The purpose of this study is to exam how two environmental organizations reason about the loss of biodiversity. The research questions are; what is the view in these organizations regarding biodiversity? What are the underlying environmental discourses behind their reasoning, and how do they reason about the risks associated with the loss of biodiversity? As a first part of this thesis a thorough review of existing literature and online resources about the actions of environmental organizations was conducted. Two organizations were interviewed, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Naturskyddsforeningen. The questions for the study were analyzed in light of Dryzek´s (1997) reasoning about environmental discourses and using the concept of risk by Beck (1998). The results show that the environmental discourses reveal how organizations relate to the environment. WWF and Naturskyddsföreningen are working to change people's attitudes towards nature. The most dominant view in society is, however, that technology will solve environmental problems. Environmental organizations want's a structural change in the society, in regards to exploitation of natural resources rather than technical solutions, as they believe the problem is caused by people in general believe that they are superiority to nature. Furthermore, the results show how the organizations reason about the loss of biodiversity and the human role in this. The organizations want to prevent man's superiority of and sovereignty over nature by showing nature's intrinsic value, but they also want to highlight nature's benefits for human's to get more people engaged in environmental issues.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hv-4422 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Werner, Elin |
| Publisher | Högskolan Väst, Avd för socialpedagogik och sociologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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