This master's thesis investigates the framing of climate change discourse in Dutch media and parliamentary debates and examines the potential influence of these frames on climate change policy...Show moreThis master's thesis investigates the framing of climate change discourse in Dutch media and parliamentary debates and examines the potential influence of these frames on climate change policy-making. Employing content analysis, three dominant frames were identified: the Systemic Change Frame, the Industry Responsibility Frame, and the Politics Frames. The study uncovers similarities and divergences between the media and political debates, highlighting how discourse can shape public perception and policy responses. Despite the Dutch-focused context, the research underscores the broader implications of discourse framing in climate change communication and policy-making. The thesis acknowledges its limitations, including the absence of direct policy impact measurement and calls for future research to explore these dimensions. This work contributes to understanding the complex interplay between media discourse, public perception, and political decision-making. It offers valuable insights for climate change stakeholders navigating policy responses in the face of this global issue.Show less
We notice the rise in activism, particularly towards social discrimination issues such as anti-racism, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights in Europe (insights YPulse, July 2020; Zuiderveen Borgesius...Show moreWe notice the rise in activism, particularly towards social discrimination issues such as anti-racism, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights in Europe (insights YPulse, July 2020; Zuiderveen Borgesius et al., 2018). However, governments tend to publicly underweight these issues and activism remain (The Guardian, November 2020; France24, June 2020). Alongside, we notice non-governmental organisations often use, create, and disseminate knowledge on social discrimination (Datta & Baertl, 2020). Particularly, they target public powers and urge them to institutionalise more policies, based on this knowledge (runnymedetrust.org; rota.org.uk; tnova.fr; jean-jaures.org). The lack of governmental response i.e. increase in public commitment, would predict a lack of interaction with this knowledge, as it has become increasingly visible and accessible with the rise of social movements. Accordingly, we aim to determine whether public powers and non-governmental organisations use different kinds of knowledges, and whether this can explain their differences in commitment. The literature predicts that organisational structures and/ or organisational ideologies can influence whether public powers and non-governmental organisations use the same knowledges (Stone, Daviter 2015). We aim to shed light on knowledge-use on social discrimination by interviewing five actors in the field of social discrimination in France. Notably, this inductive analysis is based on interviews from both governmental and non-governmental actors, to determine their respective knowledge-uses. This design considers the existing scientific claims while allowing us to uncover new influences with open-ended interview questions. This study finds that the French government and NGOs share the same ideology and can use the same knowledge. Instead, it is obstacles such as internal resistance, the political agenda, the NGOs’ coalition levels, the level of political action, and coordination issues that could explain the lack of public commitment.Show less
Evidence-based policymaking has gained in popularity and as a result science and politics interact more than ever. This interaction has been a topic of discussion, proposing that there is a...Show moreEvidence-based policymaking has gained in popularity and as a result science and politics interact more than ever. This interaction has been a topic of discussion, proposing that there is a philosophical conflict. This thesis attempts to find out if this apparent philosophical conflict occurs in the real world, something the scientific literature on this topic has not yet done. By conducting semi-structured interviews with practitioners on both sides of the interaction data has been collected to aid in answering the following research question; ‘‘Does, and if so how, a conflict of philosophies exist in the world of policy practice?’’ This thesis finds that there is a philosophical conflict in the world of policy practice between science and politics. Their philosophies are incompatible. This philosophical conflict however does not seem to affect the interaction between the two in their day-to-day work. In practice, they have pragmatically solved the conflict. Future research ought to interview a wider spectrum of politicians, for this thesis struggled to get responses from a wider range of political parties. There also ought to be more focus on the conceptualisation of concepts in the interviews. This will make interviewing less complicated.Show less
