore, we come to realize that the role of sociology, which has criticized the paternalism of the scientific knowledge of experts, is not as obvious as we had expected. New methods of social experimentation are required.

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