framing nature framing Searching for (implicit) religious elements in the communication about nature Searching for (implicit) religious elements in the communication about nature framing nature Peter Jansen framing nature Searching for (implicit) religious elements in the communication about nature Peter Jansen framing nature Searching for (implicit) religious elements in the communication about nature THESIS COMMITTEE Peter Jansen Promotor Prof. Dr H. Jochemsen Special Professor Reformational Philosophy Wageningen University & Research Co-promotors Prof. Dr F.W.J. Keulartz Emeritus Professor Environmental Philosophy Radboud University Nijmegen THESIS Dr J. van der Stoep submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor Professor Journalism and Communication at Wageningen University Ede Christian University of Applied Sciences by the authority of the Rector Magnificus, Prof. Dr A.P.J. Mol, Other members in the presence of the Prof. Dr M.N.C. Aarts, Wageningen University & Research Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board Dr M.A.M. Drenthen, Radboud University Nijmegen to be defended in public Dr A.C.M. Roothaan, VU Amsterdam on Wednesday 14 June 2017 Prof. Dr M.G.C. Schouten, Wageningen University & Research at 4 p.m. in the Aula. This research was conducted under the auspices of the Wageningen School of Social Sciences 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 Introduction 11 1.2 Government communication and changing society 15 1.3 Nature experiences and religious subtexts 17 1.4 Casestudy Tiengemeten 19 1.5 Outline of the thesis 20 2 THEORIZING GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION WITH REGARD TO THE DUTCH NATURE POLICY 23 2.1 Introduction 25 2.2 Contextual turn 27 2.3 Closer examination of communication 33 2.4 Discussion 44 3 GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION AS A NORMATIVE PRACTICE 49 3.1 Introduction 51 3.2 Normative structure of practices 53 3.3 Structural analysis of government communication 57 3.4 Discussion 68 Peter Jansen framing nature 4 IN SEARCH OF RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS Searching for (implicit) religious elements in the communication about nature IN THE DUTCH NATURE POLICY 73 200 pages 4.1 Introduction 75 PhD thesis Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands (2017) 4.2 Socio-historical context of the Dutch nature policy 76 With references, with summaries in English and Dutch 4.3 Theorizing views of nature 85 4.4 Discussion 95 ISBN 978-94-6343-132-3 DOI 10.18174/409678 4 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 WISTFUL WILDERNESS: COMMUNICATION ABOUT ‘NEW’ NATURE IN THE NETHERLANDS 97 5.1 Introduction 99 5.2 Theoretical framework 103 5.3 Methodological approach 106 5.4 Results discourse of key actors 112 5.5 Results of visitors’ opinions 117 5.6 Discussion 120 6 NOTIONS OF THE SUBLIME: A CASE STUDY INTO LAYERS OF DEPTH IN EXPERIENCES OF NATURE 125 6.1 Introduction 127 6.2 Theoretical framework 129 6.3 Experiences 132 6.4 Surface frames 134 6.5 Deep frames 140 6.6 Discussion 144 7 GENERAL DISCUSSION 153 7.1 Introduction 155 7.2 Evaluative and methodological reflection 156 7.3 Normative character of communication 158 7.4 Religious subtexts in the communication 160 7.5 Paradox in nature experiences 163 7.6 Nature experiences and secular spirituality 166 7.7 Final Conclusion 169 REFERENCES 171 SUMMARY 185 SAMENVATTING (IN DUTCH) 190 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 197 CURRICULUM VITAE 199 6 7 5 WISTFUL WILDERNESS: COMMUnication ABOUT ‘NEW’ natURE IN THE N7ETHerlands 9 1 General Introduction 8 9 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION General Introduction `Tiengemeten (…) It falls outside our order. And that changes everything. The traditional residents of Tiengemeten were farmers, families who had lived there since time immemorial and who knew everything about timelessness and patience. Then the creators came alongside God, the engineers of meadows, marshes, flowers and birds, enforcers of order in its most extreme form, the tamers and divers of Circus Nature.’ ~ GEERT MAK ~1 1.1 INTRODUCTION For more than one thousand years, the Dutch have wrested land from the sea. The Dutch transformed their country from a swampy river delta into an ordered land with a significant agricultural image. ‘Cattle instead of sheep have been Dutch rural icons since van Ruysdael’s 17th century paintings,’ Lowenthal (2007) argues, ‘a dappled hide against a green landscape is more a logo of the Neth- erlands than the tulip’ (646). However, on 7 March 1993, The New York Times published an article with the intriguing title: ‘Dutch Do the Unthinkable: Sea Is Let In’. The journalist notes with some surprise that the Dutch intend to make holes in dikes and flood their fertile country (again). 1 Quote taken from the preface to the book Over het Vuile Gat This ‘flooding of the country’ is a result of a more (2007) by Ton van der Graaf. offensive approach by the Dutch government that 10 11 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION was launched as part of the Nature Policy Plan presented in 1990 (Zwannikken, In this PhD thesis, I will argue that the government is primarily juridically qual- 2001). The period up to 1990 was characterized by increasing attention for nature ified (cf. Zwart, 1994), and nature conservation NGOs are value-oriented and, conservation and the adoption of a so-called defensive policy. Attempts were therefore, rather morally qualified. However, in the collaboration between the made to retain what existed but, at the same time, it became clear that terrain was government and the NGOs, the government supports with its instruments (laws being consumed, and nature was losing out (Kockelkoren 2000). In other words, and regulations, including budget) the (moral) value orientation of the NGOs, a more offensive approach was deemed necessary as the number of plants and an- i.e., the realization of the values of the NGOs. At the same time, the NGOs execute imals was shrinking, biodiversity was decreasing, and the land devoted to nature the nature policy of the government. A good example of such a synergistic relation- in the Netherlands was dwindling (Hajer, 2003). An important consequence of ship involving an intermingling of governmental and nongovernmental actors is the this more offensive approach is the achievement of a National Nature Network, following quotation from page 5 of the vision document 2010 - 2022 of Tiengemeten: known as the Ecologische Hoofdstructuur before 2013 and generally abbreviated as EHS. Within this national nature network, the conservation, restoration, and Natuurmonumenten wants to develop the concept of nature island development of nationally and internationally important ecosystems are given Tiengemeten together with the provincial and local government and with shape. As a consequence, in recent decades, the Dutch government has purchased the several operators on the island: a guided natural freshwater tidal a substantial amount of land to give ‘back to nature’. In a sense, this is a second landscape, with distinctive culturalhistorical opportunities for nature and transformation, i.e., from agriculture into nature. Communication about this landscape experiences, where the visitor experiences space and quiet. second transformation is my topic of interest and is central to this PhD thesis. This Natuurmonumenten is dependent on support from governments, business study concentrates on government communication. However, it appears that NGOs companies and individuals to durable maintain nature island Tiengemeten. are intimately involved in the realization of the new nature policy and the commu- nication about it. This situation requires clarification. Similar to, for instance, the Dutch private broadcasting organisations with the money they receive from the government, nature conservation NGOs function as In the so called Natuurakkoord, established at the end of 2011, it was agreed that delegated executors of the Dutch policy. Otherwise stated, established Dutch na- the central government of the Netherlands is responsible for the framework (laws ture policy is de facto executed through nature conservation NGOs, leaving them and regulations) and ambitions of nature policy. Based on the Wet Natuurbescher­ a degree of freedom within the contours of government policy. As a consequence, ming, effective since the beginning of 2017, the central government is obliged to although the focus of this study is on communication that is actually produced by compose a national nature vision whereby the government broadly describes the an NGO (chapters 4 – 6), the synergistic relationship of this NGO and the gov- Dutch nature policy. However, the provincial governments are responsible for the ernment, at least in the example of Tiengemeten, implies that the communication completion, i.e., concretising and implementing the nature policy in the Neth- can actually be considered as (also) government communication on that iconic erlands. This is mostly accomplished in collaboration with nature conservation example of the new nature policy of the Dutch government. This, in my opinion, NGOs such as Natuurmonumenten, Staatsbosbeheer, and the various Provinciale justifies that we analyse that communication as government communication Landschappen.The involvement of nature conservation NGOs is, according to (chapters 2 and 3) and as governmental nature policy (chapter 4). Van der Zouwen (2006), a traditional characteristic of the Dutch nature policy. Hence, she speaks about the intermingling of governmental and nongovernmen- As mentioned above, the focus of this PhD thesis is on communication that is tal actors. With regards to the Veluwe, a well-known forest-rich nature reserve in actually produced by NGOs. In the communication of NGOs, a sharp distinction the Netherlands, she concluded that, although the national government brought is made between ‘real’ nature and landscapes that are influenced by man. Met- in budget and designated the area as an important core area with regards to aphorical words and images are used, e.g., ‘where you hear the silence, feel the the realization of the EHS, the national government has no dominant position emptiness’ or, as illustrated in the quotation below: because of the dependency of what she refers to as ‘diverse landowning actors’ (199).