Barriers to public engagement with climate change and the contribution of information sources: An investigation from a climate-vulnerable area of Vietnam.

Abstract

Context: Since anthropogenic climate change (CC) came into public discourse in 1980s, there has been a rich body of research into the impact of different sources of CC information and knowledge on public engagement. However, these studies have predominantly done in developed countries, where academic research into this topic have relatively saturated. In developing countries like Vietnam, where people are suffering from stronger daily impacts of CC, research on the relationship between CC communication and engagement, especially from the recipients’ perspectives, is sorely needed. Aims: This study has two primary aims. First, it investigates how Vietnamese people engage with CC socio-economically, politically and socially, in order to deeply understand both individual and structural barriers to such engagement. Second, it examines how Vietnamese receive and perceive the impacts of various sources of CC information – including government, the media, scientists, NGOs, business and lay people – on their engagement with CC issues. Theoretical framework: To achieve its aims, the research first relies on the theory of public CC engagement to examine how people think, feel and act toward CC issues at social and individual levels, from political, socio-economic and moral perspectives. It revolves around the multi-faced engagement, namely low-carbon consumption, low-carbon working, low-carbon citizenship and low-carbon championship. Secondly, to examine sources of CC information and their impacts on public engagement, the research looks to the concept of media structure (institutions and outputs) affecting habitual media use patterns of audiences. In this research, the institution refers to various sources of CC information while output entails the characteristics of their produced content. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interview method was employed. By using both generic purposive and snowball samplings, a total number of 47 participants in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, one of the world’s most CC-vulnerable regions, were interviewed. These were selected across different genders, ages, locations, education levels, types of farming activities, to ensure sample heterogeneity and to reach data saturation for the research. Thematic analysis and interpretation using deductive and inductive approaches were implemented. Findings: There is a substantial difference in socio-economic, political and moral engagement with CC between rural and urban participants. While both groups share some misunderstandings about CC causes, rural participants feel more severely affected and express greater concern about the future impacts of CC on their livelihoods. They also show more resilience and efforts in behavioural responses toward CC adaptation. Despite these efforts, various individual barriers (lack of resources, climate-unfriendly habits, indifference, responsibility denial) and structural barriers (limited policies, infrastructure, socio-economic fragility) impede an effective engagement. Among those, structural barriers are felt more by rural participants in their adaptation efforts. With regards to the perceived impacts of CC information on their engagement, five official sources of CC information – namely mainstream media, government, NGOs, businesses, and scientists – are found to have different levels of influences. Overall, these official information sources fail to facilitate a meaningful CC engagement from the public due to several limitations, such as shallow and short-live content, irrelevant and exaggerated presentation, benefit-driven communication practices and information with limited efficiency in time, space and functioning cost. In acknowledging these official information sources, differences and similarities between urban and rural participants are also identified. While urban participants show less serious engagement with the information, rural participants deliberate more on the information and use it selectively for CC adaptation not just for themselves but for future generations. Failing to obtain useful climate information and knowledge from formal sources, participants turn largely to informal sources of lay expertise (i.e. CC knowledge and information gained from family, friends and neighbours, and/or from self-experiences in working and direct climate contact) to support their CC adaptation. The exchange of lay expertise is stronger among rural participants. However, by solely using this type of information and knowledge in cultivation, most rural participants remain unable to effectively adapt their farming works to CC, due to the information’s low credibility and efficiency. Following this, the data shows that the integration of lay and scientific knowledge is found to be the most effective way to adapt to the changing climate. Conclusion: From the results, the research suggests more appropriate communication approaches to enhance public engagement with special attention to various social and cultural context, especially for urban residents in Vietnam, such as taking advantage of the influential role of government and direct communication of other sources in transmitting CC information to the public. It also calls for more research on each source to substantially improve the quality of CC communication to better engage the public in Vietnam. More importantly, the research demonstrates how lay knowledge might be integrated with scientific expertise for effective CC engagement in the particular climate context of Vietnam and beyond, highlighting the need for more research into this integration to help those living in the most CC-vulnerable areas in their adaption endeavours.