IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/policy/v45y2012i4p315-343.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The discourses of incidents: cougars on Mt. Elden and in Sabino Canyon, Arizona

Author

Listed:
  • David Mattson
  • Susan Clark

Abstract

Incidents are relatively short periods of intensified discourse that arise from public responses to symbolically important actions by public officials, and an important part of the conflict that increasingly surrounds state wildlife management in the West. In an effort to better understand incidents as a facet of this conflict, we analyzed the discourses of two incidents in Arizona that were precipitated by the intended removal of cougars by managers in response to public safety concerns. We used newspaper content, 1999–2007, to elucidate seminal patterns of public discourses and discourse coalitions as well as differences in discursive focus between incident periods and background periods. Cougars were mentioned in newspaper articles 13–33 times more often during incidents compared with background periods. State wildlife agency commissioners and hunters were part of a discourse coalition that advocated killing cougars to solve problems, blamed cougars and those who promoted the animals’ intrinsic value and sought to retain power to define and solve cougar-related problems. Personnel from affected state and federal agencies expressed a similar discourse. Environmentalists, animal protection activists, and some elected officials were of a coalition that defined “the problem” primarily in terms of people’s behaviors, including behaviors associated with current institutional arrangements. This discourse advocated decentralizing power over cougar management. The discourses reflected different preferences for the allocations of power and use of lethal versus non-lethal methods, which aligned with apparent core beliefs and participants’ enfranchisement or disenfranchisement by current state-level management power arrangements. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. (outside the USA) 2012

Suggested Citation

  • David Mattson & Susan Clark, 2012. "The discourses of incidents: cougars on Mt. Elden and in Sabino Canyon, Arizona," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(4), pages 315-343, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:45:y:2012:i:4:p:315-343
    DOI: 10.1007/s11077-012-9158-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11077-012-9158-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11077-012-9158-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael J. Manfredo & Tara L. Teel & Kimberly L. Henry, 2009. "Linking Society and Environment: A Multilevel Model of Shifting Wildlife Value Orientations in the Western United States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(2), pages 407-427, June.
    2. Charles Davis, 2006. "Western Wildfires: A Policy Change Perspective," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 23(1), pages 115-127, January.
    3. Dave Howland & Mimi Becker & Lawrence Prelli, 2006. "Merging content analysis and the policy sciences: A system to discern policy-specific trends from news media reports," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 39(3), pages 205-231, September.
    4. Birkland, Thomas A., 1998. "Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 53-74, January.
    5. Mark McBeth & Elizabeth Shanahan & Paul Hathaway & Linda Tigert & Lynette Sampson, 2010. "Buffalo tales: interest group policy stories in Greater Yellowstone," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 43(4), pages 391-409, December.
    6. David Mattson & Nina Chambers, 2009. "Human-provided waters for desert wildlife: what is the problem?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(2), pages 113-135, May.
    7. Elizabeth Shanahan & Mark McBeth & Paul Hathaway & Ruth Arnell, 2008. "Conduit or contributor? The role of media in policy change theory," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 41(2), pages 115-138, June.
    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. Ryan CL Bullock & E. Carina H. Keskitalo & Terhi Vuojala-Magga & Emmeline Laszlo Ambjörnsson, 2016. "Forestry administrator framings of responses to socioeconomic disturbance: Examples from northern regions in Canada, Sweden, and Finland," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(5), pages 945-962, August.
    2. Cedar Morton & Murray Rutherford, 2023. "The Columbia River Treaty’s adaptive capacity for fish conservation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 43-75, March.
    3. J. Michael Angstadt, 2020. "Applying Stone in a Western Landscape: Ranchers, Conservationists, and Causal Stories in the “American Serengeti”," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(2), pages 244-259, March.
    4. Zachary Bischoff-Mattson & Amanda H. Lynch, 2016. "Adaptive governance in water reform discourses of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 49(3), pages 281-307, September.

    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. Hannes R. Stephan, 2020. "Shaping the Scope of Conflict in Scotland’s Fracking Debate: Conflict Management and the Narrative Policy Framework," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(1), pages 64-91, January.
    2. Ryane Straus, 2011. "Citizens’ use of policy symbols and frames," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 44(1), pages 13-34, March.
    3. Kate Crowley & Brian W. Head, 2017. "The enduring challenge of ‘wicked problems’: revisiting Rittel and Webber," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(4), pages 539-547, December.
    4. Deserai A Crow & John Berggren & Lydia A Lawhon & Elizabeth A Koebele & Adrianne Kroepsch & Juhi Huda, 2017. "Local media coverage of wildfire disasters: An analysis of problems and solutions in policy narratives," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(5), pages 849-871, August.
    5. Lauren Richie & J. Oppenheimer & Susan Clark, 2012. "Social process in grizzly bear management: lessons for collaborative governance and natural resource policy," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(3), pages 265-291, September.
    6. Tobin Im & Kris Hartley, 2019. "Aligning Needs and Capacities to Boost Government Competitiveness," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 119-137, March.
    7. Abigail Sullivan & Dave D. White & Kelli L. Larson & Amber Wutich, 2017. "Towards Water Sensitive Cities in the Colorado River Basin: A Comparative Historical Analysis to Inform Future Urban Water Sustainability Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-27, May.
    8. Henrik Haller & Anna-Sara Fagerholm & Peter Carlsson & Wilhelm Skoglund & Paul van den Brink & Itai Danielski & Kristina Brink & Murat Mirata & Oskar Englund, 2022. "Towards a Resilient and Resource-Efficient Local Food System Based on Industrial Symbiosis in Härnösand: A Swedish Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    9. Neomi Frisch-Aviram & Nissim Cohen & Itai Beeri, 2018. "Low-level bureaucrats, local government regimes and policy entrepreneurship," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(1), pages 39-57, March.
    10. Ann Hillier & Ryan P Kelly & Terrie Klinger, 2016. "Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-12, December.
    11. J. Michael Angstadt, 2020. "Applying Stone in a Western Landscape: Ranchers, Conservationists, and Causal Stories in the “American Serengeti”," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(2), pages 244-259, March.
    12. Brázová Věra - Karin, 2015. "Response of Central European Civil Security Systems to the Economic Crisis," Central European Journal of Public Policy, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 142-152, December.
    13. Franca Maino & Celestina Valeria De Tommaso, 2022. "Fostering Policy Change in Anti-Poverty Schemes in Italy: Still a Long Way to Go," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-22, July.
    14. Alison L. Bain & Julie A. Podmore, 2022. "THE SCALAR ARRHYTHMIA OF LGBTQ2S SOCIAL INCLUSION POLICIES: An Analysis of the Peripheral Municipalities of a ‘Progressive’ City‐region," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 784-806, September.
    15. Mayer, Maryse & Gendron, Yves, 2024. "The media representation of LuxLeaks: A window onto the normative dynamics of tax avoidance from a socio-legal perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Craig Jones & Luke Fowler, 2022. "Administration, rhetoric, and climate policy in the Obama presidency," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(4), pages 512-532, July.
    17. Vasileios J. Kontsiotis & Archimidis Triantafyllidis & Stylianos Telidis & Ioanna Eleftheriadou & Vasilios Liordos, 2021. "The Predictive Ability of Wildlife Value Orientations for Mammal Management Varies with Species Conservation Status and Provenance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-12, October.
    18. Jungrav-Gieorgica, Natalia, 2020. "Narrative Policy Framework - polityka publiczna jako walka opowieści," Studia z Polityki Publicznej / Public Policy Studies, Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 1-27, July.
    19. Alexander Georg Büssing & Maike Schleper & Susanne Menzel, 2018. "Do Pre-service Teachers Dance with Wolves? Subject-Specific Teacher Professional Development in A Recent Biodiversity Conservation Issue," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    20. Degeling, Chris & Kerridge, Ian, 2013. "Hendra in the news: Public policy meets public morality in times of zoonotic uncertainty," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 156-163.

    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:kap:policy:v:45:y:2012:i:4:p:315-343. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.