Is social acceptability a doxa? Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Gendron, Corinne
Is social acceptability a doxa? Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. - 2024.
5
Social acceptability remains a controversial term because it has long been used by developers to refer to communication strategies aimed at avoiding or reducing controversy around certain projects. However, like other expressions before it, the meaning given to it by social actors has evolved over the years to the point where the term can be seen as a site of genuine social work concerning the conditions of legitimacy of projects. At the same time, researchers have looked into the factors that explain public attitudes towards projects or public decisions, paving the way for a real theorization of social acceptability within the framework of a more participative democracy. The invocation of social acceptability during the pandemic can be analyzed as discourse, but it should never be confused with the analysis that a researcher might make through the lens of the concept of social acceptability. In Quebec, although the term was rarely used by public authorities, the anticipation of public adherence to health measures was a determining factor in the restrictions imposed, which is easily explained: without social acceptability, these measures would not have been respected and would thus have become ineffective.
Is social acceptability a doxa? Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. - 2024.
5
Social acceptability remains a controversial term because it has long been used by developers to refer to communication strategies aimed at avoiding or reducing controversy around certain projects. However, like other expressions before it, the meaning given to it by social actors has evolved over the years to the point where the term can be seen as a site of genuine social work concerning the conditions of legitimacy of projects. At the same time, researchers have looked into the factors that explain public attitudes towards projects or public decisions, paving the way for a real theorization of social acceptability within the framework of a more participative democracy. The invocation of social acceptability during the pandemic can be analyzed as discourse, but it should never be confused with the analysis that a researcher might make through the lens of the concept of social acceptability. In Quebec, although the term was rarely used by public authorities, the anticipation of public adherence to health measures was a determining factor in the restrictions imposed, which is easily explained: without social acceptability, these measures would not have been respected and would thus have become ineffective.
Réseaux sociaux