Culture and social norms: Behavioral decisions about grassland conservation among ethnically Tibetan pastoralists

ABSTRACT

Conceptions of what is typical (descriptive norms) and socially appropriate (injunctive norms) are constrained by culture. Based on interviews with Tibetan pastoralists in Western China, we examine social norms and behaviors associated with managing domesticated animals. We describe the ways that behavioral decisions are influenced by interpersonal communication and observation of norms, along with ecological, market, and policy forces. Explicit communication about norms occurs primarily under problematic conditions, in times of change or policy introduction. Findings reinforce the relevance of understanding the culturally bound dimensions of social norms and the need to ground theory and research on social influence in intercultural communication concepts.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation decisions
• explicit and implicit verbal communication
• injunctive and descriptive social norms
• Tibetan populations

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Ariane Leclerq, Ed Glazer, and the team of interviewers and coders for their assistance with this project. An earlier version of this paper was presented in the Environmental Communication division at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Prague, Czech Republic 24–28, May, 2018.

Notes

1 Recognizing the controversial nature of these issues within and outside China, the authors suggest the references cited and suggest additional social scientific research on these topics and issues. A full accounting of these issues is beyond the scope of this paper but provided for cultural context.

2 This paper reports on new research questions and analyses of data which have been reported in Lapinski et al., 2018.

3 Males were identified in field visits by NGO staff and local leaders as the primary decision-makers about the study topics. Because of the complexity of the project, the team made the decision to focus this study on males in order to avoid adding more complexity to the data. Field observations indicate women play a role in the actual herding of animals and were identified during the interview process as influential family members. Additional research is necessary to uncover gender issues related to our study topic.

4 All the discrepancies between the two coders in the first two coding sessions were discussed and resolved between them, resulting in 100% agreement.

5 A document outlining government policy on land use issues; the “Red Land Book” here likely refers to the “Grassland Ownership Certificate” (caoyuan suoyouquan zheng or 草原所有权证) issued by the state government. This certificate clearly states the size and borders of one’s grassland. The reduction of herd sizes and PES are determined based on the land size stated on this certificate. Ownership rights are at the village and households only have temporary use rights for 30–50 years.

6 It appeared to be a norm for not stating explicitly the number of animals people own based on the experience of our team in prior field studies. We framed our questions about this issue in several different ways to determine whether people would make these explicit statements.

Additional information

Funding

This project would not have been possible without a grant from the Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project at Michigan State University # 2011001. Partial support was provided by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project numbers MICL02244, MICL02173, and MICL02362, and by National Science Foundation Award #1328503.

Notes on contributors

Maria Knight Lapinski

Maria Knight Lapinski is the Director of the Health and Risk Communication Center and a professor in the Department of Communication and Michigan AgBio Research at Michigan State University (MSU).

Rain Wuyu Liu

Rain Wuyu Liu is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona.

John M. Kerr

John M. Kerr is a professor in the Department of Community Sustainability and Michigan AgBio Research at MSU.

Jinhua Zhao

Jinhua Zhao is a professor in the Departments of Economics and Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Michigan AgBio Research, and is the director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program at MSU.

Tsering Bum

Tsering Bum is a doctoral student at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and was Research Director for Shanshui Conservation Center in China at the time of this study.

Zhi Lu

Zhi Lu is a researcher and deputy director of the Center for Nature and Society in the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, Beijing, China.