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In-Depth Information
to into account in their own decision-making. This, in turn, may lead them
to view governmental calls for more-sustainable ways of living in a positive
light and to respond to them proactively.
A possible concern with the expectation that people would respond
to perceived threats to the places they value is the
problem.
115
The implication is that there would be a reluctance to alter personal
behaviours and sanction changes to patterns of communal living for fear
that others would not follow suit or that they may even take advantage
of this public spiritedness. However, opportunities for
'
'
free rider
would
be much reduced under a system of governance in which all communi-
ties are being asked to change their practices as part of a shared national
endeavour. Indeed, the failure of individuals and communities to engage
positively with this may, if the need for more sustainable ways of living
has become widely accepted, lead to a perception of recalcitrance as
socially unacceptable. As has been seen in many social contexts, a fear
of the stigma that would attach to behaviour which is non-compliant
with societal norms can provide a powerful incentive to conform.
In addition, it might be questioned whether a focus on the environments
of particular places would promote any different attitude towards activities
whose impacts would affect places far removed from them. Undoubtedly, it
would be a challenge to extrapolate a broader concern for the global
environment from a sense of responsibility for local environments. At the
same time, awareness of the impacts that far-distant activities can have on
valued places may lead to a general perception of them as negative, and, in a
society where the need to alleviate threats of ecological harm has been
accepted as a common concern, to the stigmatisation of those who reap
the bene
'
freeriding
'
ts from practices that export environmental harm. The promise
that localised action offers of an altered perspective towards the global
environment is that
the experience of collective action on behalf of the
local environment can serve to instil an ethic that will apply outside of that
locality.
'
116
'
4.7 Marine governance
The discussion of governance in this chapter has, to this point, been
concerned largely with arrangements for governing activities conducted
115
Dobson,
'
Green Political Thought
'
,p.104;Giddens,
'
The Politics of Climate Change
'
,
p. 104.
116
Lipschutz,
'
Bioregionalism
'
,p.111.
