an official journal of: published by:
an official journal of: published by:
Editor in Chief: RAFFAELLO COSSU
Home

 

GO TO

DEVELOPING PUBLIC COMMUNICATION METHODS BY COMBINING SCIENCE, CREATIVE ARTS AND INTERGENERATIONAL INFLUENCE: THE TRACE PROJECT

  • Alice Brock - Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Robin Browning - SÓN Orchestra, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Anca Campanie - SON Orchestra, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Susannah Pal - Freelance Artist, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Ian D. Williams - Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

DOI 10.31025/2611-4135/2022.17230

Released under CC BY-NC-ND

Copyright: © 2022 CISA Publisher

Abstract

E-waste is one of the fastest growing global waste streams. As e-waste accumulates scientists struggle to communicate scientific findings and concepts effectively and expediently to the public in a way that raises awareness and inspires discussions. The TRACE (TRAnsitioning to a Circular Economy with creative artists) project was a collaboration between scientists, creative artists and primary schoolchildren to develop new ways to communicate to the public about e-waste. It combined i) intergenerational influence and ii) music / art to raise public awareness, educate and provoke discussion. Two musical performances by schoolchildren and two art exhibitions by a professional artist were created to evoke emotional responses to e-waste, particularly by imbuing e-waste with personality through anthropomorphism in their songs and artwork. Key findings indicate that awareness was raised in audiences, artists, schoolchildren, and their caregivers due to their involvement in the TRACE project; 99% of the audience reported a rise in awareness of e-waste issues; 70% of participants indicated an intention to change e-waste disposal; and 65% indicated an intention to change reuse and repair behaviour. Audiences demonstrated strong emotional reactions to the project alongside change in behavioural intent. The degree to which awareness was raised, and its intensity, demonstrates the viability of the use of intergenerational influence and the creative arts as tools to communicate environmental issues effectively. The project consequently won a prestigious 2021 UK National Recycling Award for (communication) Campaign of the Year (Large).

Keywords

Editorial History

  • Received: 07 Jun 2022
  • Revised: 06 Dec 2022
  • Accepted: 12 Dec 2022
  • Available online: 20 Dec 2022

References

Allen, A.S. (2014). Ecomusicology.The Grove Dictionary of American Music. New York: Oxford University Press

Bagozzi, R. P. et al. (1979). The Construct Validity of the Tripartite Classification of Attitudes. Journal of Marketing Research, 16(1), 88–95

Ballantyne, R., Fien, J. and Packer, J. (2001). Intergenerational Influence in Environmental Education: A Quantitative Analysis. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 17(3), 1–7

Barr, S. (2007). Factors Influencing Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors. Environment and Behavior, 39(4), 435–473

BBC (2021). “BBC Bitesize launches The Regenerators ahead of COP26 climate change conference”. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2021/bbc-bitesize-the-regenerators (Accessed: 15 January 2022)

Becker, A. B. (2013). Star Power? Advocacy, Receptivity, and Viewpoints on Celebrity Involvement in Issue Politics. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 21(1), 1–16

Bloodhart, B., Swim, J. K. and Dicicco, E. (2019). “Be Worried, be VERY Worried:” Preferences for and Impacts of Negative Emotional Climate Change Communication. Frontiers in Communication, 3, 63

Borthakur, A. and Govind, M. (2017). Emerging trends in consumers’ E-waste disposal behaviour and awareness: A worldwide overview with special focus on India. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 117, 102–113

Boudet,H.; Ardoin, N.; Flora,J.; Armel, K.C.; Desai, M. and Robinson, T.N. (2016). Effects of a behaviour change intervention for girl scouts on child and parent energy-saving behaviours. Nat. Energy, 1(8)

Breckler, S. J. (1984). Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47(6), 1191–1205

Brockington, D. (2017). Environment and Celebrity, in International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology. Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 1–6

Cabeza, L.F., Ürge-Vorsatz, D., Palacios, A., Ürge, D., Serrano, S., Barreneche, C., (2018). Trends in penetration and ownership of household appliances. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82. 4044–4059

Caraway, K. and Caraway, B. R. (2020) Representing Ecological Crises in Children’s Media: An Analysis of The Lorax and Wall-E. Environmental Communication. 14(5), 686–697

Chan, L. and Bishop, B. (2013). A moral basis for recycling: Extending the theory of planned behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 36, 96–102

Chapman, D. A., Lickel, B. and Markowitz, E. M. (2017). Reassessing emotion in climate change communication. Nature Climate Change, 7(12), 850–852

Cole, C., Gnanapragasam, A., Cooper, T., Singh, J., (2019). Assessing barriers to reuse of electrical and electronic equipment, a UK perspective. Resources, Conservation and Recycling: X. 1, 100004

Conard, N.J., Malina, M., Münzel, S.C. (2009). New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany. Nature 2009 460:7256 460, 737–740

Cooper K. E., Nisbet E. C. (2016). Green narratives: How affective responses to media messages influence risk perceptions and policy preferences about environmental hazards. Science Communication, 38, 626-654

Crowther, G.J., McFadden, T., Fleming, J.S., Davis, K., 2016. Leveraging the power of music to improve science education. International Journal of Science Education 38, 73–95

Curtis, D. J. (2009). Creating inspiration: The role of the arts in creating empathy for ecological restoration. Ecological Management & Restoration, 10(3), 174–184

Curtis, D. J., Reid, N. and Ballard, G. (2012). Communicating Ecology Through Art What Scientists Think. Ecology and Society, 17(2)

Demaine, L. J. (2009). Navigating policy by the stars: The influence of celebrity entertainers on federal lawmaking. Journal of Law and Politics 25, 83

den Boer, E.; Williams, I.D.; Curran, T. and Kopacek, B. (2014). Briefing: Demonstrating the circular resource economy – the ZeroWIN approach. Waste and Resource Management, 167(WR3), 97-100

Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (2020). UK Statistics on Waste. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data/uk-statistics-on-waste (Accessed 2 August 2020)

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (2013). Environmental Statistics-Key Facts. Available at: www.defra.gov.ukhttp://www.defra.gov.uk/statistics/environment/ (Accessed: 2 August 2020)

De Feo, G.; Ferrara, C.; Iannone, V. and Parente, P. (2019). Improving the efficacy of municipal solid waste collection with a communicative approach based on easily understandable indicators. Science of The Total Environment, 651(215), 2380-2390

Environment Agency (2020). WEE Collected in the UK [Dataset]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/waste-electrical-and-electronic-equipment-weee-in-the-uk (Accessed: 2 August 2020)

Feldman L., Hart P. S. (2016). Using political efficacy messages to increase climate activism: The mediating role of emotions. Science Communication, 38, 99-127

Forti, V., Baldé, C.P., Kuehr, R., Bel, G (2020). The Global E-waste Monitor 2020: Quantities, Flows, and the Circular Economy Potential, United Nations University (UNU)/United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) – co-hosted SCYCLE Programme, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) & International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), Bonn/Geneva/Rotterdam. Bonn/ Geneva/ Rotterdam

Frayer, M. and Michelsen, A. (2010). Giving the Toaster Eyes: Applied Anthropomorphism and its Influences on User-Object Relations with Everyday Objects A Master’s Thesis for the Degree ‘Master of Arts (Two Years) in Visual Culture’. Available at: http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1604671 (Accessed: 25 July 2020)

Halog, A. and Anieke, S. (2021). A Review of Circular Economy Studies in Developed Countries and Its Potential Adoption in Developing Countries. Circ.Econ.Sust. 1, 209–230 (2021)

Hansen, K.A. (2020). The Earth is Sick: Environmentalism and the Politics of Age and Gender in Children’s Musical Culture. IASPM Journal, 10(2), 3-19

Hamilton, L. C. (2016). Public Awareness of the Scientific Consensus on Climate. SAGE Open. 6(4), 215824401667629

Huber, R.A.; Fesenfeld, L. & Bernauer, T. (2020). Political populism, responsiveness, and public support for climate mitigation. Climate Policy, 20(3), 373-386,

Istead, L. and Shapiro, B. (2014). Recognizing the child as knowledgeable other: Intergenerational learning research to consider child-to-adult influence on parent and family eco-knowledge. Journal of Research in Childhood Education. 28(1), 115–127

Jain, V. (2014). 3D Model of Attitude. International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 3(3), 1–12

Kahan D. M., Jenkins-Smith H., Braman D. (2011). Cultural cognition of scientific consensus. Journal of Risk Research, 14, 147-174

Knight, K. W. (2016). Public awareness and perception of climate change: a quantitative cross-national study. Environmental Sociology. 2(1), 101–113

Koops, L. H. (2017). The Enjoyment Cycle: A Phenomenology of Musical Enjoyment of 4- to 7-Year-Olds During Musical Play. Journal of Research in Music Education. 65(3), 360–380

Kühne, R. W. (2019). Climate Change: The Science Behind Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future. OSF Preprints

Kwok, C., Grisham, J. R. and Norberg, M. M. (2018). Object attachment: Humanness increases sentimental and instrumental values. Journal of Behavioral Addictions. 7(4), 1132–1142

Law, J. (2022). Climactic benefits from dumpsite and landfill closures with improved integrated waste management plan. 5th Annual Waste Management Conference in memory of Danny Sternberg. The Centre for Environmental Education, Tel Aviv, Israel, 6 April 2022. Available at: https://www.iswa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/TLV-ANNUAL-CONFERENCE-CLIMETE-WASTE-2022_200322.pdf (Accessed: 8 October 2022)

Lawson, D.F.; Stevenson, K.T.; Peterson, M.N.; Carrier, S.J.; Strnad, R. and Seekamp, E. (2018). Intergenerational learning: Are children key in spurring climate action? Global Environmental Change, 53, 204-208,

Lepawsky, J. (2020). Towards a World of Fixers Examining barriers and enablers of widely deployed third-party repair for computing within limits. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on ICT for Sustainability. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 314–320

Madden, L.; Blatt, C.; Ammentorp, L.; Heddy, E.; Kneis, D. and Stanton, N. (2022). From Science in the Art Gallery to Art in the Science Classroom: Using Arts-Integrated Professional Development to Enhance Environmental Education. Journal of College Science Teaching, 51(6), 35-44

Maddox, P., Doran, C., Williams, I.D., Kus, M., (2011). The role of intergenerational influence in waste education programmes: The THAW project. Waste Management. 31(12), 2590–2600

Maher, C., Hadfield, M., Hutchings, M., de Eyto, A., (2018). Ensuring Rigor in Qualitative Data Analysis: A Design Research Approach to Coding Combining NVivo With Traditional Material Methods. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 17(1)

Meyer, C. B. (2001). A Case in Case Study Methodology. Field Methods 13(4), 329–352

Montagu, J. (2017). How Music and Instruments Began: A Brief Overview of the Origin and Entire Development of Music, from Its Earliest Stages. Frontiers in Sociology 2, 8

Moser, S. C. (2010). Communicating climate change: History, challenges, process and future directions. Climate Change, 1(1), 31–53

Nabi R. L. (2015). Emotional flow in persuasive health messages. Health Communication, 30, 114-124

Nabi, R. L., Gustafson, A., & Jensen, R. (2018). Framing Climate Change: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Generating Advocacy Behavior. Science Communication, 40(4), 442–468

Nisbet E. C., Cooper K. E., Ellithorpe M. (2015). Ignorance or bias? Evaluating the ideological and informational drivers of communication gaps about climate change. Public Understanding of Science, 24, 285-301

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Frels, R. K. and Hwang, E. (2016). Mapping Saldaňa’s Coding Methods onto the Literature Review Process. Journal of Educational Issues, 2(1), 130

Pal, S. (2020). Reflection: E-Waste Tsunami project. Available at: http://www.susannahpal.com/blog/2020/3/26/reflectionewaste

(Accessed: 8 July 2020)

Perron, M. and Roy-Charland, A. (2013). Analysis of eye movements in the judgment of enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. Frontiers in Psychology, 4(SEP), 659

Post, S. (2016). Communicating science in public controversies: Strategic considerations of the German climate scientists. Public Understanding of Science. 25(1), 61–70

Read, Adam D. (1999). “Making good use of the things that we find'- the Womble agenda for sustainable waste management in the UK." In Proc Int Conf Solid Waste Technol Manage, 1080-1087

Repair Cafe (2020). About - Repair Café (EN). Available at: https://repaircafe.org/en/about/ (last accessed: 3 September 2020)

Rosen, J. (2019). How teaching kids about climate change can influence their conservative parents. Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2019, available at: https://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-climate-change-kids-parents-20190506-story.html (last accessed 3 May 2021)

Ruddin, L. P. (2006). You can generalize stupid! Social scientists, Bent Flyvbjerg, and case study methodology. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(4), 797–812

Salama, S. and Aboukoura, K. (2018). Role of emotions in climate change communication. Climate Change Management, 137–150

Saldana, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. 5th edn. Edited by J. Seaman. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZhxiCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=structural+coding+saldana&ots=yI_f5BTTdY&sig=HfuCjdvdQObqvoBBn7qmfMHz-u0#v=onepage&q=structural coding saldana&f=false (Accessed: 4 August 2020)

Schroeder, J. E. (2006). Critical visual analysis. In Handbook Of Qualitative Research Methods In Marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing, 303–321

Shittu, O.S.; Williams, I.D. and Shaw, P.J. (2021a). Global E-waste management: Can WEEE make a difference? A review of e-waste trends, legislation, contemporary issues and future challenges. Waste Management, 120, 549-563

Shittu, O.S.; Williams, I.D. and Shaw, P.J. (2021b). Right to repair: Will the public choose to reuse e-products for longer? Circular, October 20 2021. English: https://www.circularonline.co.uk/features/right-to-repair-will-the-public-choose-to-reuse-e-products-for-longer/ (Accessed 7 January 2022)

Simmons, D. R. (2010). The association of colours with emotions: A systematic approach. Journal of Vision, 6(6), 251–251

Sommer, L. K. and Klöckner, C. A. (2019). Does Activist Art Have the Capacity to Raise Awareness in Audiences?-A Study on Climate Change Art at the ArtCOP21 Event in Paris. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 15(1) 60-75

Stamm, K. R., Clark, F. and Eblacas, P. R. (2000). Mass communication and public understanding of environmental problems: the case of global warming. Public Understanding of Science, 9, 219–237

Statista (2022). Smartphone usage in the United Kingdom 2011-2020. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/300398/smartphone-usage-in-the-united-kingdom/#:~:text=Published%20by%20Statista%20Research%20Department%2C%20Aug%2011%2C%202022,in%202020.%20Do%20you%20personally%20use%20a%20smartphone%3F%2A (Accessed 8 october 2022)

Stolberg, T. L. (2006). Communicating science through the language of dance: A journey of education and reflection. Leonardo, 39(5), 426–432

Timpano, K. R. and Shaw, A. M. (2013). Conferring humanness: The role of anthropomorphism in hoarding. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(3), 383–388

Van Zomeren, M., Pauls, I. L. and Cohen-Chen, S. (2019). Is hope good for motivating collective action in the context of climate change? Differentiating hope’s emotion- and problem-focused coping functions. Global Environmental Change. 58, 101915

Watts, J. (2019). The Greta Thunberg effect: at last, MPs focus on climate change. The Guardian, 23 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg (Accessed: 21 July 2020)

Weston, C. et al. (2001). Analyzing interview data: The development and evolution of a coding system. Qualitative Sociology, 24(3), 381–400

Williams, I.D. (2015). A Change of Emphasis: Waste to Resource Management, 207-252. In: Harrison, R.M. and Hestor, R.E. (Eds) (2015). Issues in Environmental Science and Technology No. 40. Still Only One Earth: Progress in the 40 Years Since the First UN Conference on the Environment. RSC Publishing, Cambridge. Print

Williams, S.; McLean, L. and Quinn, N. (2017). As the climate changes: intergenerational action-based learning in relation to flood education. J. Environ. Educ., 48(3), 154-171,

Yamakawa, H.; Williams, I.D.; Shaw, P.J. and Watanabe, K. (2017). Food waste prevention: Lessons from the Love Food Hate Waste campaign in the UK. Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium. S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, Oct 2 - 6, 2017. Paper No. 215. ISBN 9788862650113

Related Contents