Policy and political engagement: Entanglement? Responsibility? Opportunity?

• Anthropology is uniquely positioned, in the Anthropocene, to address this era of “Planetary entanglements and human responsibilities” that will take us beyond the conventional perspective of the duality of nature and culture.

• K. Hastrup WIRES Clim Change 2013

Does climate-related anthropology and academic scholarship have a role in policy discussions and politics?

“Anthropology has not been a big player in terms of policy and politics. Or the discourse surrounding GEC and CC. “

“Anthropology and social sciences (and humanities) are generally relegated to the margins of major earth systems research efforts. “

“ Social science funding agencies have generally been absent in funding GEC research.

“As anthropologists, we have a professional responsibility to share our knowledge of the human dimensions of this momentous change with the discipline and the public in a forthright fashion on a number of different levels.

The AAA is the world’s largest professional and scholarly organization of anthropologists, and arguably represents the only discipline that can accuratelyreport on the broad human dimensions and conditions of climate change, encompassing timespans from the Pleistocene to the ‘Anthropocene’ as well as Conditions in contemporary cultures.

We are uniquely positioned to scale up from ethnographic ground truth inlocal conditions and to link this with larger systems—markets, trade flows, and globalization—and show how the scales are intertwined.”

We have a “responsibility to be involved,” both personally and professionally

-From Anthropology News Feb 2012

Elements of effective public interest advocacy*

• Broad coalition, bipartisan, across sectors; or broad grassroots movement;

• Insiders – within executive branch and in Congress****

• Network of supportive policy professionals and experts****

• Media – alert and sympathetic

• Communication strategy – public education**

• Constituency; standing

• Members who are connected to policy makers, media leaders, & other national and community leaders.

*Pertschuk, M. 1987 Giant Killers; and McConnell, S. 2004 Advocacy in Organizations. Elements of Success. Generations 28(1): 25-30.

Look at where we’ve been

1987 -- U.N. Montreal Protocol.1990 – Global Change Research Act of 1990***1992--Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro1992--UN FCCC – IPCC*1995—US Acid Rain Program (1990 CAA). 1998--Kyoto Protocol signed, but Treaty not voted on by Senate2001 – Bush Administration declines further participation in Kyoto negotiations2005 – All Annex I countries (ex U.S.; Australia 2007) ratify, and Protocol enters into force. CDMs and EU carbon trading begin.2008 - Barak Obama elected Pres. Gridlock over cap & trade.2010- Action moves to Executive Branch (US)***

The role of ïnsiders in U.S. capacity building & shaping research agenda;

• Gained a much-needed foothold for social sciences in global change research program ($$) in U.S.

• Contributed to the re-framing of the dualism (nature/society) that pervades climate change discourse.

• 1990 – Global Change Research Act of 1990

• Broad insider interagency activity and support for cc research

• Mobilized networks of academics

U.S. National Climate Assessment, Model*

Anthropological Engagement 2010-2013

EthnographicSketch

Constituency and standing

• Scholarly organizations are at a disadvantage.

• Member-based, they have ‘no constituency,’ no calling card.

• Are not generally issue-based, and don’t have a stake in the issue. But we do with GEC.

• Little influence with CC legislation or Congress

• We are not big donors (Democracy Alliance);

• Not active at high level in party politics, e.g. DNCC.

Congress

Executive branch

Courts

Policy as an interative, negotiated process

Policy is both prescriptive and something that becomes, develops, gets ‘enacted,’ gets adjudicated, gets implemented, and has regulations.

Interest groups, associations, corporate lobbyists, citizens, policy NGOs, scientists…and anthropologists?

International lending institutions, IPCC, UNFCCC, World Bank, WTO, IADBClimate

ChangeLegislation

Actors in the policy process

Data for “Global Warming’s Six Americas” was drawn from a nationally representative survey of 2,129 American adults in the fall of 2008.

Global Warming’s Six Americas. An Audience Segmentation AnalysisAnthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Andrew Light. May 19, 2009 Taken from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/6americas.html

A network of supportive policy professionals and experts

• We do have networks of experts on climate change, both archaeologically and ethnographically.

• We need a broadly based public education or outreach effort to address adaptation, resilience, vulnerability and distributional effects.

• Join forces with other organizations – AAAS, Physicians for Social Responsibility, ESA, AGU

• Write books – a lot of them – for popular audiences. E.g. Presidential historians Bob Dalleck, Michael Bechloss. Become an expert.

“Forced Migration? Facing an Uncomfortable Future”Anthony Oliver-Smith is an anthropologist specializing in resettlement and disasters; he is emeritus Professor at University of Florida, a member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Scientific Committee of the International Council for Science (ICSU), and a member of the American Anthropological Association's Global Climate Change Task Force. -----Huffington Post

“Open Letter to the Candidates: SuperStorm Sandy and Her Lessons”Why Climate Matters…Dear President Obama and Governor Romney:Shirley J. Fiske is an environmental anthropologist and research professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Chair of the American Anthropological Association Task Force on Global Climate Change. She is a former NOAA program official, and senior legislative advisor in the U.S. Senate, working on climate, oceans, fisheries, public lands and energy issues.

Counterpunch Weekend Edition November 2-4, 2012

AAA Task Force on Global Climate Changehttp://www.aaanet.org/cmtes/commissions/CCTF/gcctf.cfm

04/07/2023

www.anthropology-news.org

A role for professional organizations and for researchers and scholars

• Given what’s at stake, we should be outspoken

• About our work, findings, and implications for humans globally;

• Urge our professional organizations to make make statements, support public education & outreach;

• As individuals we can play a role;

• Public education & outreach;

• Getting the word out about global dynamics and human interactions in their directionality, their importance, their environmental justice impacts.