Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: Cultural Anthropology
- Creators: BurnSilver, Shauna
Description
The worldwide supply of potable fresh water is ever decreasing. While 2.5% of Earth's water is fresh, only 1% is accessible. Of this water, the World Health Organization estimates that only one-third can be used to meet our daily needs while the other two-thirds are unusable due to contamination. As the world population continues to grow and climate change reduces water security, we must consider not only solutions, but evaluate the perceptions and reactions of individuals in order to successfully implement such solutions. To that end, the goal of this dissertation is to explore human attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors around water issues by conducting cross-cultural comparisons of (1) water risks and solutions, (2) wastewater knowledge and acceptance, and (3) motivators for willingness to use treated wastewater. Previous research in these domains has primarily focused on a single site or national context. While such research is valuable for establishing how and why cultural context matters, comparative studies are also needed to help link perceptions at local and global scales. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach grounded in anthropological methods and theory, I use interview data collected in a range of international sites as part of the Arizona State University's Global Ethnohydrology Study. With funding from National Science Foundation grants to the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) and the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP LTER), this dissertation explores cross-cultural perceptions of water threats and management strategies, specifically wastewater reclamation and reuse, in order to make recommendations for policy makers and water managers.
ContributorsStotts, Rhian (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis advisor) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Committee member) / Grossman, Gary (Committee member) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Climate change poses a threat to the emotional well-being and livelihood strategies of individuals in biophysically vulnerable communities. While the biophysical effects and possibilities of climate change are well-documented, understanding the emotional impacts on individuals in these communities is an avenue of research that requires more exploration. Using an ethnographic approach, this study analyzes the emotional responses of individuals, first in three biophysically vulnerable communities in the United States, and second, in island communities. Study sites in the United States include Mobile, Alabama; Kodiak, Alaska; and Phoenix, Arizona, each of which have different vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change. Internationally, we conducted research in Viti Levu, Fiji; Nicosia, Cyprus; Wellington, New Zealand; and London, England. Using the 2014 Global Ethnohydrology Study Protocol respondents were asked about their emotional responses to the current effects of climate change, the effects of climate change on livelihoods in their area, and the effects of climate change on the younger generation. Using cross-cultural data allows for a broader understanding of emotional distress and wellbeing in response to climate change in areas with similar expected climate change outcomes, although with different levels of biophysical vulnerability, as well as understanding emotional distress and wellbeing in areas with different expected climate change outcomes, and similar levels of biophysical vulnerability. Results from this research can be used to understand possible mental health outcomes, the possibilities for political activism, and how to create mitigation strategies that resonate with local community members.
ContributorsDu Bray, Margaret V (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis advisor) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Thesis advisor) / Bolin, Bob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Anderies (2015); Anderies et al. (2016), informed by Ostrom (2005), aim to employ robust
feedback control models of social-ecological systems (SESs), to inform policy and the
design of institutions guiding resilient resource use. Cote and Nightingale (2012) note that
the main assumptions of resilience research downplay culture and social power. Addressing
the epistemic gap between positivism and interpretation (Rosenberg 2016), this dissertation
argues that power and culture indeed are of primary interest in SES research.
Human use of symbols is seen as an evolved semiotic capacity. First, representation is
argued to arise as matter achieves semiotic closure (Pattee 1969; Rocha 2001) at the onset
of natural selection. Guided by models by Kauffman (1993), the evolution of a symbolic
code in genes is examined, and thereon the origin of representations other than genetic
in evolutionary transitions (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995; Beach 2003). Human
symbolic interaction is proposed as one that can support its own evolutionary dynamics.
The model offered for wider dynamics in society are “flywheels,” mutually reinforcing
networks of relations. They arise as interactions in a domain of social activity intensify, e.g.
due to interplay of infrastructures, mediating built, social, and ecological affordances (An-
deries et al. 2016). Flywheels manifest as entities facilitated by the simplified interactions
(e.g. organizations) and as cycles maintaining the infrastructures (e.g. supply chains). They
manifest internal specialization as well as distributed intention, and so can favor certain
groups’ interests, and reinforce cultural blind spots to social exclusion (Mills 2007).
The perspective is applied to research of resilience in SESs, considering flywheels a
semiotic extension of feedback control. Closer attention to representations of potentially
excluded groups is justified on epistemic in addition to ethical grounds, as patterns in cul-
tural text and social relations reflect the functioning of wider social processes. Participatory
methods are suggested to aid in building capacity for institutional learning.
feedback control models of social-ecological systems (SESs), to inform policy and the
design of institutions guiding resilient resource use. Cote and Nightingale (2012) note that
the main assumptions of resilience research downplay culture and social power. Addressing
the epistemic gap between positivism and interpretation (Rosenberg 2016), this dissertation
argues that power and culture indeed are of primary interest in SES research.
Human use of symbols is seen as an evolved semiotic capacity. First, representation is
argued to arise as matter achieves semiotic closure (Pattee 1969; Rocha 2001) at the onset
of natural selection. Guided by models by Kauffman (1993), the evolution of a symbolic
code in genes is examined, and thereon the origin of representations other than genetic
in evolutionary transitions (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995; Beach 2003). Human
symbolic interaction is proposed as one that can support its own evolutionary dynamics.
The model offered for wider dynamics in society are “flywheels,” mutually reinforcing
networks of relations. They arise as interactions in a domain of social activity intensify, e.g.
due to interplay of infrastructures, mediating built, social, and ecological affordances (An-
deries et al. 2016). Flywheels manifest as entities facilitated by the simplified interactions
(e.g. organizations) and as cycles maintaining the infrastructures (e.g. supply chains). They
manifest internal specialization as well as distributed intention, and so can favor certain
groups’ interests, and reinforce cultural blind spots to social exclusion (Mills 2007).
The perspective is applied to research of resilience in SESs, considering flywheels a
semiotic extension of feedback control. Closer attention to representations of potentially
excluded groups is justified on epistemic in addition to ethical grounds, as patterns in cul-
tural text and social relations reflect the functioning of wider social processes. Participatory
methods are suggested to aid in building capacity for institutional learning.
ContributorsBožičević, Miran (Author) / Anderies, John M (Thesis advisor) / Bolin, Robert (Committee member) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The crafting of cultural goods and ethnic arts have been stable means for making a living within many Indigenous communities throughout the world. In order to understand how crafting can be an avenue towards sustainable entrepreneurship, an analysis of the relationships between Indigenous crafting, Indigenous community life, sustainable agency, Indigenous concepts of wellbeing, and sustainable entrepreneurship is needed. Through three-papers focused on an extensive literature review (aggregate to all three papers) and ethnographic field research (semi-structured interviews, verbal surveys, and ethnographic observation) this dissertation examines how the act of Indigenous crafting as carried out by individuals within families and by families within Indigenous communities, link with social relationships, making a living, gender roles, and cultural identity and how these aspects of community life intersect with sustainable forms of agency, Indigenous concepts of wellbeing, and small-scale social entrepreneurial activities in the context of Indigenous crafting in a bid to indigenize the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship. This dissertation proposes a series of conceptual frameworks that depict the discussed linkages between Indigenous crafting, Indigenous community life, sustainable forms of agency, sustainable livelihood, and Indigenous concepts of wellbeing, in the context of sustainable entrepreneurship along with the relevant literature associated with each element in the frameworks. This dissertation draws from a qualitative ethnographic study on Mazahua artisans and their communities in Mexico in an attempt to understand and expand sustainable entrepreneurship from Euro-Western perspectives to Indigenous perspectives in order to better apply SE concepts in the development of an Indigenous fashion goods venture called Vitu™. This Indigenous venture, through the Indigenized sustainable entrepreneurship concept of Adaptive-Transformative Agency, will more deeply address justice, equity, and inclusion for Indigenous peoples and their communities pursuing community development through entrepreneurial activities.
ContributorsTakamura, John Hiroomi (Author) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Thesis advisor) / Manuel-Navarrete, David (Thesis advisor) / Chhetri, Nalini (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
In the United States, some 94 million people (29% of the US population) live in areas immediately adjacent to a coast. The global phenomenon of climate-induced environmental change is largely framed as a one-way cause-and-effect relationship, where individuals, communities, and populations inhabiting at-risk locations are either forced to relocate or do so of their own accord. Yet residents of such at-risk areas are increasingly actively choosing to remain, even as risk intensifies. Using a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation examines environmental perceptions, the internalization of risk, the influence of information sources, and how individuals residing in coastal locations process their migration decisions. Established migration and hazard frameworks and theory are poorly positioned to understand the environments’ role in migration decisions. From these perspectives, environmental factors are near exclusively framed as negative affective biophysical push factors. Migration frameworks also fail to adequately incorporate reasons for non-migration. This dissertation directly addresses both these gaps in understanding. This research utilizes data from across the Gulf Coast, with a focus on fieldwork from Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and a dataset of 123 surveys and 63 interviews across a diverse group of coastal residents. Residents perceive of their environment in much more robust terms than just the biophysical. A majority of terms incorporated social and cultural aspects of environment, and environmental meaning was expressed across a continuum of proximal (most important/close) to more distal (less important/distant) scales. Little support is found for the traditional idea that economic or natural-environmental factors are more influential in decisions to migrate away from ones’ home. In predicting migration intention, socially and environmentally derived variables improved migration model performance. This dissertation demonstrates that internalization of risk by coastal residents is not a straightforward relationship, but rather one mediated by; social-environmental factors, personal experience, sense of place, and trust, which in turn influences intention to migrate, move locally, or remain in place. Residents perceive of their environment far more broadly than current risk-management planning allows. Results provide coastal residents, as well as community leaders and emergency managers who perceive environment differently, new tools for productive engagement and future policy development within coastal landscapes.
ContributorsTill, Charlotte Emma (Author) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Thesis advisor) / Tsuda, Takeyuki (Committee member) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This dissertation addresses empirical, applied, and theoretical issues in the place literature through an ethnographic study of the volunteer stewards in the nonprofit McDowell Sonoran Conservancy (Scottsdale, Arizona).
The first phase of study explores Conservancy stewards’ phenomenological place meanings through participant observation, a photovoice protocol (N=18), and life-history interviews (N=53). Findings indicate that being a steward fosters deep, identity-based place meanings within the conservation land (the McDowell Sonoran Preserve) and City of Scottsdale.
The second phase of study measures stewards’ psychometric place attachments to the Preserve and broader community using the Place Attachment Inventory (PAI) survey. New stewards’ (N=29) PAI scores—collected before attending orientation and one year after—demonstrate a rise in Preserve place attachment and place identity in the first year of service. Established stewards’ (N=275) PAI data suggests no correlation between place attachment and volunteer intensity. These findings are complemented by phase I results and suggest that stewards experience a rise in place identity after earning the identity of an environmental steward, regardless of engagement.
The third phase of study experimentally combines the data from established stewards who participated in phase I and II (N=48) to test the hypothesis that those with identity-based place meanings would possess higher place identity scores. Data analysis found no significant differences in place identity scores between those with and without a Predicted High Place Identity. The outcomes of this experiment suggest construct validity issues with the widely used place attachment and place identity constructs.
While it is established that volunteers arrive at an organization with a strong sense of place, this study demonstrates empirically how place attachments increase and place meanings deepen further after joining a volunteer organization. Communities and organizations can learn from the Conservancy’s practices that help stewards easily establish and perform a place-based steward identity. Finally, the experimental mixed methods findings suggest a sense of place research program that measures attachment to a place’s meanings rather than attachment to a place. This shift will allow place meaning and place attachment to be studied concurrently, advancing the sense of place construct and broader place theory.
The first phase of study explores Conservancy stewards’ phenomenological place meanings through participant observation, a photovoice protocol (N=18), and life-history interviews (N=53). Findings indicate that being a steward fosters deep, identity-based place meanings within the conservation land (the McDowell Sonoran Preserve) and City of Scottsdale.
The second phase of study measures stewards’ psychometric place attachments to the Preserve and broader community using the Place Attachment Inventory (PAI) survey. New stewards’ (N=29) PAI scores—collected before attending orientation and one year after—demonstrate a rise in Preserve place attachment and place identity in the first year of service. Established stewards’ (N=275) PAI data suggests no correlation between place attachment and volunteer intensity. These findings are complemented by phase I results and suggest that stewards experience a rise in place identity after earning the identity of an environmental steward, regardless of engagement.
The third phase of study experimentally combines the data from established stewards who participated in phase I and II (N=48) to test the hypothesis that those with identity-based place meanings would possess higher place identity scores. Data analysis found no significant differences in place identity scores between those with and without a Predicted High Place Identity. The outcomes of this experiment suggest construct validity issues with the widely used place attachment and place identity constructs.
While it is established that volunteers arrive at an organization with a strong sense of place, this study demonstrates empirically how place attachments increase and place meanings deepen further after joining a volunteer organization. Communities and organizations can learn from the Conservancy’s practices that help stewards easily establish and perform a place-based steward identity. Finally, the experimental mixed methods findings suggest a sense of place research program that measures attachment to a place’s meanings rather than attachment to a place. This shift will allow place meaning and place attachment to be studied concurrently, advancing the sense of place construct and broader place theory.
ContributorsBleam, Ryan M (Author) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Thesis advisor) / Tsuda, Takeyuki (Committee member) / Brandt, Elizabeth, (Committee member) / Toon, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020