Environmental Communication and Critical Coastal Policy: Communities, Culture and Nature(Routledge Studies in Environmental Communication and Media)

The vast majority of the world’s population lives on or near the coast. These communities are an extraordinary and largely untapped resource that can be used to mitigate planetary disaster and foster environmental stewardship. Repeated waves of scientific fact and information are not inciting action, nor apparently producing enough momentum to change voting behaviour towards a progressive environmental politics. A critical coastal policy, underpinned by a deeper understanding of environmental communication, can offer something new to this status quo. Environmental Communication and Critical Coastal Policy argues that more science and ‘better’ communication has been largely responsible for the lacklustre response by citizens to environmental challenges. Foxwell-Norton asserts that the inclusion of a range of local meanings and cultural frameworks with which experts could engage would better incite participation in, and awareness of, local environmental issues. The value and possible role of ‘geo-community media’ (mainstream, alternative and social media) is examined here to illustrate and support the key argument that meaningful local engagement is a powerful tool in coastal management processes. This is a valuable resource for postgraduates, researchers and academics across environmental science and management, policy studies, communication studies and cultural studies.

Table of Contents:
The coastal terrain Culture and the coast Coastal policy and meaningful community participation Coasts and media democracy Coasts, communication and policy: The Cabarita Beach/Bogangar experience Critical coastal policy and environmental communication: New directions? Conclusion

About the Author :
Kerrie Foxwell-Norton is a senior lecturer in communication and media studies and a member of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University, Australia.

Review :
"As issues of environment inexorably heave into view so they become entwined with concerns of social justice, political action and communication. It it is imperative that we better understand how these challenges are confronted and won or lost at the local level and how communities can contribute to a global wave of change. Kerrie Foxwell-Norton’s timely study, Environmental Communication and Critical Coastal Policy, provides us with an eloquently written and incisive dissection of the complexities and contingencies involved. Highly recommended." – Simon Cottle, Cardiff University, UK "If millions of us care about our coastal environments, how is it that so many of these precious places are threatened by human activity? In this important book, Kerrie Foxwell-Norton shows how scholarly research can combine passion with clear insight into the political and communicative processes that can risk or save what we care about most." – Libby Lester, University of Tasmania, Australia