Drawing on the Words of Others at Public Hearings: Zoning, Wal-Mart, and the Threat to the Aquifer  

Oleh:

Buttny, Richard ; Cohen, Jodi R.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language in Society (ada di PROQUEST) vol. 36 no. 5 (Nov. 2007), page 735-756.
Fulltext: 20108067.pdf (1.93MB)

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This study examines citizen participation at two public hearings before a town board in up-state New York. The hearings were called to solicit public input on a proposed zoning change. This zoning proposal would allow for the construction of a Wal-Mart Super Center on an environmentally sensitive site. While Wal-Mart has become a lightening rod for many issues, what is unique to this case is that the Super Wal-Mart would be built over the town?s source of drinking water. Storm-water runoff from large parking lots such as those found with big box stores is one of the major sources of water contamination in the USA. So the proposed Wal-Mart location and the corresponding threat to the aquifer are the main issues which galvanized many local residents to speak out at these public hearings. Many of the participants spoke about the risk involved in going forward with the proposal. Given that the risk here can be seen as a technical matter, we examine how ordinary citizens talk about risk. Some participants draw on the words of others during their presentation. Our focus is on the various communication practices in using another?s words in talking risk: in the use of quotes from written documents and in reporting another?s speech. These practices make the presentations more interactive and dialogical by introducing multiple voices in one?s presentation. These multiple voices in the form of quotes allows the speaker to affirm or challenge these in the course of their presentation to the board.

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