Nature and Society Relations Commons^™

Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

Opportunities For Urban Resilience To Climate Change: Understanding Local Climate Perceptions, Motivations, And Barriers To Green Infrastructure Use, Emmilene Berski

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Global climate change poses a substantial threat to cities in the United States, particularly through increases in flooding and extreme heat. Cities must adapt to these threats to preserve their residents’ livelihoods and prevent economic loss. One adaptation strategy is the implementation of green infrastructure (GI). The opportunity for GI to foster urban resilience to climate change necessitates a deeper understanding of the extent to which cities utilize GI as a strategy for local climate change adaptation as well as perceptions and motivations surrounding the use of GI at a local level. I sought to address this need through a …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Bridging Knowledge Systems In The Peruvian Andes: Plurality, Co-Creation, And Transformative Socio-Ecological Solutions To Climate Change, Domenique Ciavattone

Capstone Collection

In the current era of anthropogenic climate change, Quechua farmers in the Peruvian Andes are some of the most impacted by, yet some of the lowest contributors to global warming. Dominant Western systems alone have proven insufficient in tackling the climate crisis, and there have been increasing efforts to elevate and center Indigenous voices and epistemologies when addressing climate change. Researchers and communities are calling for a bridging of knowledge systems, in which Indigenous and Western methods collaborate to co-create innovative solutions to climate challenges. This research sought to explore methods and successes in bridging Indigenous and Western knowledge systems …

“Anything From The Land Is Good”: Understanding How Community Gardening In Kakisa, Northwest Territories, Can Contribute To Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Michelle Malandra

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Rates of food insecurity in Canada’s northern Indigenous communities are at levels that should constitute an emergency. Dominant explanations for these high rates of food insecurity often ignore the ongoing impacts of colonization and over-emphasize individual choices and nutritional guidelines developed by outsiders. The importance of holistic community health is ignored, along with the cultural and social values and practices that support community health and well-being, including traditional food systems. As the acute impact of climate change in the North threatens traditional food access, a shift toward an Indigenous food sovereignty approach in health and food policy is needed. With …

Deep Roots In Eroding Soil: Building Decolonial Resilience Amidst Climate Violence And Displacement In A Louisiana Bayou Indigenous Community, Lia Mcgrath Kahan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Pointe-au-Chien Indigenous community of coastal Louisiana is fighting for survival as climate change and socio-political factors threaten to displace them from their ancestral home. This project takes an ethnographic and historical approach to exploring how colonization and climate change have influenced Pointe-au-Chien tribal members’ ability to stay on their ancestral land. Climate projections estimate that the bayou this community has lived alongside of for generations will soon be unrecognizable, leading to potential displacement and devastating cultural loss. Due to the increasing severity of climate change, it is crucial to look to the experiences of frontline Indigenous communities to support …

Farmers Markets And Single-Use Plastic: Why Environmentally Conscious Consumers Don’T Bring Reusable Bags, Scott Hardy, Jill Bartolotta

The Journal of Extension

This study looks at the role of Extension in helping local officials reduce plastic bag use at farmers markets in three Lake County, OH communities. We distributed free reusable bags to shoppers and conducted an education and outreach program. We then took observations to determine if the free reusable bags were being used. We also invited shoppers to take a voluntary survey about their environmental attitudes, why or why not they use the reusable bags, and how best to reduce plastic bag use moving forward. Results from the study suggest that supplying free reusable bags at farmer markets is not …

Using Photovoice To Navigate Social-Ecological Change In Coastal Maine: A Case Study On Visibility, Visuality, And Visual Literacy, Kevin P. Duffy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Media representations of the environment support specific cultures of viewing that can create expectations about how to observe social-ecological interactions in everyday life. While public perceptions may appear, in some cases, to reflect these normative representations, more critical and participatory approaches to environmental research and management have begun to complicate these representations as they are negotiated through intrapersonal, interpersonal, and group communication. Working from a visual cultural approach that interrogates issues of visibility, visuality, and visual literacy, this dissertation theorizes how coastal residents represent their own observations and experiences of environmental change through photography and what impact their views have …

How Do Farmers Experience Agroecology In Rural Communities Of Northern Ecuador?, Neil Michael Ayala Ayala

Latin American Studies ETDs

Agroecology, a concept in continuous evolution embraces science, practice and sociopolitical aspects. Its meaning is gaining space of debate and global interest as an alternative for building sustainable food systems and resilient communities, not only from the environmental perspective, but from all the dimensions of sustainability. The Andes region is recognized for its agrodiversity and for its history of agricultural activity; nevertheless, the effects of unsustainable agricultural practices inspired in the principles of the so called “Green Revolution” are evident. Conventional agriculture has decreased the capacity of resilience of the agroecosystems and their associated communities. Agroecology is often perceived as …

Social-Ecological Heterogeneity Shapes Resilience Of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of The Mexican Chocolate Clam Fishery In Loreto, Mexico, Kara E. Pellowe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

All benefits provided by natural systems are embedded within coupled social-ecological systems (SESs). Fisheries are clear examples of SESs: through fishing, humans affect ecosystem structure and functioning, and in turn, receive benefits, including sustenance, employment, and cultural value. Resilience, the ability to maintain structure and function in the face of change, is key to sustaining the social and ecological components of fisheries-related SESs and their interactions. Many factors contribute to resilience, including heterogeneity. By identifying heterogeneity in these complex systems, we are better able to understand the capacity of fishery-related SESs to adapt to change, and contribute to management that …

Gendered Recreational Fisheries Management And North American Natural Resource Policy, Erin Burkett

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation applies feminist theory to investigate women’s participation in wildlife-based recreation and how natural resource management organizations conduct stakeholder engagement in a North American context. Gendered social processes, including norms and expectations, as well as gendered cultures, can constrain women’s participation in recreation through social sanctions and disenfranchisement. Gender and leisure scholars have studied these dynamics in sport and leisure contexts, but how individuals negotiate these constraints is understudied in a wildlife-based recreation context. Social constructions of gender also contribute to imbalances of power within formal natural resource management organizations and influence how stakeholder engagement policies and programs are …

Understanding Tourism Within A Social-Ecological System: Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, Chelsea Leigh Leven

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tourism endures as a major component of development strategies worldwide, despite a dearth of documented successes. Tourism failures arise in part from simplistic and reductionist approaches to sustainability and tourism. Successfully implementing tourism to support sustainable futures requires, at a minimum, a more holistic and complex conceptualization than tourism currently receives, including recognition of how human values shape a system. To achieve a more complex understanding of tourism, I analyzed tourism through a social-ecological system (SES) perspective using the paradigm of resilience thinking. Through a case study in Ometepe, Nicaragua, my research considered opportunities for tourism contributions to sustainable futures …

Stories From A Place Called Walung, Jenny Ding

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of the project is to explore the relationship between people and the natural landscape through storytelling. I’m interested by elements like: terrain, topography, path, wayfinding, natural disasters, weather, natural resources, flora and fauna. How do these elements manifest in people’s oral history, daily lives, and spatial identity? How are these elements and the environment changing, and how are people adapting to these changes? My approach will be to talk to people at Walung about their interactions with elements of the natural landscape, both current and from the past. I will also document my own observations of these elements. …

Translating Global Nature: Territoriality, Environmental Discourses, And Ecocultural Identities, José R. Castro-Sotomayor

Communication ETDs

In this study, I explore environmental discourses circulating among Indigenous transboundary organizations working on environmental initiatives at the border between Ecuador and Colombia. I focus on three global environmental discourses –sustainability, development, and climate change– as they are at the core of the global environmental governance vernacular. La Gran Familia Awá Binacional (GFAB), one of the few transboundary Indigenous organizations working along the binational border, utilizes these global concepts to frame their environmental initiatives and projects. I use a critical and interpretive qualitative approach to investigate, deconstruct, and rearticulate global environmental discourses circulating among and translated by two of the …

From Conflict To Collaboration: Exploring Influences On Community Well-Being, Leana M. Weissberg, Jonathan P. Kusel, Kyle A. Rodgers

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Decades after the Timber Wars, land management agencies continue to redefine approaches to forest restoration and management, with impacts for Western forest dependent communities. To better understand this evolving dynamic, we examined the recent history of a rural forest community in the northern Sierra Nevada against the backdrop of changing perspectives on and relationships to resource use, industry, and forest management. Guided by community priorities distilled from interview data, we examine the transition from the Timber Wars to collaborative forest management through the rise of area collaboratives. The success of this work and its potential to genuinely improve community well-being …

The Role Of The Local Community On Federal Lands: The Weaverville Community Forest, Erin C. Kelly

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In the wake of the timber wars, communities across the American West have struggled to redefine their relationships to nearby federal forests. The timber-dependent model of the pre-Timber War era, with clear timber targets and economic outputs, has been replaced by more nuanced and less clearly-defined model: ecosystem management. This case study research uses interviews with participants in the Weaverville Community Forest (WCF) to explore the role of a community in managing its nearby federal lands. Momentum for the WCF flowed from a small group of citizens who were invested in the forest despite their cultural and ideological differences regarding …

Introduction To Hjsr Special Issue 40: The American West After The Timber Wars, Erin C. Kelly, Yvonne Everett

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

No abstract provided.

Un Giro Ontológico En La Cosmovisión De La Naturaleza: El Papel Del Capitalismo Y Otras Influencias En El Cambio De Las Percepciones Tradicionales De La Naturaleza En La Comunidad Quechua De Paru Paru / An Ontological Turnover In The Cosmovision Of Nature: The Role Of Capitalism And Other Influences In The Change Of Traditional Perceptions Of The Nature In The Quechua Community Of Paru Paru, Jessica Pusch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En el contexto de la antropología ambiental y con un lente de ecología política, este informe analiza el papel del capitalismo en la degradación ecológica global a través de un estudio etnográfico específico y único. Este estudio ocurrió en el pueblo quechua Paru Paru, situada en las sierras andinas de Perú en la región de Cusco. El siguiente artículo incluye una examinación del aumento en las actividades económicamente capitalistas y la presencia de otros factores involucrados en el cambio de la relación y las percepciones sobre la naturaleza en el contexto de la cosmovisión. Había una pérdida clara de algunas …

Putting Rooted Networks Into Practice, Alida Cantor, Elisabeth Stoddard, Dianne Rocheleau, Jennifer F. Brewer, Robin Roth, Trevor Birkenholtz, Katherine Foo, Padini Nirmal

Geography

Rooted networks provide a conceptual framework that embeds network thinking in nature-society geography in order to investigate socio-ecological relations, while emphasizing the place-specific materiality of these relations. This progress report examines how geographers have put the framework into scholarly practice. The conceptual approach has enabled researchers to: 1) articulate the territoriality and materiality of networks as assemblages, which may be simultaneously rooted and mobile; 2) discern diverse types of power that flow through network connections; and 3) conduct analyses that unearth multiply-situated knowledges within networks. Challenges emerge as we seek to integrate the approach more fully with disciplinary traditions, including …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

Seeing Community Through The Trees: Characterizing Resident Response To Urban-Tree Planting Initiatives, Eli Goldman

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Urban tree planting initiatives have become common across cities in the United States. In order to advocate for sustainable urban forests, managers of urban planting initiatives must adopt a strong community framework, which includes community values in reforestation efforts. Clark University researchers conducted interviews and surveys with residents in six central Massachusetts cities and towns to assess why residents value urban trees and to characterize public response to reforestation efforts. Results indicate residents had positive experiences with tree planting programs, are most likely to value urban trees for aesthetic reasons, and commonly associate change in neighborhood character with Asian Longhorned …

La Lucha Por Kimsakocha: Resistencia Contra La Minería En Azuay, Ecuador \ The Struggle For Kimsakocha: Resistance Against Mining In Azuay, Ecuador, Lydia Petroske

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En Ecuador, hay una “reprimarización” de la economía, un fenómeno por el que se produce una creciente dependencia en exportaciones de productos primarios como recursos no renovables. Este fenómeno ha sido acompañado con una retórica estatal sobre pobreza y deuda social. Para el gobierno del estado, la industria extractiva es parte importante de su estrategia y retórica para hacer inversión social y combatir la pobreza, lo cual ha justificado una rápida expansión del sector extractivista. En el sur de Ecuador, la gente de las parroquias de Victoria del Portete y Tarqui ha estado luchando por más de 15 años contra …

No A La Tala: Percepciones Sobre Reforestación En Cochabamba, Bolivia / No To La Tala: Perforations On Reforestation In Cochabamba, Bolivia, Kate Raybon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En mi corto estudio quisiera explorar las percepciones sobre reforestación urbana y los espacios verdes en la ciudad de Cochabamba con la pregunta “¿Cuáles son las percepciones de la reforestación en Cochabamba?” Para ello, llevé a cabo entrevistas y encuestas breves con varios grupos directamente involucrados en movimientos de reforestación para recolectar percepciones sobre este tema. Los participantes eran parte de grupos como No a la Tala de los Árboles en Cochabamba, La ONG Gaia Pacha, el Departamento de Medio Ambiente del municipio de Cochabamba, y expertos ambientales. Finalmente, creé un mapa de cuentos en línea que consiste de fotografías …

Factors That Determine Civil Action In Opposition To Hydroelectric Development Along The Chiriquí Viejo River In The Chiriquí Province Of Panamá, Nora Sawyer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hydroelectric development has increased rapidly throughout Latin America in the late 20th and early 21st centuries (del Mar Rubio et al. 2014). In 2014, Latin America represented 20 percent of the world’s hydropower (del Mar Rubio et al. 2014). It is also the main source of power generation throughout Latin America, accounting for roughly 65 percent of all electricity generated (Wheeler 2012). Within Panamá, significant hydroelectric development has been happening in the Chiriquí province. Local peoples’ dissatisfaction with the actions of the hydropower companies has increased with time, resulting in civilians and organizations taking action in opposition to these companies …

Nature, Socio-Spatial Divisions And Connections: An Examination Of El Jardín De Guadalupe, Elizabeth Moreno

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Culture is often discussed in the content of social behavior but, how culture is spatially linked to landscapes is often overlooked. Points of social and cultural reproduction is not only tied to landscapes, but there are constantly challenged as new cultures are introduced into a space. Latino culture in the United States has, and continues to, reshape America’s landscapes. For purpose of this thesis, the reshaping of landscapes will be observed in a community. This project examines the perception that Latinos avoid participation in a community garden. This perception is not entirely true, as there was one Latina participating. As …

Public Perception Of Environmental Programs In The Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Landa De Matamoros, Queretaro, Mexico, Danielle Marie Salisbury

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Biological or ecological corridors have recently been sought out as a solution to biodiversity loss due to habitat fragmentation. In eastern Mexico, the Mexican and German governments are collaborating to connect fragmented landscapes and Natural Protected Areas (NPAs) over five states across a Madrean Pine-Oak biodiversity hotspot through the implementation of the Ecological Corridor of the Sierra Madre Oriental (CESMO). One of the ways the CESMO is accomplishing its conservation goals is by extending environmental programs that are currently in place within NPAs to other areas within the corridor, but outside of NPA borders. However, the success of the corridor …

Different Names For Bullying, Marco Poggio

Capstones

“There's all different forms of bullying,” says Steven Gray, a Lakota rancher and former law enforcement officer living in South Dakota. In this look into Gray’s life, we learn about two instances of bullying: the psychological and physical harassment that pushed his son, Tanner Thomas Gray, to commit suicide at age 12; And the controversial construction of an oil pipeline in an ancient tribal land that belongs to the Lakota people by rights of a treaty signed in 1851, which Gray sees as an institutional abuse infringing on the sovereignty of his people. Gray is involved in the movement that …

Beyond The Edge Of The Planted Field: Exploring Community-Based Environmental Education, And Invisible Losses In Settler And Indigenous Cultural Contexts, Samantha Da Rosa Holmes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Walpole Island Land Trust and the Sydenham Field Naturalists came together for a focus group at the Walpole Island Heritage Centre and spoke of the relevance environmental education plays in the awareness of a shared history between communities from separate cultural contexts. From the focus group this research is able to contextualize the conversation between a non-Indigenous and an Indigenous community-based environmental organization, and their focus on the relationship between people, place, and history. The context of the conversation being the colonial legacies of land use management and educational practices and how these institutions prolong the effect of invisible …

Un Nuevo Fenómeno En Un Mundo De Tradición: Percepciones Del Cambio Climático En La Isla De Taquile / 99/5000 A New Phenomenon In A World Of Tradition: Perceptions Of Climate Change On The Island Of Taquile, Daniel Meagher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El cambio climático amenaza el estilo de vida tradicional de los agricultores de subsistencia de los Andes. Este trabajo resume y analiza las percepciones del cambio climático de los Taquileños, una comunidad de 2.500 campesinos indígenas de subsistencia que viven en la isla de Taquile en el Lago Titicaca. Esta comunidad no está aislada del mundo exterior, y hay una fuerte presencia de la iglesia cristiana y el turismo.

Los datos fueron recolectados a través de entrevistas y observación participante entre las fechas del 2 de noviembre al 15 de noviembre, 2016. Las veinte entrevistas contienen las perspectivas de siete …