IL CAMBIAMENTO CLIMATICO IN ITALIA: MAPPARE LE RESPONSABILITA' Indagine sui discorsi dei cittadini e della televisione intorno alla questione ambientale.

Scientific and technological causes and consequences of climate change (CC) are getting more important in the general debate agenda (Ford, 2008) especially after the crucial tipping point represented by the year 2007, when it has become a matter of concern and urgency for the public, as most of the surveys on this issue show (Eurobarometer, 2009, Carvahlo, 2008). Indeed, given that the challenge of global CC demands a large effort by the scientific community and policy makers to provide the public with the best information possible, it is important to establish and sustain a genuine sharing of understanding between science and society (Funtowitcz 1993, Carvalho 2008, Felt and Fochler, 2008). My focus in this process is well founded in the relationship between science and its non-expert publics in the Italian context, focusing on the topic of responsibility, as it is indeed a central issue in the communication of the theme and the constitution of policy making. Under the theoretical frame of the process sociology (Elias, 1970) and of the socio-semiotic paradigm (Greimas, 1979, Landowsky, 1989) as a heuristic method of investigation, my analysis is based on two main complementary parts: on the one side, a qualitative research phase with selected publics and, on the other, a media analysis of tv news. The research is built on the European project R.A.C.E.S. (Raising Awareness on Climate Change and Energy Saving, www.liferaces.eu), during which 15 focus groups in five different cities all along Italy were carried out (Trento, Modena, Firenze, Potenza and Bari) with three different publics: teachers, family representatives (householders) and stakeholders (administrators, NGO leaders, service suppliers). The main themes explored referred to the significance of climate change, the most important local issues on climate change, the sources of information and the communication issue. Out of the European project, two additional focus groups were carried out after the COP15 event (in February 2010) in order to focus on the theme of responsibility as central for the communication process. The second and complementary part of the research is the analysis of a sample of TV news during the COP15 conference. The sample comprises the whole monitoring of the prime time TV news of 6 Italian free channels (out of 7), 1 week before and 1 week after the Copenhagen conference (altogether a period of 4 weeks). I collected a total of 80 items, many of which are redundant in material, using the same film report. The research design, the analysis and the results answer to a double necessity: • that of carrying on empirical studies in order to describe the way how phenomena are represented, perceived and discussed by the publics and how they can produce effects on the local communities (Pellizzoni e Ylönen, 2008). It can become important on the strategic level, and potentially asks retro-action on the management of the environmental issue. • that of providing a better understanding of the Italian situation in its geographical and cultural complexity, in front of a growing uncertainty. My assumption is that the actual phenomenon of climate change is not the central issue when talking about the perception of it. As already stated by different scholars, talking about climate change is to pose the environmental issues as a central societal issue. The environmental crisis manifests itself inextricable entangled with the (bad) use of natural resources and current representations of individual and social wellness. This means to talk about the quality of life, the policymaking, or management of environments (cities, industries, countryside, vacations sites, etc.). Results show how different is the perception of the topic of responsibility along Italy, with a more consistent habit to pay attention to the environmental issues and to assume an individual responsibility towards them in the North in the South of the country. In terms of communicative findings, starting from the local issues and from the values carried when talking about responsibility and climate change appear as the most effective starting points to arise the interest and the awareness of the lay public. Indeed, the environmental issues represent a fertile field in observing citizens participating in the dialogue between techno-science and society. Given that environment potentially overcome social classes, cultures and habits and influences the everyday quality of life, it seems obvious that there should be more voices involved in decisional processes, de-monopolizing the expert competence and developing a technological, cosmopolitan citizenship.