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Listening and participation

Recommendations for a ‘listening’ approach to the environmental chapter of the forthcoming Trans

Pacific Partnership Agreement. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1V3WfrisiVR   

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Listening lens to Participation

(1) Firstly a listening lens to participation will be introduced ( this is not a new idea and has been explored by many writers see for example Susan Bickford 1996 and a range of writers in the references, this concept of listening while well theorized, continues to be reflected on, see for example there is a new work just published by Andrew Dobson 2014) (2) Then listening approach to participation is narrowed to explore the effects of listening – which is one of “mindful” and ‘ bearing witness’ see the work of (Susan Bickford as reviewed by Jerry Catt-Oliason, and also see Camilla Koskinen and Unni Å Lindström,) (3) These ideas are then transferred to a practical context. The TPP ( Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) is begin currently negotiated - it is recommended that this listening approach to participation in the environmental chapter of this forth coming treaty is undertaken. That those who are especially effected are listened to and that this creates a ‘mindful[ness]’ ( Bickford 1996 above) in the State. This paper explores a listening emphasis to participation in international trade context.

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The listening approach • Listening as a form of participation and

engagement is – not a new nor an original idea. o So for example for cross section of writers see Bickford, (1996)

Dobson,(2014); Graham Bodie, Kellie Cyr, Michelle Pence, Michael Rold and James Honeycutt, (2012) Camilla Koskinen and Unni Å Lindström, (2013) Pat Gehrke, (2009)

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• However as K Crawford (2009) notes

• “ we are still discovering what the thresholds of human listening might be, quantitatively and qualitatively. The studying of the listening subject is just beginning..” p 533

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The aspects of the listening approach

considered here • The idea of listening, many contributions but this

paper centre on a core question- that is often present in the listening literature- what is the effect of listening ?

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The effect of listening?

• The effect ? – creating a culture of ‘attentiveness’ to something ( J Crary below as cited by K Crawford)

• We see this observation throughout the listening literature, o Kate Crawford (p525) drawing on Jonathan Crary’s work makes

the following two observations. • ‘The ways in which we intently listen to, look at, or concentrate on

anything have a deeply historical character’ (Suspensions of Perception by Jonathan Crary 1999 page 1)

• K Crawford( p 532) drawing on Crary’s work we have “an ongoing crisis of attentiveness ” (Suspensions of Perception by Jonathan Crary 1999 page 13-15)

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The effect of listening • We see similar observations in Susan Bickford’s

work o -For example, Catt-Oliason notes reviewing the work of Susan Bickford

that ‘In recent years listening theorists have turned a good deal of attention to listening in the political public sphere’. Catt-Oliason again drawing on Bickford notes that” listening develops two significant qualities: consideration towards the other and a quality of “mindful[ness]”. See Catt Oliason p 49 drawing on Bickford p 41.

o We see again similar observations in As Bickford notes (drawing on the work of Weil), ‘attention requires a profound stilling of the self.’ Bickford page 145

o “ To be genuinely open to another “all that I call I” has to be passive’.” see Bickford, (1996)at page 145 quoting Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (Octagon Books,1979) 171.

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The effect

o Koskinen and Lindström offer the following analysis of the meaning of listening:• “Listening involves opening up to you, allowing your speech to

enter and flow through me. Listen has its base in the Latin adire [obedience, obey], which means that there is a connection between listening and obedience whether it focuses on the other, on responsibility. Listening, as opposed to hearing, does not involve placing the other in conformity with ourselves, but instead entails a creation of a space to receive that which is difficult, different and radically strange, to allow the alterity of the other resonate. Looking and listening make space of the unthinkable, the unimaginable Other. Listening means to bear witness…..” p147( emphasis added)

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The effect Creation of community, • Beard (2009) “What choices can we make, as

listeners, that will help us better engage a listening practice that makes us more ethical beings?” p19

• Beard (2009) argues that “I do not, as an ethical being, listen only to you; I listen with you, as well. Some acts of listening create community. The choices we make in selecting what we listen to can create a community.” p 19

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Practical manifestation of this

approach. • The practical manifestation of this in

international trade law. • The method is

o consider the Previous ( non-listening practice) AUSFTA, ( Australia United States Free Trade Agreement)

o then drawing on this precedent to suggest a ( ‘listening approach’) in the context of the currently negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (which has Japan and Australia as negotiating parties)

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Environmental Chapter of AUSFTA

• Listening and the environment has been considered by B Hoffield who as argued in terms of listening and the environment. o “ Perhaps in this time of crisis there is an opportunity to develop a

listening perspective that has a newfound curiosity about both the individual’s inner life and the interweaving of the individual-in- relation with the more-than -human -community, a listening for an ecological self.” ( p 55 drawing on the work of Naess(1987) who refers to the ‘ecological self’)

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Non- listening Environmental chapter of

AUSFTA AUSFTA Australia United States Free Trade Agreement Chapter 19 of this trade agreement required creating an opportunity to the public,

o “ to provide views, recommendations, or advice on matters related to the implementation” of the environmental chapter( 19.5)

and also under 19.6

o “Each Party shall take into account, as appropriate, public comments and recommendations it receives regarding these ongoing cooperative environmental activities undertaken by the Parties. And

“The Parties shall, as appropriate, share information with each other and the public regarding their experiences in assessing and taking into account the positive and negative environmental effects of trade agreements and policies.”

In short the above was an opportunity, for listening, for reflection and for a depth of narrative about the environment and trade.

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Non- listening Environmental

chapter of AUSFTA Yet the practice under this treaty has not resulted in such a vision being realised.

Yet there has been no publically available and ongoing consultation under this article. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade state that o “ Prior to entry into force of the Agreement, Australia conducted a review of the environmental

effects of the AUSFTA, as part of a broader study commissioned by the Australian Government on the impacts of the FTA. This review by the Centre for International Economics was finalised in April 2004 and is publicly available at: http://www.thecie.com.au/content/publications/CIE-economic_analysis_ausfta.pdf This report

o concluded that the underlying causes of environmental degradation are not linked to trade”.Email response from DFAT ( Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) to Rebecca LaForgia, 1 December 2010

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Lack of listening • Chapter 19 could have revealed as B Hoffield has

argued in terms of listening and the environment.

“the interweaving of the individual-in - relation with the more-than- human community, a listening for an ecological self.” (p55 Hoffield) drawing on (Naess(1987) emphasis added.

o Yet there was no such “ interweaving” o despite the promise of such “ interweaving’ explicitly mentioned in Chapter

19 of the agreement in which it stated that there would be a regard for “ ….their experiences in assessing and taking into account the positive and negative environmental effects of trade agreements and policies.”

o There was no collection of narratives, no sense of attention, or reflection on the balance between trade and the environment.

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TPP • The currently being negotiated Trans Pacific

Partnership (Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam) see for more details http://www.dfat.gov.au/fta/tpp/o Practical suggestions. To request a treaty obligation that is contained

within the TPP – requiring States in the environment chapter of the TPP to • “invite, record and listen to testimony on and around the effects of

trade on the environment.” (Next meeting of negotiators will be July 2014)

o Such a treaty provision would be in the form of a traditional legal undertaking, but it is driven by commitment to participation but is also acknowledging the need for “stillness”( Bickford1999) a culture of ‘bearing witness’ (Camilla Koskinen and Unni Å Lindström) through listening. And the ‘creation of community’ Beard (1999)

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Opportunity to learn and re-organise for

TPP This approach resonates with a culture that Orford (2006) expresses, drawing on the work of Derrida one in which trade

“… exchanges involves this touching, this desire to encounter the other.” p 196

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References Crawford, K. (2009). "Following you: Disciplines of listening in social media." Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 23(4): 525-535. As referred by Crawford ( above) Crary, J. (2001). Suspensions of perception: attention, spectacle, and modern culture, MIT Press.Orford, A. (2006). International law and its others, Cambridge University Press. Anne Orford ‘Trade Human Rights and the Economy of Sacrifice’ page 196: Susan Bickford, Listening, Conflict, and Citizenship, The Dissonance of Democracy (Cornell University Press, 1996); Andrew Dobson, Listening for Democracy: Recognition, Representation, Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2014); Graham Bodie, Kellie Cyr, Michelle Pence, Michael Rold and James Honeycutt, ‘Listening Competence in Initial Interactions I: Distinguishing Between What Listening Is and What Listeners Do’ (2012) 26, International Journal of Listening 1–28; Camilla Koskinen and Unni Å Lindström, ‘Listening to the Otherness of the Other: Envisioning Listening based on a Hermeneutical Reading of Lévinas’ (2013) 27(3) International Journal of Listening, 146–156; Pat Gehrke, ‘Introduction to Listening, Ethics, and Dialogue: Between the Ear and the Eye: A Synaesthetic Introduction to Listening Ethics’ (2009) 23(1) International Journal of Listening 1–6. Jerry Catt-Oliason, ‘Essay: On The Dissonance of Democracy: Listening, Conflict, and Citizenship’ (2005) 19 International Journal of Listening 48, 48. (reviewing the work of Susan Bickford The Dissonance of Democracy: Listening, Conflict, and Citizenship Cornell University Press 1996) Holifield, B. (2013). "Listening for an Ecological Self." Jung Journal 7(1): 48-61 Beard, D. (2009). "A broader understanding of the ethics of listening: Philosophy, cultural studies, media studies and the ethical listening subject." The Intl. Journal of Listening 23(1): 7-20.