“To Show Foresight”: A Variously Appropriated Social Norm
Type de matériel :
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Based on quantitative analyses and interviews, this paper aims to explain that the foresight norm, with which everyone is asked to comply as part of one’s transportation and energy consumption, and defines a new ideal for citizenship. Social groups are, however, on an unequal footing in relation to this normative outlook. Analyzing government communication about “road safety” and “climate change” and looking at official statistical reports, this paper first points out how the foresight principle appears to be universal and is gaining legitimacy in public debate. Our research then highlights the fact that most journalists extrapolate this idea of a foresight norm by stressing the consequences of a lack of foresight, when in fact the injunctions to temperance are not as neutral as moral entrepreneurs claim. Rather, they contribute to the perpetuation of social divisions, since showing foresight results from unevenly distributed aptitudes. A boundary thus separates those who can boast temperance and civic-mindedness without substantially modifying their lifestyles and those whose existence makes it unlikely, if not impossible, to behave with foresight.
Réseaux sociaux