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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Selected Works

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Krista M. Harper

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Articles 1 - 21 of 21

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Participatory Design Ethnography In The Learning Commons: Initial Research Findings, Krista Harper May 2014

Participatory Design Ethnography In The Learning Commons: Initial Research Findings, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Presentation on initial findings from research at the UMass Amherst Learning Commons using participatory design ethnography and Photovoice. In this Spring 2014 project, I guided students through a semester-length research study of students' perspectives on and practices in the library.


Youth Participation In Changing Food Systems: Toward Food Justice Youth Development, Krista Harper, Catherine Sands, Diego Angarita, Molly Totman Mar 2014

Youth Participation In Changing Food Systems: Toward Food Justice Youth Development, Krista Harper, Catherine Sands, Diego Angarita, Molly Totman

Krista M. Harper

We present results from a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project in which young people from Holyoke studied the school food system in order to make positive interventions in their school district. We used the Photovoice research method, placing cameras in the hands of youth so that they themselves could document and discuss their concerns and perspectives (Wang, et al., 1996). The research was designed to gain insight about the students’ knowledge of food, nutrition, and community food systems. The research also illuminated students’ impressions of public policy, active citizenship, and community building that have arisen out of food justice …


Participatory Visual & Digital Methods, Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper Apr 2013

Participatory Visual & Digital Methods, Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Table of contents and introduction of Participatory Visual and Digital Methods by Aline Gubrium and Krista Harper. Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book editions from Left Coast Press .


Photovoice/Fotovoz: Como Começar, Krista Harper, Ana Isabel Afonso Feb 2013

Photovoice/Fotovoz: Como Começar, Krista Harper, Ana Isabel Afonso

Krista M. Harper

Como começar uma pesquisa participativa utilizando o metódo Fotovoz (Photovoice).


Participatory Visual & Digital Methods: Democratizing And Decolonizing Research, Krista Harper Feb 2013

Participatory Visual & Digital Methods: Democratizing And Decolonizing Research, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Presentation based on my book with Aline Gubrium, Participatory Visual and Digital Methodologies (Left Coast Press, March 2013).


Visual Interventions And The “Crises In Representation” In Environmental Anthropology: Researching Environmental Justice In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper Jan 2012

Visual Interventions And The “Crises In Representation” In Environmental Anthropology: Researching Environmental Justice In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Participatory visual research, or "visual interventions" (Pink 2007) allow environmental anthropologists to respond to three different “crises of representation”: 1) the critique of ethnographic representation presented by postmodern, postcolonial, and feminist anthropologists, 2) the constructivist critique of nature and the environment, and 3) the “environmental justice” critique demanding representation for the environmental concerns of communities of color. Participatory visual research integrates community members in the process of staking out a research agenda, conducting fieldwork and interpreting data, and communicating and applying research findings. Our project used the Photovoice methodology to generate knowledge and documentation related to environment injustices faced by …


Across The Bridge: Using Photovoice To Investigate Environment And Health In A Hungarian Romani (Gypsy) Community, Krista Harper Aug 2010

Across The Bridge: Using Photovoice To Investigate Environment And Health In A Hungarian Romani (Gypsy) Community, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

No abstract provided.


New Directions In Participatory Visual Ethnography: Possibilities For Public Anthropology, Krista Harper Dec 2009

New Directions In Participatory Visual Ethnography: Possibilities For Public Anthropology, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

New visual technologies are changing the ways that anthropologists do research and opening up new possibilities for participatory approaches appealing to diverse audiences. Participatory digital methodologies include digital storytelling, PhotoVoice, and participatory geographic information systems (GIS), as well as community-based filmmaking, and participatory digital archival research. Over twenty years ago, feminist and postmodern anthropologists led a discipline-wide discussion of the ways that we produce and represent culture through ethnographic fieldwork and writing. Few of these critics, however, challenged the notion of the written text as the central medium of anthropological knowledge. More recently, public anthropology has reinvigorated discussion of the …


Lives, Images, Audiences, Intentions: Participatory Visual Anthropology In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper Nov 2009

Lives, Images, Audiences, Intentions: Participatory Visual Anthropology In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Participatory visual methodologies open up new possibilities for community collaboration in the research process, appeal to diverse audiences, and produce rich visual and narrative data guided by participant interests and priorities. Presenting a recent research collaboration with a grassroots Romani (Gypsy) community organization in northern Hungary, I discuss ethical and epistemological questions raised in participatory visual research. In this project, our team used the PhotoVoice method to generate knowledge and documentation related to environment, health, and the lived experiences of social exclusion. I explore power relationships in the research process as well as historical and contemporary issues of documentary photography …


Environmental Justice And Roma Communities In Central And Eastern Europe, Krista Harper, Tamara Steger, Richard Filcak Jul 2009

Environmental Justice And Roma Communities In Central And Eastern Europe, Krista Harper, Tamara Steger, Richard Filcak

Krista M. Harper

Environmental injustice and the social exclusion of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has roots in historical patterns of ethnic exclusion and widening socioeconomic inequalities following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to multi-party parliamentary governments in 1989. In this article, we discuss some of the methodological considerations in environmental justice research, engage theoretical perspectives on environmental inequalities and social exclusion, discuss the dynamics of discrimination and environmental protection regarding the Roma in CEE, and summarize two case studies on environmental justice in Slovakia and Hungary. We argue that when some landscapes and social groups are …


Across The Bridge: Using Photovoice To Study Environment And Health In A Romani Community., Krista Harper Jun 2009

Across The Bridge: Using Photovoice To Study Environment And Health In A Romani Community., Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

This photo essay is the product of a partnership between Prof. Krista Harper, the Sajó River Association for Environment and Community Development, and community organizer Judit Bari. The project took place in a small city in northeastern Hungary hit hard by factory closings since the collapse of state socialism in 1989. The Roma community, about 20% of the town’s population, has been especially vulnerable. A team of six young people participated as photographers and discussion participants, working closely with Harper and Bari. Other community members joined discussions of the images. The team held a photo exhibition in the neighborhood where …


From Democratization To Globalization To Justice: Political Generations In Hungarian Environmentalism From The 1980s To The 2000s, Krista Harper Apr 2009

From Democratization To Globalization To Justice: Political Generations In Hungarian Environmentalism From The 1980s To The 2000s, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

This presentation applies sociologist Nancy Whittier's concept of "political generations" to explore political identities and strategies appearing over time in the Hungarian environmental movement. I discuss the rise of democratic environmentalism in the 1980s, the shift to a more professionalized and globally oriented activist stance in the 1990s, and the emergence of social justice frames associated with the newest cohort of environmental activists of the 2000s.


A Photovoice Participatory Evaluation Of A School Gardening Program Through The Eyes Of Fifth Graders, Catherine Sands, Krista Harper, Lee Ellen Reed, Maggie Shar Jan 2009

A Photovoice Participatory Evaluation Of A School Gardening Program Through The Eyes Of Fifth Graders, Catherine Sands, Krista Harper, Lee Ellen Reed, Maggie Shar

Krista M. Harper

In the springtime, fifth grade students at the Williamsburg Elementary School in rural Western Massachusetts ask to snack on sorrel and chives from the school garden, between planting potatoes and building a shade structure for their outdoor classroom. They are members of the first cohort of the curriculum-integrated program initiated by Fertile Ground, a grassroots organization in western Massachusetts. The children’s delight in the fresh greens they have grown marks a national phenomenon: the farm-to-school movement. With limited resources, parents, teachers, students, administrators, and community activists are developing inroads to better school food and food education, by constructing school teaching …


International Environmental Justice: Building The Natural Assets Of The World’S Poor, Krista Harper, S. Ravi Rajan Jan 2007

International Environmental Justice: Building The Natural Assets Of The World’S Poor, Krista Harper, S. Ravi Rajan

Krista M. Harper

In recent years, vibrant social movements have emerged across the world to fight for environmental justice –- for more equitable access to natural resources and environmental quality, including clean air and water. In seeking to build community rights to natural assets, these initiatives seek to advance simultaneously the goals of environmental protection and poverty reduction. This paper sketches the contours of struggles for environmental justice within and among countries, and illustrates with examples primarily drawn from countries of the global South and the former Soviet bloc. This working paper is also accessible at the folllowing URL: http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/28d064d65f/publication/107/ A newer, revised …


Great Expectations? The Changing Role Of “Europe” In Romani Activism In Hungary, Krista Harper, Peter Vermeersch Apr 2006

Great Expectations? The Changing Role Of “Europe” In Romani Activism In Hungary, Krista Harper, Peter Vermeersch

Krista M. Harper

Contemporary political action for ethnic and national minorities in Europe appears to be increasingly directed towards supra- and transnational structures. This development seems indicative of the growth of a European space for minority activism – a public space that is less state-centered, that allows claims to be framed in terms of European standards and therefore facilitates the emergence of an active European citizenship. In theory, this “Europeanization” of minority politics may offer minority activists additional avenues for raising demands about cultural recognition and economic equalization. This article seeks to identify the possible implications of the Europeanization of minority politics by …


Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activism And Postsocialist Political Ecology In Hungary, Krista Harper Jan 2006

Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activism And Postsocialist Political Ecology In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

"Wild Capitalism" examines environmental issues in the "New Europe" of the twenty-first century. Specifically, it looks at how the meanings of "civil society" and "environment" have changed as environmentalists encounter the political and ecological realities of life after state socialism. Although environmentalism is a global social movement, environmental politics is a grassroots process in which activists creatively translate environmental issues into cultural idioms and political processes.


'Wild Capitalism’ And ‘Ecocolonialism’: A Tale Of Two Rivers, Krista Harper Jan 2005

'Wild Capitalism’ And ‘Ecocolonialism’: A Tale Of Two Rivers, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

The development and pollution of two rivers, the Danube and Tisza, have been the site and subject of environmental protests and projects in Hungary since the late 1980s. Protests against the damming of the Danube rallied opposition to the state socialist government, drawing on discourses of national sovereignty and international environmentalism. The Tisza suffered a major environmental disaster in 2000, when a globally financed gold mine in Romania spilled thousands of tons of cyanide and other heavy metals into the river, sending a plume of pollution downriver into neighboring countries. In this article, I examine the symbolic ecologies that emerged …


The Genius Of The Nation Versus The Gene-Tech Of The Nation: Science, Identity, And Gmo Debates In Hungary, Krista Harper Jan 2004

The Genius Of The Nation Versus The Gene-Tech Of The Nation: Science, Identity, And Gmo Debates In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Introduction In the late 1990s, Hungarian politicians, environmentalists, and agricultural lobbyists weighed the pros and cons of allowing genetically modified (GM) food and seeds to enter the Hungarian market. Starting around 1994, a small group of Hungarian environmentalists began researching GM issues. Initially, they feared that as a post-socialist country seeking foreign investment, Hungary would become prey to multinational corporations seeking an ‘emerging market’ with a lax regulatory environment. The terms of the debate were reframed over time, notably following 1998, when a number of European Union member states banned the imports of GM foods and when Hungarian expatriate geneticist …


Green Carnivores, Mad Cows And Gene Tech: The Politics Of Food In Hungarian Environmentalism, Krista Harper Jan 2003

Green Carnivores, Mad Cows And Gene Tech: The Politics Of Food In Hungarian Environmentalism, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Anthropologists and sociologists, from Levi-Strauss to Bourdieu, have observed that consuming food is a profoundly social act through which people express relationships and perform concepts of social order. Historically, food has provided a rich political symbol and rallying point, from the Boston Tea Party to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 in colonial India, when Muslim and Hindu troops rebelled against their British officers upon learning that their rifle cartridges were greased with suet and lard -- foods considered impure according to religious dietary taboos. Food features in Eastern Europe’s history of political conflict; for example, the December 1980 Solidarity strikes …


Chernobyl Stories And Anthropological Shock In Hungary, Krista Harper Jul 2001

Chernobyl Stories And Anthropological Shock In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

The Budapest Chernobyl Day commemoration generated a creative outpouring of stories about parental responsibilities, scientific knowledge, environmental risks, and public participation. I examine the stories and performances elicited by the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1996. In these “Chernobyl stories,” activists criticized scientific and state paternalism while engaging in alternative practices of citizenship. The decade between the catastrophic explosion and its commemoration coincides with the development of the Hungarian environmental movement and the transformation from state socialism. Chernobyl Day 1996 consequently became an opportunity for activists to reflect upon how the meaning of citizenship and public …


Citizens Or Consumers?: Environmentalism And The Public Sphere In Postsocialist Hungary, Krista Harper Jan 1999

Citizens Or Consumers?: Environmentalism And The Public Sphere In Postsocialist Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Much of the most vital activism of the post-1989 environmental movement in Hungary addresses the development of consumer culture and the expansion of transnational corporations in East-Central Europe. In actions against McDonald's conquest of the urban landscape and the ubiquitous presence of advertisements for transnational corporations, activists contrast cherished notions of decentralization and local control with the emergence of an imperialistic, global consumer culture. These issues came to the forefront of environmental debates while I was living in Hungary from 1995 to 1997, conducting ethnographic research on environmental groups. This paper will present several cases of Hungarian activism against well-known …