Identity, Ideology and Political Will Formation:

A Case Study on Genetically Modified Foods in Ireland

Elaine Desmond

Department of Sociology, University College Cork

Elainedesmond5@hotmail.com

Introduction

Multi-level analysis:

– Micro-level of identity

– Meso-level of ideology

– Macro-level of political will formation

Key Points

• Strongly entrenched micro- and meso-level positions lead to a culturally determined framing of democracy

• In the Irish case, the issue of GM foods provides evidence of a democratic deficit, given the foods‟ existence in the food chain despite public resistance to them (for example, GM animal feed imports and GM ingredients). This is highlighted by actors‟ framing at the macro level of this study

• The study highlights the need for discursive deliberation on the concept of democracy itself

Counter-factual Core-Periphery Model and Circularity of Power

Core-Periphery Actors

Core: Fianna Fáil and Green Party actors

Periphery: Monsanto, Irish Doctors Environmental Association and GM-free Ireland actors

Method Discourse Analysis of in-depth interviews with these actors as per

Fairclough (1989; 1992; 2003) and Van Dijk (1997; 1998)

Frame Analysis: (Benford and Snow, 2000). „Schemata of interpretation‟ (Goffman, 1974)

Parallelism and Discourse Coalitions*:

Biotechnology Coalition* Fianna Fáil Monsanto

New Social Movement (NSM) Coalition Irish Doctors Environmental Association (IDEA) GM-free Ireland

Green Party Actor

*Adapted from a study by O‟Mahony and Skillington (1999)

Analysis Micro-level of Identity

Biotechnology Coalition Anthropocentrism:

„giv[es] exclusive or arbitrarily preferential consideration to human interests as opposed to the interests of other beings‟

(Hayward, 1997)

„Being from a science background, I firstly would have to be comfortable with the science before I would go and defend it on behalf of a company‟

„in general I think with most new technologies you can .. you .. you can work out a lot of the cons .. the likely consequences for that .. for that technolo .. from a scientific perspective‟

Monsanto Actor

Scientist/

Corporate

„And fish oil is getting scarcer by the day now so I‟m convinced that internationally soy can take some market share there‟

„farming, of course, is .. aah an economic .. is the economic driver of the Irish economy‟

Fianna Fáil Actor

Farmer/

Politician

Analysis Micro-level of Identity

NSM Coalition Ecocentrism:

„there are no discrete entities‟ (Eckersley, 1992)

all living things are „profoundly interrelated with their environment‟ (Eckersley, 1990)

„I‟m a leaf on a tree

and the whole tree

as well as the leaf‟

„I think democracy is

what it‟s all about‟

„it‟s like .. it‟s like somebody whose psychology is integrated, you know, who doesn‟t cut off their memories of childhood‟ [retaining a connection to non-human nature]

GM-free Ireland Actor

Full-time Activist

„I began to look around at the terribleness of health and saw that inequality was a big issue and our social environment is an important indicator of health‟

„we‟re part of a fragile web‟

„it‟s just transcendent (a wood filled with bluebells)‟

„the happy little gurgling

of that stream‟

IDEA Actor

Doctor/

GMO Advisory Committee of EPA

Analysis Micro-level of Identity

Green Party Actor Political Ecology

‘nature [is] primarily a political question‟Ethic of responsibility on basis of human needs (anthropocentric)Continues and reproduces Enlightenment tradition

(Eder, 1996)

„I mean, the .. even those who think that nature has .. has a value itself and should be cherished and should be protected aah mightn‟t necessarily see aah humankind as just a component in that‟

„we [the Green Party] have our own sense of style about what politics is to us‟

„I think at this stage we‟re very much at the responsibility side of the equation‟

Green Party Actor

Politician/Green political identity

Analysis Meso-level of Ideology

Local scale for food; Global for other items; Sustainability = opportunity for green innovation

Need for „good science‟ such as „green innovation‟;

GM foods a step too far given food a basic necessity

NSM Coalition risks plus loss of consumer confidence in food;

Need for long-term view

Green Party Actor

Bright Green Environmentalism

Local market; Need for self-sufficiency; Sustainability = need to protect the environment

Science not infallible;

„Playing with fire‟;

Counter-science gives serious cause for health concerns

Risks: Impossibility of ascertaining risks to health and environment; No traceability

NSM Coalition

Ecologism

Benefits vs Risks

Global vs Local

Science vs Counter-Science

Global market; Need to compete globally; Sustainability = need to maintain economic growth

Science as driver of global economy;

„Progress‟ discourse

Benefits: Promise of more food; Reduced costs for farmers –increased ability to compete globally

Environmental good

BiotechnologyCoalitionNeoliberalism

Key Frames

AnalysisMacro-Level of Political Will Formation

Framing of public sphere: The Core

„I think there would be a greater degree of public participation if the information they [the public] were seeking was available on the food they were buying‟

„The idea of engaging with the public, informing them, getting them to react is just what the essence of politics is‟

Green Party

actor

„I mean we‟re on the eve of change. I mean there‟s a trickle of stuff coming in and once we get the habit of something, we won‟t change it. It‟s an educational process‟

„it‟s basically an agricultural issue‟

„I know some time last year, we

did have a debate in the

Agricultural Committee and the

Grain Committee were there and

the Farming Committee‟

Fianna Fáil actor

AnalysisMacro-Level of Political Will Formation

Framing of public sphere: The Periphery

„what Ireland really needs in my view is to address the underlying causes of the eco-social malaise that enables us to go down .. so far down the route of GM‟

„there‟s no way to link our

personal decision-making

power or our opinions with the

political top-down form of

politics that we have‟

„I mean the Irish public is not ..

we don‟t live in a democracy here‟

GM-free Ireland Actor

„I would like to think that if people knew the facts, they would be 100% against it‟

„People .. people need .. people need to be respected and their opinions need to be respected and they have a right to know‟

IDEA Actor

„you need .. you need .. you need aam good PR, media communicator type people to take the science and make it digestable‟

„If .. if I wanted to .. to have that technology, I‟d no choice in it for political reasons‟

Monsanto Actor

Conclusion

Strongly embedded micro- and meso-positioning of key actors leading to democratic deficit at macro-level

Democracy as a cultural norm recursively related to micro- and meso-levels:

Micro- and meso-level positions of actors strongly influence how societal conflicts will be addressed at macro-level

The macro-level in turn determines how effectively collective moral learning can occur. This ultimately impacts the ability of micro- and meso-level positions to become structurally defined through legislation and normative change

Need for destructuring of concept of „democracy‟ through discursive deliberation in same way as is occurring for neoliberalism

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