Increasing Public Awareness: A Community Aciton Case Study
Rosemary Taylor
University of British Columbia
INTRODUCTION
Politicians at all levels of government are often perceived
by the electorate as autocratic, removed from the community that
elected them, and somewhat disinclined to listen to the wishes of
their constituents. Consequently grass-roots community action
groups and watchdog committees spring up to monitor government
actions and decisions, ensuring that those become known to the
community which will be most affected by them. It sometimes
happens that even local council decisions are made behind closed
doors and the electorate only discover by chance or careful
research into government documentation, where available. Word
sometimes spreads through the community on the 'grapevine',
which, although informal and unsubstantiated, is often correct in
the information it transmits (Zaremba, 1988).
At the first sign of trouble, groups of activists coalesce
around the problem, researching it, substantiating rumors,
activating the local community by increasing public awareness of
the problem, and urging them to cause the politicians to revoke
or modify their decision to comply with the expressed wishes of
the electorate. Not only does the community in general become
more knowledgeable about the problem, and are able to lobby for
change, but by using this knowledge they can apply pressure to
politicians to consult their constituents or face replacement at
the next election.
This study researched the educational strategies used by a
community action group to increase public awareness of the local
council's decisions, which were almost a fait accompli before
many people knew about them. Almost everyone in the community
would be affected if council carried out its proposals, which had
neither been reported in the press nor had been the subject of
any impact assessment. Findings from the study showed that a
majority of people in the community became very aware of both the
contentious issue which council was trying to approve, and the
fact that council was not being as democratic and open in its
governing as it could be, and as a result of community pressure,
council realized the unpopularity of their actions and overturned
their original decisions. Through community action, at the next
municipal election a completely new slate of councillors was
proposed and supported by political groups specially formed for
the purpose, so that the present incumbents were almost totally
replaced by new councillors.
THE PROBLEM
The small town of Tsawwassen, which is surrounded by some of
the best arable farmland in the province, lies on a peninsula 30
miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Adjacent to the
peninsula is the large tidal mudflat of Boundary Bay, edged by
marshlands which support huge flocks of migrant waterfowl during
the winter, and a substantial resident population of shorebirds,
hawks, herons and bald eagles.
In a previous era the provincial government had established
an Agricultural Land Reserve controlling the use and sale of
farmland in order to prevent some of the best arable land in the
country from being bought for speculative development, and the
use to which such land could be put was carefully defined. Land
could not be removed from the Reserve without good cause, or the
use changed to include non-farming activities. However, in the
late 1980s, residents of Tsawwassen learned that council was
dealing with both developers and the provincial government behind
closed doors in order to remove agricultural land from the
Reserve, and to approve development permits for high density
housing on that land. At the same time, the definition of
farmland was being changed to include golf courses as a
legitimate use, and applications had been received by council for
18 new golf courses in a very small area, which included both
farmland and the marshland upon which the bird population
depended heavily for six months of the year. No environmental
impact studies had been done, and there was no community
consultation concerning the possible effect of a high density
housing development in a confined area which already suffered
traffic congestion along the only access route to the nearest
major city.
When residents heard of these two problems they were not
just angry, they were furious. Immediately many small action
groups sprang up, each with their own special interest, and
members worked hard to inform the community of the impact that
these two proposals might have. One group consisted of concerned
homeowners, another formed to protect a large number of herons
nesting nearby, and yet other groups had more general concerns
about the wildlife in the area, or the integrity of the
environment as an ecosystem. Many people belonged to more than
one group, and thus a great deal of effort was being duplicated.
Eventually a coalition was formed called the Boundary Bay
Conservation Committee, which invited all the small groups to
participate in a joint effort to ensure that council did not
rubber-stamp the housing development on land which should never
be removed from the Land Reserve, and that the number of golf
course applications should be greatly reduced and restricted to
land which was neither agricultural nor essential wildlife
habitat. The marshland, on which golf course development was
proposed, is the only major area on the Pacific Flyway migration
route, stretching from Eastern Russia and Alaska to Tierra del
Fuego, which is still unprotected by law. Community feelings ran
high, and the aim of the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee was
to pressure council to revoke any ideas of rapid development on
farmland, and to protect the marshlands which were not only
important locally, but nationally and internationally also.
METHODOLOGY
Raising public awareness considers process rather than
outcome, and ask questions to determine how people become aware
of a problem, why they get involved, and considers what can be
learned from people telling their own stories rather than
answering questionnaires. Thus to find out what really happened,
rather than confirm hunches or preformed ideas suggested by the
literature, qualitative methods using semi-structured interviews
followed by constant comparative data analysis appeared to
provide the flexibility and depth of investigation required.
A case study was chosen as it provides manageable boundaries
within which research can take place while remaining focused and
controllable. The research topic aimed to discover how public
awareness is raised, where the educational strategies are planned
and intentional, but the learning may be unplanned and
unintentional. In this particular case study, there was a
particularly well-defined period of about 18 months when most of
the action occurred, thus providing a self-contained segment in
the life of the community action group which could be studied in
depth.
The Boundary Bay Conservation Committee was selected as the
community action group for study because it appeared that, as a
result of their educational efforts to increase awareness of
problems both in the community and in the way democracy was
working in their area, council was almost totally replaced at the
next civic election. As Tsawwassen is a fairly conservative town,
if that particular election had followed previous form, the
incumbent council members would probably have been returned for
another term of office. It was therefore assumed that their
replacement with a new slate of candidates was in large part due
to the awareness raising which had occurred. The main action took
place in the community between June, 1988 and November, 1989,
thus providing a complete historical segment which could be
reasonably investigated by a study of this size, the research for
which took place during the summer of 1992.
Seven members of community action groups were interviewed
with regard to the educational strategies which were planned and
carried outwith the aim of increasing awareness. Ten members of
the general public were then interviewed to discover which, if
any, of the strategies mentioned by the community action group
had the most impact on them, or whether their information came
from entirely different sources. As interviewing progressed it
appeared that the local media played a very large, if unplanned,
role in disseminating information throughout the community, and
therefore the editor of the local newspaper and the director of
the community television station were also interviewed. Members
of the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee were chosen by
snowball selection, where the first person gave a list of other
members, some of whom were then contacted and who, in their turn,
suggested others who might be able to provide further
information. Interviewing of this group continued until the point
of information saturation appeared to have been reached, where
little if any new data were forthcoming. All interviews were
taped, with permission, and transcribed immediately, so that
anything which needed further clarification could be determined
and included in the next question schedule.
Members of the general public were more difficult to locate.
Anyone attending a public meeting, or volunteering help in any
way, was asked to add their name and phone number to a list, so
they could be contacted whenever help was needed. However, these
people, as a group, formed some of the more active members of the
community, also becoming informed through self-directed learning
and personal research. The average citizen who is aware of the
problems but not specifically involved in any of the action, is
almost impossible to contact unless a big study is being
undertaken when random names can be taken from the telephone
book, or people stopped on the street and asked for their
thoughts. For the purposes of this research, therefore, members
of the public who had written letters to the editor of the local
newspaper concerning the contentious issues were contacted and
asked if they would participate in the research. Most interviews
took place in person, at a venue of the respondent's choice, and
lasted anywhere from 1-1 1/2 hours. Where meeting in person was
not possible, interviews were conducted by telephone, taking
15-30 minutes.
Originally, questions on the informal open-ended interview
schedule were based on the literature of persuasive
communications (Hovland, Janis & Kelley,1953) and social
marketing (Hastings & Hayward, 1991; Hastings & Scott,1988), and
as interviewing progressed the questions became modified, or
added to, in order to include points raised by previous
respondents. Three different interview schedules were created.
One, for members of the community action group, aimed at
discovering the educational strategies used, and how successful
these appeared from their point of view; a second schedule was
drawn up for members of the public, who were asked whether they
were aware of the strategies used by the Boundary Bay
Conservation Committee and if so, how much they learned from
these, or from which other sources they got their information;
and a third was made for the two media representatives, whose
role was neither that of educator nor learner, but disseminator
of information into the community.
Further data were collected from reports obtained by the
Boundary Bay Conservation Committee on the condition of farmland
in the area, the use of marsh and uplands by wildlife, and a
commercial market study which was prepared for council. Much
information was obtained from correspondence between community
action groups, local councillors and provincial and federal
ministers, newspaper and magazine articles, of which there were
many, together with flyers, brochures and other publicity
material used by the various action groups to draw attention to
their cause. Briefs and presentations submitted to council during
lengthy public hearings also substantiated much of the data
obtained through interview.
Once the point of data saturation had been reached, which is
recognized by constant repetition and substantiation of
information with little new emerging from documents or interviews
(Merriam, 1988), coding and categorization began. Although
categories are usually assumed to be discrete, with no
information falling into two or more categories, in this case it
was often difficult to decide into which category certain
segments of data should go. It was found that one category often
could cause or contribute to another, but finally six main
categories relating to educational strategies emerged, with a
further nine elements appearing essential for community action
group success when raising public awareness.
FINDINGS
The various community action groups, under the auspices of
the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee, were successful in
increasing public awareness by:
ù Saturating key areas with information;
ù Getting people involved;
ù Using multi-faceted educational strategies;
ù Maximizing or creating vested (personal)
interests;
ù Taking advantage of the unexpected;
ù Taking advantage of socio-cultural trends (the
time is right).
SATURATING KEY AREAS WITH INFORMATION
Flyers, pamphlets and brochures were delivered by volunteers
to every household in the area on several occasions, and when
sufficient funds were available, they were also mailed, since
information with a name and address on it is less likely to be
immediately disposed of as junk. Posters were placed all over
town in high traffic areas, and since many of the residents
commute to Vancouver daily and can only join the freeway at one
of two intersections, these junctions were often targeted for
placard-carrying during the morning and evening rush hours. As
traffic usually moves slowly at these points, there was plenty of
time for placards to be read and information absorbed. One of the
local newspapers also carried reports of council hearings,
covered media events created by the action groups, and held
on-going discussions through Letters to the Editor. Both issues
of high density housing and golf course development became the
main talking point in town, and it was almost impossible at that
time not to know what was going on. Almost everyone held an
opinion-there were few who were uncommitted by the time the civic
elections were held, eighteen months after the awareness-raising
campaign began.
GETTING PEOPLE INVOLVED
As members of the general public attended meetings, Open
House displays or other activities organized by the action
groups, they were invited to put their names on a list of
volunteers and were encouraged to give whatever help, time,
expertise or money they were able. Since many of those living in
the Tsawwassen area are retired professionals, there was a great
deal of expertise available, and many people with time to deliver
flyers, organize informal activities such as bird identification
workshops, mud walks-where families were encouraged to walk on
the mudflats at low tide and examine the ecosystem there, or
local hikes to familiarize people with their own area. Other
volunteers who were familiar with making formal presentations
submitted briefs to council at the public hearings which played
a very important part in the learning occurring at the time.
Getting people involved had two aims. The first, and most
obvious, was that of assembling as great a force as possible in
opposition to council's plans for housing and golf courses. Those
in any community who have not yet made up their minds as to their
personal position, or have not yet adopted a strong viewpoint,
are likely to perceive from the fact that the matter is a
constant topic of conversation, action and reaction, that
'everybody' in the community shares the most commonly voiced
viewpoint, and the undecided individual may then be persuaded to
join the majority opinion (Hovland, Janis & Kelley, 1953). The
second aim was that by involving people in many aspects of
community action for a common cause, personal possession of the
project is created, encouraging a vested interest in the outcome.
In this case study it was the need to preserve the ecosystem as a
whole which became the main vested interest shared by a majority
of residents.
USING MULTI-FACETED EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES
Recognizing that everybody learns in very different ways in
as important in community action as in any other learning
situation. Thus the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee tried to
appeal to the entire community through its varied educational
activities, ranging from the usual Town Hall meetings and Open
House displays to fun events such as dances, sponsored bike
rides, bird-a-thons, and festivals. Families were encouraged to
participate in on-site workshops to investigate the ecosystem
holistically, to walk the dykes and see for themselves the heavy
dependence on the marshes by hawks, herons, owls and wintering
wildfowl. Sometimes the community television station was
persuaded to attend these events and to air the resulting program
several times, which helped widen the coverage.
Fund raising activities were also held frequently, and these
events attracted not only the committed activists, but also those
in the community who just wanted to socialize and have fun, but
were not necessarily very involved in the action itself. On such
occasions much of the learning was incidental to the reason for
being there (Cann &Mannings, 1987; Rossing, 1991), where
information is often exchanged through casual conversation
(Durrance, 1980).
Because the contentious issues were the main topic of
conversation in the area for many months, much informal and
incidental learning occurred this way as not only friends and
neighbours, but complete strangers, would start up conversations
at the bus stop, in the supermarket, and anywhere that people
gathered. Much information filtered through the 'grapevine',
which, although an unofficial communication network upon which
fact and rumor often become mixed, usually had more than just an
element of truth in it (Zaremba, 1988).
The many educational and informal learning opportunities
created by the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee attracted all
segments of the population, involving seniors and children,
commuters and career professionals alike, so it was very
difficult to remain uninformed or without a definite opinion.
MAXIMIZING VESTED INTERESTS
Many people living in the area already cared deeply about
their environment. One resident who had recently moved to the
area discovered she had a heronry at the bottom of her garden,
and quickly became involved in the struggle to save not only the
trees in which the birds nested, but the foreshore, creeks and
uplands on which they depended for food. There were so many
aspects of change that would result from the impending
developments that people had many different personal reasons for
wanting to keep things the way they were. As one respondent
stated "If it affects your lifestyle, it isn't remote . vested
interests cause people to come alive." And with regard to the
educational strategies used by the Conservation Committee to
raise awareness, the Chairperson noted that "people are not keen
to save something unless they appreciate it." Once they
appreciate it and care about its future, the battle becomes a
personal one, backed by values and beliefs, and people with
strong convictions want to convince others to join them in
achieving the desired outcome.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE UNEXPECTED
Not all the learning opportunities were planned-and in this
case study there were two unplanned events which speeded the
diffusion of information throughout the community. The first was
that originally there was only one local newspaper, owned and
edited by a pro-developer, which did not report any
pro-environmental activities or advertise any community events
planned by the Conservation Committee. The second, and most
informative, was that the community television station televised
public hearings at city council every night for as long as they
happened, and both of these unintentional learning opportunities
served to raise the anger level in the community from simmering
to boiling.
People became angry very early in the action process because
their one and only local newspaper was not reporting anything
conveying an anti-development attitude, and the
pro-environmentalists felt the paper was biased, and did not give
both sides a chance to air their points of view. A second
newspaper was, coincidentally, already preparing to publish in
the area, and once this became established, providing a
sympathetic forum for more balanced discussion, anger on this
score subsided.
But frustration levels were also extremely high because
council was perceived as acting undemocratically, behind closed
doors, doing deals with both the provincial government and
developers about which local residents knew nothing. When they
did find out, they were furious that they had not been consulted
in any way, and that no environmental impact studies been done to
discern possible effects of both the housing proposal and the
removal of marshland for golf courses. A rezoning by-law had been
discussed by council, but it was late in the political process
before the community became aware that things were about to
change drastically. As part of the democratic process, a public
hearing has to be held, at which point members of the community
can register their opinions. The Boundary Bay Conservation
Committee worked feverishly, encouraging representatives from
their member groups, and individuals from the community, to
submit written briefs to council or make presentations in person,
stating their point of view. Because there were so many who
wished to do so, the speakers list was very lengthy, and the
hearings were held every evening for three months, often running
late into the night. The developers stacked the speakers list
with names of people who had no intention of appearing, and
council tried on several occasions to force early closure when no
speakers were available, because those who did not expect to be
called that night would not be in attendance. On several such
occasions the Conservation Committee's telephone tree swung
rapidly into action to get people into the council chamber in a
hurry, even at one o'clock in the morning in their pyjamas and
slippers, to take their place on the speaker's rostrum as others
before them deliberately failed to appear.
These hearings were televised live, every night, and many of
the community were so involved in the action it seemed that
almost everyone was indoors watching television, even though it
was summer. Streets and playing fields were deserted, the town
was empty-people were either attending the hearings in person or
watching at home, ready to race to chambers and present their
brief if they saw the number of speakers thinning out to a
dangerously low level. Because the hearing were so closely
followed, the main talking point in town next day was what had
happened in council last night, so the issue became all-consuming
through many levels of the community, from the most active core
group, to their supporters, and those who were not active but
held their own definite opinions.
These unexpected learning events certainly helped the
Boundary Bay Conservation Committee in their awareness-raising
efforts, and the Chairperson acknowledged that the hearings "gave
us a lot of good publicity because it was so rowdy and so noisy,
and everybody was so frustrated, because we saw that our
education effort (of council members) had totally failed . it was
the political things that helped our publicity, because we got
the tv coverage." Members of the community had learned that the
only way to gain political attention was to "yell and scream" and
to that end "there've been all sorts of theatrics performed-we
used every kind of advertising, attention-drawing tactic that we
could, short of guerrilla tactics!"
Council, however, maintained that, despite most
presentations opposing development, it was a noisy minority
making its presence felt, and there was a huge silent majority
'out there' that would support them. This really made the
community mad, and an unofficial citizens referendum was held to
see whether there was any support for council's actions. This
referendum was overseen by judges and lawyers, and held in
exactly the same way as a civic election. Voter turnout was
greater than at any municipal election to date, resulting in a
94% vote against council which, in the words of one citizen,
"showed that the silent majority was not all development-council
had misjudged that one!"
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SOCIO-CULTURAL TRENDS (The time is right)
For the past 3 decades there has been a growing trend
towards concern for the good of the environment as a whole taking
precedence over what is good for the individual in particular.
Attitude changes take a very long time to surface, and where they
have been tacitly accepted but not openly acknowledged, it takes
some trigger factor such as the issues of concern in Boundary Bay
to bring these ideals to the surface. In this instance, people
were ready to acknowledge that the long-term community benefits
of maintaining the present ecosystem was of greater importance
than the short-term gains to be made by developers. The action
group was able to take advantage of this rising trend and use it
as an educational tool, encouraging children to take an interest
in their future, and also encouraging them to persuade their
parents not only to adopt environmental attitudes, but to carry
these attitudes into their lifestyle. Seniors, too, are becoming
much more actively involved in matters of social justice (Boggs,
1992), and thus the general shift in attitude which has been
occurring for some time became manifest in all sections of the
community, which the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee were
able to use to advantage.
Members of the Conservation Committee were able to go about
creating learning opportunities in these ways because they
observed nine 'golden rules' which laid solid groundwork upon
which their educational efforts could be based. These were:
ù Encouraging critical thinking in the community
in general;
ù Encouraging individuals to actively
participate in the democratic process;
ù 'Reading' the deeper community feeling-that
the good of the commons was of greater overall
importance than the good of the individual;
ù Working to gain respectability, credibility
and authority;
ù Doing a great deal of homework on the issue
before facing an audience;
ù Maintaining congruity with the target
audience-they adjusted delivery of the message
as required;
ù Providing a consistent, authoritative and
reasonable viewpoint throughout;
ù Making good use of all available resources;
ù Constantly recruiting new members to their
core groups to share the work load and
alleviate the problem of burn-out.
SUMMARY
By researching the educational strategies of this community
action group through qualitative methods, a great deal of
important background material came to light through the richness
of descriptions given by respondents. The original question
schedule, based on persuasive communication and social marketing
literature, did not probe feelings and attitudes in depth, but as
interviews progressed it became evident that it was community
frustration and anger that led many people to become involved, to
do their own research into the matter, and make informed choices.
Planned informal learning opportunities enabled the community
generally to become very knowledgeable, and able to reflect
critically on the information and reports upon which council
based their decisions, and provided them with alternative ways of
looking at the situation. The unplanned learning events-the
public hearings in particular-were of enormous help to the
Conservation Committee in their bid to inform the community of
the issues, and show the extent to which informal and incidental
learning can play a very large and important part in ongoing
community action, where informing the public and increasing
awareness are essential elements in gaining support for the
cause.
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