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Framing New Environmental Cultures for Sustainability. Communication and Sensemaking in Three Intractable Multiparty Conflicts in the EbreBiosfera, Spain

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Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development

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Abstract

Since communication defines conflict and intervenes in the discursive construction of sustainable development, it is more than just a mere tool in mediation processes aimed at resolving environmental intractable conflicts, but is itself a constitutive component of the conflict. Through communication, the discursive and organizational practices and logics of institutions like the law, government and social movements frame and make sense of conflicts regarding the environment. Our objective is to analyse communicative processes in environmental conflicts as an engine driving social change to sustainable development. From an interactional approach to framing we analyse three environmental disputes related to water and energy in the Terres de l’Ebre (Southern Catalonia). We observe how, as an alternative to a conflictive frame, the UNESCO recognition of the Terres de l’Ebre as a Biosphere Reserve (EbreBiosfera) is configured in a proactive, cohesive and consensual frame. In all three conflicts new meanings for sustainable development associated with environmental and social justice and democracy have resulted in new environmentally sustainable cultures, specifically, new water and energy cultures that produce local results of global application. In terms of implementation of these cultures, communicative legislation or “soft law”, understood as a horizontal interactive two-way dialogue, is more effective and offers more satisfactory long-term results than a traditional top-down approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All translations from Spanish or Catalan are by the authors unless already available in English in published form (see References). Page numbers, when provided, refer to original works.

  2. 2.

    Artículo 45. 1. Todos tienen el derecho a disfrutar de un medio ambiente adecuado para el desarrollo de la persona, así como el deber de conservarlo. 2. Los poderes públicos velarán por la utilización racional de todos los recursos naturales, con el fin de proteger y mejorar la calidad de la vida y defender y restaurar el medio ambiente, apoyándose en la indispensable solidaridad colectiva. 3. Para quienes violen lo dispuesto en el apartado anterior, en los términos que la ley fije se establecerán sanciones penales o, en su caso, administrativas, así como la obligación de reparar el daño causado.

    (Article 45.1. Everyone has the right to enjoy an environment suitable for personal development, as well as the duty to preserve it; 2. The public authorities shall safeguard rational use of all natural resources with a view to protecting and improving the quality of life and preserving and restoring the environment, by relying on essential collective solidarity; 3. Criminal or, where applicable, administrative sanctions, as well as the obligation to make good the damage, shall be imposed, under the terms established by the law, against those who violate the provisions contained in the previous clause).

  3. 3.

    EbreBiosfera was the first brand and the promotional name of the UNESCO-recognized Biosphere Reserve of the Terres de l’Ebre. This southwestern region of Catalonia gets its name from the Ebre river which rises in northern Spain. The Ebre Delta is an internationally protected important Mediterranean wetland area.

  4. 4.

    20 July 2015.

  5. 5.

    http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/ (retrieved 20 July, 2015).

  6. 6.

    Two new Spanish reserves have been included this year in the MaB Network: The Spanish-Portuguese Iberian Transfrontier Meseta and the Anaga Massif in Tenerife (the Canary Islands).

  7. 7.

    Spanish legislation abbreviations as used in this manuscript are as follows: Law, L; Decree, D; Royal Decree, RD; Royal Decree Law, RDL.

  8. 8.

    http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/multimedia/photos/mab-2013/spain-terres-de-lebre/ (retrieved 29 April, 2015).

  9. 9.

    This public document is not yet published or available online.

  10. 10.

    The Spanish state has exclusive powers regarding rivers which, like the Ebre, cross several autonomous regions (interregional basins), whereas each region, including Catalonia, has exclusive powers regarding their own river basins.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted within the framework of: (1) the Martí Franquès Research Fellowship Programme of the URV (2013PMF-PIPF-68), funded by the Endesa Foundation and the Ascó-Vandellòs Nuclear Association and (2) the research project titled “From sustainable development to environmental justice: towards a conceptual matrix for global governance ”, financed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the period 2014-2016 (DER2013-44009-P).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASTERISC Communication Research Group, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain

    Jordi Prades

  2. CEDAT Centre for Environmental Law, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain

    Aitana De la Varga

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  1. Jordi Prades
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  2. Aitana De la Varga
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Correspondence to Jordi Prades .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Volker Mauerhofer

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Prades, J., De la Varga, A. (2016). Framing New Environmental Cultures for Sustainability. Communication and Sensemaking in Three Intractable Multiparty Conflicts in the EbreBiosfera, Spain. In: Mauerhofer, V. (eds) Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26021-1_8

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