Loredana Loy

Overview

My research centers on the way contentious issues interact with systems of power and politics to shape institutional and public mobilization and how these processes affect macro-social trends. To examine these questions, I draw on the substantive case of climate change, one of the most consequential environmental and political issues of our times.

Subfields

Political Sociology, Environmental Sociology, Institutional Mobilization, Social Movements, Animals and Society

Dissertation Committee

David Strang (chair), David Alexander Bateman (Government), Ben Cornwell

External Advisors

Rachel Wetts (Brown University), Robert Brulle (Brown University)

Dissertation

The Evolution of a Debate: Political Dynamics and Framing Logics in Governmental Agencies’ Climate Change Discourse

My dissertation focuses on institutional mobilization broadly defined. It examines the way political contexts and the politicization of climate change have prompted governmental agencies’ climate advocacy and shaped the way these agencies framed the climate issue, and whether these efforts alleviated or exacerbated the problem of stalled climate action. I use quantitative text analysis and statistical methodology on longitudinal data derived from a content analysis of congressional testimonies over the span of four decades, as well as qualitative analysis on the primary text of testimonies.

Other Research

Societal Transitions

In this stream of research, I focus on systemic changes and the concept of transition as a macro-societal process. Specifically, this research looks at major systemic changes proposed and considered in response to the climate crisis. It examines the interaction between economic systems and cultural meaning systems and draws on the case of the movement for the transition to a plant-based consumption system. Within this framework I am interested in three areas: 1) the corporate and public backlash against suggested climate policy measures that aim at such transitions, 2) the contribution of social movements to the emergence of new transitional industries, and 3) corporate mobilization and resistance to the process of transition via pro-corporate legislation aimed at obstructing transition processes.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

James Painter, J. Ettinger, D. C. Holmes, L. Loy, J. Pinto, L. M. Richardson, L. Thomas-Walters, K. Vowles, R. Wetts. “Climate Delay Discourses Persist in Global Mainstream Television Coverage: A Case Study of the Television Coverage of the IPCC’s 2021 Physical Science Report in Five Countries.” Forthcoming in Communications Earth & Environment.

Loy, Loredana. 2022. “Experts and the Politicization of Climate Change in Congress. A Case Study of the Environmental Protection Agency (1983–2015).” Science and Public Policy. Online first: doi: 10.1093/scipol/scac020.

Brulle, Robert J., G. Hall, Loredana Loy, and K. Schell-Smith. 2021. “Obstructing Action: Foundation Funding and US Climate Change Counter-Movement Organizations.” Climatic Change 166(1–2):17. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03117-w

Manuscripts Under Review

Loy, Loredana. “Channeling the Brand: The Tea Party Movement and Climate Change Policy” Under review at Environmental Policy and Governance.

Book Chapters

Loy, Loredana. Forthcoming. “About a Speech: The Media’s Reaction to a Celebrity Animal Advocacy Intervention.” In Activism on and off Screen. Edited by Claire Parkinson and Lara Herring. Sidney University Press.

Loy, Loredana. 2017. “Media Activism and Advocacy: What’s Film Got to Do with it?” In Critical Animal and Media Studies, edited by Nùria Almiron. London: Routledge.

Loy, Loredana. 2015. “Representations of Animal Advocacy in Film.” In Lives Beyond Us: Essays on the Film Reality of Animals, edited by Kristin Irving & Seb Manley. London: Sidekick Books.

Other Publications

Wrenn Corey, Loredana Loy, and B. Berry. 2020. “COVID–19, Animals, and Us: Human Supremacy as an Environmental Pathology.” ASA Footnotes 48(3).