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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Affective Landscapes Of Herbalism In New Mexico, Samantha Angelou Stroud
The Affective Landscapes Of Herbalism In New Mexico, Samantha Angelou Stroud
Geography ETDs
Herbalism, or practices which use plants for medicinal purposes, is tied to traditions in several cultures of the American Southwest, including Indigenous herbal medicine, Mexican-American curanderismo, and Western herbal traditions. Herbalism has been steadily gaining mainstream popularity since the late 1960s, alongside counterculture, holistic health, and back-to-nature movements, introducing many newcomers to the practice. This study asks: How does herbalism create and attach meaning to plants, cultures, and place in New Mexico? What are the affective landscapes produced by herbalism in New Mexico? And, to what extent do meaningful attachments manifest in ethics and actions of care? I argue that …
Between Two Rivers: Environmental Justice And The Politics Of Ecological Improvement In Puget Sound, Grant M. Gutierrez
Between Two Rivers: Environmental Justice And The Politics Of Ecological Improvement In Puget Sound, Grant M. Gutierrez
Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations
Environmental justice (EJ) has become a central framework for historically marginalized communities in the United States to identify unequal exposure to environmental harm. Yet, what once began as a radical social movement challenge to different forms of environmental racism has been taken-up by a wide swathe of civil society across diverse political, cultural, and ecological landscapes. In particular, river restoration efforts – and the many communities they implicate – are emerging as key sites of political-ecological interventions that are central to EJ. However, not all river restoration efforts employ EJ as a guiding framework. Through this dissertation, I ask: how …
Elephants In The Room: Covid-19 Pandemic Political Ecologies Of Tourism In Tanzania, Helen C. Richardson
Elephants In The Room: Covid-19 Pandemic Political Ecologies Of Tourism In Tanzania, Helen C. Richardson
Theses and Dissertations--Geography
The COVID-19 pandemic brought forth unprecedented and ever-changing crisis and disruption to societies and economies around the globe.[1] As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to interrupt travel worldwide, the tourism industry, and the countries who rely on it as a major source of income, are in crisis. These processes have reconfigured economic capital flows and foreign investment in the global south. This is particularly the case in Tanzania, as tourism was Tanzania’s highest foreign exchange earner and accounted for 17% of Tanzania’s gross domestic product in 2019.[2] This project draws upon a political ecology framework to examine the Tanzanian …
Nuanced Networks: How Social Relationships And Power Influence Participation In Private Lands Conservation Programs, Ellen Loechner
Nuanced Networks: How Social Relationships And Power Influence Participation In Private Lands Conservation Programs, Ellen Loechner
Geography ETDs
Because the majority of land in the Midwestern United States is privately owned, the responsibility for creating and maintaining space for wildlife conservation falls upon private landowners. Numerous state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) host private lands conservation programs that offer landowners financial and technical support to complete conservation projects on their property (Echols, Front, and Cummins 2019). While the individual motivations and priorities of a landowner may inform how they use and manage their property, a landowner’s ability to connect with the agricultural and conservation communities may determine if they have the opportunity to participate in these …
Women, Water, And Well-Being: Gendered Experiences Of Household Water Contamination In Parkersburg, West Virginia, Emily Brooke Tingler
Women, Water, And Well-Being: Gendered Experiences Of Household Water Contamination In Parkersburg, West Virginia, Emily Brooke Tingler
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
DuPont Washington Works chemical plant knowingly pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic C8 waste into local waterways, water tables, and landfills for over 40 years, contaminating the drinking water for more than 100,000 residents in and around Parkersburg, West Virginia. Drawing on feminist political ecology and the political ecology of water with literature on perceptions of risk in contaminated communities, environmental reproductive justice, modern water, and hydrosocial waterscapes, I examine, through a qualitative case study, the lived experiences of women who have an intimate understanding of C8 water contamination from the DuPont Washington Works chemical plant. Specifically, I …
Living Rivers, Cosmopolitan Activism, And Environmental Justice In The Bengal Delta, Daniel Adel
Living Rivers, Cosmopolitan Activism, And Environmental Justice In The Bengal Delta, Daniel Adel
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
This thesis explores the social movements and civil society activism to protect the rivers that flow through Bangladesh—the cradle and terminal delta floodplain of the transboundary Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna river systems—, as well as ways to build regional cooperation and watershed democracy in South Asia. The research drew on four overarching fields of study: environmental justice, southern environmentalism, ecological nationalism, and environmental governance. These four bodies of scholarship helped address the overarching question: how are civil society organizations analyzing and responding to the water diversions and degradation of Bangladesh’s transboundary rivers? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with civil society organizations …
Sacrifices For Development Or Thirst For Capital Accumulation? Case Study On The “El Diquís Hydroelectric Dam” In Costa Rica., Marco Mora
International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)
Costa Rica’s state-led model of energy generation based on large-scale investments in hydropower has given the country autonomy in generating its own energy as well as sovereignty over its natural resources. Successive governments have used nationalist and ecological discourses to support the continued expansion of hydropower as the path to economic development. In more recent decades however, a number of factors have been eroding the dominance of the state-led hydropower development model. Some of those elements are the national and international pressures to liberalize and privatize the energy sector, an increasing body of scientific evidence indicating that large-scale hydropower in …
Culture As Sustainability: The Case Study Of Govardhan Ecovillage And Vedic Culture In India, Danielle Lella Bartolone
Culture As Sustainability: The Case Study Of Govardhan Ecovillage And Vedic Culture In India, Danielle Lella Bartolone
Theses and Dissertations
This project investigates the relationship between sustainability and Vedic culture of India. The ethnographic research at Govardhan Ecovillage seeks to understand how sustainability is embedded in culture. I employ grounded theory for my research methodology which reveals three key themes explaining fundamental and interrelated dimensions of Vedic culture as sustainability.
We Refugees, Again, Aaron Linas
We Refugees, Again, Aaron Linas
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Dramatic shifts in climate have generated a new form of global displacement. These ‘climate migrants’ challenge the notion of state sovereignty by introducing a new paradigm for global responsibility. I seek to address this emerging demand of sovereignty by outlining the normative mechanisms of state institutions when encountering displaced persons. The extreme cases of disappearing island nations creates stateless population incompatible with standard liberal values of humanitarianism and border security. My claim is that current normative institutions and principles of assistance to migrating people are insufficient to manage the international crisis of climate change. To be able to aid migrants …
Degrowth Lessons From Cuba, Claire S. Bayler
Degrowth Lessons From Cuba, Claire S. Bayler
International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)
Cuba is the global leader in practicing agroecology, but agroecology is just one component of a larger climate-ready socio-economic system. Degrowth economics address the need to constrain our total global metabolism to within biophysical limits, while allowing opportunity and resources for "underdeveloped" countries to rebuild themselves under new terms. Degrowth recognizes the role of overdeveloped countries in surpassing the ecological limits of our planet at the cost of wellbeing for billions of dispossessed people within and between countries. Cuba's circumstances during and following the Special Period exemplify both sides of the degrowth scenario, as well as demonstrating policy and grassroots …
Politics Below The Surface: A Political Ecology Of Mineral Rights And Land Tenure Struggles In Appalachia And The Andes, Lindsay Shade
Politics Below The Surface: A Political Ecology Of Mineral Rights And Land Tenure Struggles In Appalachia And The Andes, Lindsay Shade
Theses and Dissertations--Geography
This dissertation examines how confusion and lack of access to information about subsurface property rights facilitates the rapid acquisition of mineral rights by mining interests, leaving those who live 'above the surface' to contend with complicated corporate and bureaucratic apparatuses. The research focuses on the first proposed state-run large scale mining project in Ecuador, believed to contain copper ores, and on the natural gas hydrofracking industry in three counties in north central West Virginia. Qualitative and visual methods, including mapping, are employed to determine (i.) how the geography of subsurface ownership patterns is changing, (ii.) links between changes in subsurface …
Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti
Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti
All Master's Theses
The primary objective of this research is to critically analyze changes in perceptions associated with hydraulic fracturing within Dimock, Pennsylvania. Residents of Dimock initially welcomed fracking in 2006 due to positive corporate rhetoric promoting economic benefits such as mineral rights acquisition, land-leasing, and local business development. However, economic benefits diminished as Dimock advanced through a boom period resulting in a current economic and ecological bust. Two months of data collection occurred in the summer of 2016 using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Political economy of nature and political ecology theoretical frameworks were used to analyze and conceptualize the …
"Nature Is Pushing One Way And People Are Pushing The Other": A Political Ecology Of Forest Transitions In Western Montgomery County, Pa, Megan Elizabeth Maccaroni
"Nature Is Pushing One Way And People Are Pushing The Other": A Political Ecology Of Forest Transitions In Western Montgomery County, Pa, Megan Elizabeth Maccaroni
Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers
Forests in Southeastern Pennsylvania have been shaped by a number of anthropocentric factors over the past century, with many areas experiencing a recent trend towards forest recovery. Studies on forest dynamics have shown that most developed regions exhibit a forest transition, which begins when land is cleared for natural resource extraction (e.g., agriculture, forestry) during an early development stage. Then as a population grows and food production needs are met, rural peoples begin to migrate to the city, and a feeling of scarcity of trees develops that may lead to changes in land management attitudes, and many formerly deforested areas …