Yana Spasova
I am a cultural anthropologist with a strong interest in identity, environmental issues, and animal welfare. I hold a Master degree in 'Environment, culture and society' from Lancaster, UK, which allowed me to pursue my lifelong desire to work in the field of environemtnal, biodiversity, wildlife and animal and human welfare. I work for an NGO where I successfully employ my knowledge and skills for breaching the conflicts between humans and animals.
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environmentalists both and in different ways. The text questions how the space is understood and utilised by people who do not necessarily identify as
‘gardeners’ and combines those perspectives with the ones of academics. It explores lay people’s understanding of the place for nature in their private spaces and presents important contrasts between expert and non-expert perceptions.
The findings from this dissertation display the importance of considering lay understandings of everyday domestic spaces when attempting to promote a behavioural change. It does so by displaying how domestic gardens are the arena of conflict and the resulting styles are negotiations between personal preferences, social norms and interpersonal dynamics. At the same time, they are not
entirely static and predictable, nor are they entirely ‘wild’ and there are a variety of agencies affecting both the style and the utility of the domestic garden. Importantly, for casual gardeners it is a space that must be functional. In that way, the space is the result of relentless and often unintended co-production between human and non-human actors.
While scientific consensus on climate change is increasing, public concern is paradoxically decreasing in many countries. Because the perception of danger will influence the action taken, it becomes significant when considering support for policies as an important pre-requisite for their successful implementation. Yet literature on climate governance very rarely considers how the public’s norms, values and culture shape their understanding of climate change.
Media is considered one key way through which scientific, economic, social and political dimensions are framed and can thus be seen as the “social relationship between scientists, policy actors and the public”. Importantly, media both produces and reproduces ideologies.
In my essay, I will argue that the complexity of influences on public attitudes should not be underestimated due to its implications for current and future governance. I will demonstrate how climate change is framed in many ways and by different actors. I will focus on how knowledge on climate change is constructed, reconstructed and communicated by science and media as the main channels through which public perceptions on the issue are shaped. At the same time, individuals’ and societies’ own dispositions on the issue should not be ignored as interpersonal communications may prove to be just as influential in framing climate change as an issue that requires action.
In my essay, I will explore the characteristics of the case study and link them to examples of the previously documented cases. I will focus mainly on the fields of anthropology and STS as two disciplines that have made case studies their main research tool. In doing so I aim to demonstrate the ways that case studies can be a useful tool in a social scientist’s arsenal.
A lot of research has been conducted over the past years pointing to three main factors: habitat loss or modification, parasites and infections, and pesticide use. Some pesticides are more harmful than others and their effect on colonies is easy to establish, however some don't kill instantly and their effects are harder to track.
The UK and the EU are taking precautionary action to limit the damages done by pesticides by restricting the use of some chemicals. The EU Commission has a strict policy of testing every substance before it appears on the market to establish it's safe for humans and nature alike. Meanwhile, on a national level the UK is promoting alternatives to pesticides and encouraging people and businesses to make bee-friendly alterations to their properties.
However, while those institutions seem to share a common interest, not all stakeholders share the same understanding on the problem, leading to some difficulties in embracing the issue in all its seriousness and complexity.
An element of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) project is one of the most recent global efforts at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In theory, it promises to provide the opportunity for people in developing countries to benefit from forested areas by reducing or halting deforestation and selling carbon credits to willing buyers. Meanwhilem, REDD+ “goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.”
The project faces multiple challenges: due to its market-based approach of paying for carbon credits on an evidence basis; due to the technological difficulty of calculating carbon stock and value; due to its origin as a top-down policy and not least, in matters of representation and justice. The latter concern is especially salient in REDD+ because as Martin et al. point out, past conservation projects have led to an array of undesirable or unpredictable results, especially in the social sphere where neglect or outright exclusion of peoples has become a common element of conservation attempts.
In this essay, I will explore the case of the Paiter Surui, Indians in the Amazon forest of Brazil, and analyse how their experience with REDD+ is relating to academic concepts of justice, and to that of the Surui themselves.
environmentalists both and in different ways. The text questions how the space is understood and utilised by people who do not necessarily identify as
‘gardeners’ and combines those perspectives with the ones of academics. It explores lay people’s understanding of the place for nature in their private spaces and presents important contrasts between expert and non-expert perceptions.
The findings from this dissertation display the importance of considering lay understandings of everyday domestic spaces when attempting to promote a behavioural change. It does so by displaying how domestic gardens are the arena of conflict and the resulting styles are negotiations between personal preferences, social norms and interpersonal dynamics. At the same time, they are not
entirely static and predictable, nor are they entirely ‘wild’ and there are a variety of agencies affecting both the style and the utility of the domestic garden. Importantly, for casual gardeners it is a space that must be functional. In that way, the space is the result of relentless and often unintended co-production between human and non-human actors.
While scientific consensus on climate change is increasing, public concern is paradoxically decreasing in many countries. Because the perception of danger will influence the action taken, it becomes significant when considering support for policies as an important pre-requisite for their successful implementation. Yet literature on climate governance very rarely considers how the public’s norms, values and culture shape their understanding of climate change.
Media is considered one key way through which scientific, economic, social and political dimensions are framed and can thus be seen as the “social relationship between scientists, policy actors and the public”. Importantly, media both produces and reproduces ideologies.
In my essay, I will argue that the complexity of influences on public attitudes should not be underestimated due to its implications for current and future governance. I will demonstrate how climate change is framed in many ways and by different actors. I will focus on how knowledge on climate change is constructed, reconstructed and communicated by science and media as the main channels through which public perceptions on the issue are shaped. At the same time, individuals’ and societies’ own dispositions on the issue should not be ignored as interpersonal communications may prove to be just as influential in framing climate change as an issue that requires action.
In my essay, I will explore the characteristics of the case study and link them to examples of the previously documented cases. I will focus mainly on the fields of anthropology and STS as two disciplines that have made case studies their main research tool. In doing so I aim to demonstrate the ways that case studies can be a useful tool in a social scientist’s arsenal.
A lot of research has been conducted over the past years pointing to three main factors: habitat loss or modification, parasites and infections, and pesticide use. Some pesticides are more harmful than others and their effect on colonies is easy to establish, however some don't kill instantly and their effects are harder to track.
The UK and the EU are taking precautionary action to limit the damages done by pesticides by restricting the use of some chemicals. The EU Commission has a strict policy of testing every substance before it appears on the market to establish it's safe for humans and nature alike. Meanwhile, on a national level the UK is promoting alternatives to pesticides and encouraging people and businesses to make bee-friendly alterations to their properties.
However, while those institutions seem to share a common interest, not all stakeholders share the same understanding on the problem, leading to some difficulties in embracing the issue in all its seriousness and complexity.
An element of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) project is one of the most recent global efforts at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In theory, it promises to provide the opportunity for people in developing countries to benefit from forested areas by reducing or halting deforestation and selling carbon credits to willing buyers. Meanwhilem, REDD+ “goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.”
The project faces multiple challenges: due to its market-based approach of paying for carbon credits on an evidence basis; due to the technological difficulty of calculating carbon stock and value; due to its origin as a top-down policy and not least, in matters of representation and justice. The latter concern is especially salient in REDD+ because as Martin et al. point out, past conservation projects have led to an array of undesirable or unpredictable results, especially in the social sphere where neglect or outright exclusion of peoples has become a common element of conservation attempts.
In this essay, I will explore the case of the Paiter Surui, Indians in the Amazon forest of Brazil, and analyse how their experience with REDD+ is relating to academic concepts of justice, and to that of the Surui themselves.