IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i10p5487-d554394.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

For the Sake of the Future: Can Democratic Deliberation Help Thinking and Caring about Future Generations?

Author

Listed:
  • Katariina Kulha

    (Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland)

  • Mikko Leino

    (Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland)

  • Maija Setälä

    (Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland)

  • Maija Jäske

    (Social Science Research Institute, Åbo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland)

  • Staffan Himmelroos

    (Department of Politics and Communication, Helsinki University, 00100 Helsinki, Finland)

Abstract

This article examines whether democratic deliberation can enhance participants’ capacity to consider future generations’ perspectives and willingness to make sacrifices to ensure their well-being. In addition to normal deliberation, we are interested in the effects of a mental time travel exercise where deliberators imagine themselves in the future (without ageing). The study is based on an experiment conducted as a part of Citizens’ Assembly that contributed to the long-term planning of the Satakunta region in Finland. Our findings suggest that deliberation as such increases participants’ willingness to consider future generations’ perspectives in long-term planning; yet the mental time travel exercise had only a modest impact on perspective-taking. The results also show some support for the assumption that deliberation can enhance willingness to make sacrifices for future generations, although we do not see such an impact in case of an intergenerational conflict in flood protection.

Suggested Citation

  • Katariina Kulha & Mikko Leino & Maija Setälä & Maija Jäske & Staffan Himmelroos, 2021. "For the Sake of the Future: Can Democratic Deliberation Help Thinking and Caring about Future Generations?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-13, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5487-:d:554394
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5487/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5487/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Small, Deborah A. & Loewenstein, George & Slovic, Paul, 2007. "Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victims," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 143-153, March.
    2. James Meadowcroft, 2009. "What about the politics? Sustainable development, transition management, and long term energy transitions," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 323-340, November.
    3. Luskin, Robert C. & Fishkin, James S. & Jowell, Roger, 2002. "Considered Opinions: Deliberative Polling in Britain," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 455-487, July.
    4. Tom Kuhlman & John Farrington, 2010. "What is Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(11), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Yoshinori Nakagawa & Koji Kotani & Mika Matsumoto & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2017. "Intergenerational retrospective viewpoints and individual prefe ences of policies for future: A deliberative experiment for forest management," Working Papers SDES-2017-24, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Nov 2017.
    6. Maija Setälä & Kimmo Grönlund & Kaisa Herne, 2010. "Citizen Deliberation on Nuclear Power: A Comparison of Two Decision‐Making Methods," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(4), pages 688-714, October.
    7. Maija Setälä & Kimmo Grönlund & Kaisa Herne, 2010. "Citizen Deliberation on Nuclear Power: A Comparison of Two Decision-Making Methods," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58, pages 688-714, October.
    8. Michinori Uwasu & Yusuke Kishita & Keishiro Hara & Yutaka Nomaguchi, 2020. "Citizen-Participatory Scenario Design Methodology with Future Design Approach: A Case Study of Visioning of a Low-Carbon Society in Suita City, Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, June.
    9. Robert C. Luskin & Ian O'Flynn & James S. Fishkin & David Russell, 2014. "Deliberating across Deep Divides," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 62(1), pages 116-135, March.
    10. Ezra M. Markowitz & Azim F. Shariff, 2012. "Climate change and moral judgement," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 243-247, April.
    11. Carolyn Hendriks, 2009. "Policy design without democracy? Making democratic sense of transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 341-368, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sebastien Rojon & Jean-Benoit Pilet, 2021. "Engaged, Indifferent, Skeptical or Critical? Disentangling Attitudes towards Local Deliberative Mini-Publics in Four Western European Democracies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Andrew G.H. Thompson & Oliver Escobar & Jennifer J. Roberts & Stephen Elstub & Niccole M. Pamphilis, 2021. "The Importance of Context and the Effect of Information and Deliberation on Opinion Change Regarding Environmental Issues in Citizens’ Juries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Stephen Elstub & Jayne Carrick & David M. Farrell & Patricia Mockler, 2021. "The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Anatol Itten & Niek Mouter, 2022. "When Digital Mass Participation Meets Citizen Deliberation: Combining Mini- and Maxi-Publics in Climate Policy-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pankaj Koirala & Raja Rajendra Timilsina & Koji Kotani, 2021. "Deliberative Forms of Democracy and Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Mikko Leino & Katariina Kulha & Maija Setälä & Juha Ylisalo, 2022. "Expert hearings in mini-publics: How does the field of expertise influence deliberation and its outcomes?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(3), pages 429-450, September.
    3. Kaat Smets & Pierangelo Isernia, 2014. "The role of deliberation in attitude change: An empirical assessment of three theoretical mechanisms," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(3), pages 389-409, September.
    4. Maczka, Krzysztof & Matczak, Piotr & Mielewczyk, Marcin & Przewoźna, Patrycja & Inglot, Adam & Wężyk, Piotr & Zięba-Kulawik, Karolina & Hawryło, Paweł, 2023. "Narratives on cutting down trees on private land. A comparison of urban and rural municipalities in Poland using the Q-deliberation method," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Giorgia Silvestri & Julia M. Wittmayer & Karlijn Schipper & Robinah Kulabako & Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng & Philip Nyenje & Hans Komakech & Roel Van Raak, 2018. "Transition Management for Improving the Sustainability of WASH Services in Informal Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa—An Exploration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Mary Lawhon, 2012. "Contesting power, trust and legitimacy in the South African e-waste transition," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(1), pages 69-86, March.
    7. Maria Luisa Lode & Geert te Boveldt & Cathy Macharis & Thierry Coosemans, 2021. "Application of Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis for Transition Management in Energy Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Jan-Peter Voß & Adrian Smith & John Grin, 2009. "Designing long-term policy: rethinking transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 275-302, November.
    9. John C. Besley & Sang‐Hwa Oh, 2014. "The Impact of Accident Attention, Ideology, and Environmentalism on American Attitudes Toward Nuclear Energy," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(5), pages 949-964, May.
    10. Isoaho, Karoliina & Karhunmaa, Kamilla, 2019. "A critical review of discursive approaches in energy transitions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 930-942.
    11. Menno Ottens & Jurian Edelenbos, 2018. "Political Leadership as Meta-Governance in Sustainability Transitions: A Case Study Analysis of Meta-Governance in the Case of the Dutch National Agreement on Climate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, December.
    12. Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2020. "Future Design: Bequeathing Sustainable Natural Environments and Sustainable Societies to Future Generations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-21, August.
    13. Lowes, Richard & Woodman, Bridget & Fitch-Roy, Oscar, 2019. "Policy change, power and the development of Great Britain's Renewable Heat Incentive," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 410-421.
    14. Phil Johnstone & Andy Stirling, 2015. "Comparing Nuclear Power Trajectories inGermany And the UK: From ‘Regimes’ to ‘Democracies’ in Sociotechnical Transitions and Discontinuities," SPRU Working Paper Series 2015-18, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    15. Dawn Nafus & Eve M. Schooler & Karly Ann Burch, 2021. "Carbon-Responsive Computing: Changing the Nexus between Energy and Computing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-26, October.
    16. Debbie Hopkins & Tim Schwanen, 2018. "Automated Mobility Transitions: Governing Processes in the UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-19, March.
    17. Goddard, George & Farrelly, Megan A., 2018. "Just transition management: Balancing just outcomes with just processes in Australian renewable energy transitions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 110-123.
    18. Tung Manh Ho & Hong Kong Nguyen-To & Thu-Trang Vuong & Quan-Hoang Vuong, 2017. "Social Network Sustainability Metrics: A Study of Co-authoring Behaviors in the Social Sciences, Using 2008-2017 Scopus Data for Vietnam," Working Papers CEB 17-027, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    19. Hölscher, Katharina & Wittmayer, Julia M. & Avelino, Flor & Giezen, Mendel, 2019. "Opening up the transition arena: An analysis of (dis)empowerment of civil society actors in transition management in cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 176-185.
    20. Lucius Caviola & Nadira Faulmüller & Jim. A. C. Everett & Julian Savulescu & Guy Kahane, 2014. "The evaluability bias in charitable giving: Saving administration costs or saving lives?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 9(4), pages 303-315, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5487-:d:554394. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.