Activity 4.2 Environmental Policy Frameworks

Environmental Conflict Resolution: Framing and Intractability— An Introduction (2003)	Context in environmental conflicts: Where you stand depends on where you sit (2003)	Environmental Framing Consortium. (2005)
Identity Frames – How you define yourself will define how you handle certain situations. Someone’s identity helps analyze how one views topics.	Legal Environment – There are laws and regulations to regulate any conflicts and with the environment, it does get tricky because there are laws that interfere with them.	Group Identification - The type of group people associate with influence their positions on certain topics. When people see themselves fitting into a group it sets up a larger identity they want to protect.
Characterization Frames – Is trying to understand how someone else is. In conflict, this could lead to a negative opinion of others that do not belong in the same group as them.	Political Environment – Consist of political processes and some environmental conflicts ever get resolved. It is tough for the environment because some environmental policies are not protected.	Characterization Frames – Somewhat like stereotyping an individual and how we respond to how we think they are. Can definitely be in a negative way and that creates boundaries between people.
Conflict Management Frames – Individuals/parties have different desires on how to solve conflicts and different desires on how that should be managed.	Economic Environment – Depends on the impact of an industry and how they use actions within the economy.	Gain/Loss Frames – It is about making a decision for yourself about environmental topics. You analyze the pros and cons of the decision.
Fact-Finding Frames – Show how technical experts and non-experts communicate technical information. What information do they seek and accept.	Cultural Environment – Consist of a person’s beliefs, attitudes, values, etc. regarding the environment and decision making.	Risk Frames – Everyone will view risk differently and because of that it influences what they will accept on the decision making.
Social Control Frames – Serve as views on how solving social issues should be made. There are 2 different aspects of social control frames, collective ownership & dependent on experts for decisions.	Demographic Environment – Contains attributes of populations. Depending on the disposition and who it maybe it can cause alterations to the demographics and change the way conflicts are perceived.	Views of Nature Frames – Is how an individual sees its position toward human communication in the natural environment.
Power Frames – How an individual or party can gain power by persuasion.	Technological Environment – There are a lot of attributes to the technological environment, but with so many science-based traits there are more conflicts regarding the environment.	Fact Frames – 2 categories, those who make the facts and those who use the facts. Because these individuals are in different groups they see facts differently.

• Place-Based Identities -  Depending on where you are from can make a difference in what you identify yourself with. That can be by what country to what county you are from that chooses how you represent yourself and how you choose to see certain conflicts.
• Views of Nature Frames - This determines an individual's views on nature topics. How the least or most an individual favors an agreement for the environment.
• Technological Environment - Uses science-based knowledge to better understand the environment. This can come with a lot of conflicts between the individuals studying the topic but in order for us to learn more about the environment, we need science.  
• Cultural Environment - Because of who we are we can determine what our beliefs and values are. When we belong to a group it makes us want to be more involved. 
• Gain/Loss Frames - We can analyze what we believe is the right choice for ourselves. 

The reason I chose these 5 frames is that the main reason why we think the way we do is because of who we are. We tend to make a point of our identity by having certain traits, beliefs, and values. We choose what is best for us by having those values. It all comes down to who we think we are that determines how we view things.

 "Conflict almost inevitably arises when people’s identities are threatened" (Davis & Lewicki (2003) p. 201). When we do not like certain actions that go against what we believe in of course that is when conflicts come about. In every frame, there will be conflicts due to the nature of everyone having their own opinion. Each and every one of us views every aspect differently and when it comes to the environment there can be quite the conflict. The only way we can learn about the environment is through scientific research. Experts have come up with scientific technologies for us to use to better our understandings of nature but some may view the understandings differently than yours. To determine how someone views certain aspects about the environment you can tell by the way they analyze whether that aspect could be a loss or gain to them. "When faced with decisions made by others in an environmental dispute, parties will often make evaluations of potential loss and gain for themselves and others, before more generally supporting or critiquing the decisions" (Environmental Framing Consortium. (2005)). 

There are always decisions to face when it comes to evaluating anything. There are different types of frames for this reason so we can deeply analyze what we think is right or better. I believe the frames I chose are a good understanding of the type of person that I am. Identity is to me is the most important role and the most important frame. Without identity, there is no formal thought on certain disputes. We would not think for ourselves and having someone else choose for us can cause problems. The way some topics get clarified is by the reasoning of other's inputs. We may not think the same as others but if at the end of the day it is to solve a problem about the environment we may have to review our evaluations and check which aspects we feel strongly about. Depending on our identity, occupation, gender and etc. this will best represent what we believe is best for the environment. 

Work Cited

Davis, C. B., & Lewicki, R. J. (2003). Environmental conflict resolution: Framing and intractability--an introduction. Environmental Practice, 5(3), 200-206. DAVISandLEWICKI_2003_Environmental_conflict_resolution__Framing.pdf

Bryan, T. (2003). Context in environmental conflicts: Where you stand depends on where you sit. Environmental Practice, 5(3), 256-264. BRYAN_2003_Context_in_environmental_conflict Framing.pdf

Environmental Framing Consortium. (2005). Framing choices. Understanding Environmental Problems. Retrieved from http://www.intractableconflict.org/environmentalframing/framing_choices.shtml