Collaborative Research: Global Climate Change: Folk Models and Intracultural Variation

该项目涉及两位文化人类学家的合作，他们将采访相对较小的北美“普通人”样本，了解他们对全球气候变化环境问题的看法和道德评估。将构建一个代表这些信念的“民间模型”，并将其与一组类似的采访和模型进行比较，这些采访和模型来自那些工作对环境有影响的专家(公用事业分析师、环境游说者、国会工作人员等)。这些数据将有助于分析涉及文化内变异的模式和意义的理论问题，例如关于全球变暖的机制和后果的知识是如何在社会上分布的，以及这种知识是由互不相关的事实或命题体系组成的集合。这项研究之所以重要，是因为对环境状况的担忧在社会上变得越来越重要。加深对公众对这些问题理解的结构的理解，以及与意见相伴的道德评估，将有助于政策制定者了解公众的反应。

This project involves the collaboration of two cultural anthropologists who will interview a relatively small sample of North American "persons-in-the-street" about their perceptions and moral evaluations of the environmental problems of global climate change. A "folk model" will be constructed that represents these beliefs, which will be compared with a similar set of interviews and model elicited from specialists whose jobs affect the environment (utility analysts, environmental lobbyists, congressional staff, and others). These data will contribute to an analysis of theoretical questions involving the pattern and meaning of intracultural variation, such as how knowledge of the mechanisms and consequences of global warming are socially distributed, and whether this knowledge consists of collections of unconnected facts or systems of propositions. This research is important because concerns about the state of the environment are gaining more significance in society. Increased understanding of the structure of popular understanding of these issues, and the moral evaluations that go along with opinions, will help policy makers understand public reactions.