scholarly journals A picture of change: using photovoice to explore social and environmental change in coastal communities on the Andaman Coast of Thailand

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Bennett ◽  
Philip Dearden
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Macro Scale ◽  
Social And Environmental Change ◽  
Social Environmental

Coastal communities experience a wide array of environmental and social changes to which they must constantly adapt. Further, a community's perception of change and risk has significant implications for a community's willingness and ability to adapt to both current and future changes. As part of a larger study focusing on the adaptive capacity of communities on the Andaman Coast of Thailand, we used Photovoice to open a dialogue with communities about changes in the marine environment and in coastal communities. This article presents the results of two exploratory Photovoice processes and discusses prospects for using the Photovoice method for exploring social and environmental change. Changes examined included a number of broader environmental and social trends as well as ecological specifics and social particularities in each site. Participants also explored the social implications of environmental changes, the impacts of macro-scale processes on local outcomes, and emotive and active responses of individuals and communities to change. Photovoice is deemed a powerful method for: examining social, environmental, and socio-ecological change, triangulating to confirm the results of other scientific methods, revealing novel ecological interactions, and providing input into community processes focusing on natural resource management, community development, and climate change adaptation.

Should we turn the tent? Inuit women and climate change

2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Dowsley ◽  
Shari Gearheard ◽  
Noor Johnson ◽  
Jocelyn Inksetter
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Secondary Effects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Inuit Knowledge ◽  
Women's Role

Abstract Most of the climate change literature for Arctic Canada in the social sciences has focused on men’s knowledge and experiences. Drawing on research from Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River, Nunavut, we explore Inuit women’s perspectives on recent environmental changes, many of which are often attributed to climate change by Inuit or others. We divide issues resulting from environmental change into primary and secondary effects. Primary effects are changes in environmental features that affect, for example, hunting, fishing, and travelling. Secondary effects occur in the community as a result of environmental change. These include changes in the use and condition of country products like seal skins, and the psychological and social impact of environmental changes, such as going out on the land less often due to fear of dangerous conditions. We also offer a preliminary discussion on women’s role in responses to climate change, through their often dominant economic and political roles in their communities, the territory, and various wider global governance fora. Our research indicates that gender helps shape Inuit knowledge of environmental change, as well as social responses to perceptions of change. By examining women’s perceptions of environmental change, we draw attention to the social aspects and also highlight how women can contribute to adaptation, not only to physical changes but also to the resulting social changes.

Social Environmental Correlates of Health Behaviors in a Faith-Based Policy and Environmental Change Intervention

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 672-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Hermstad ◽  
Sally Honeycutt ◽  
Shauna StClair Flemming ◽  
Michelle L. Carvalho ◽  
Tarccara Hodge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Healthy Eating ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Social Environmental

Diet and physical activity are behavioral risk factors for many chronic diseases, which are among the most common health conditions in the United States. Yet most Americans fall short of meeting established dietary and physical activity guidelines. Faith-based organizations as settings for health promotion interventions can affect members at multiple levels of the social ecological model. The present study investigated whether change in the church social environment was associated with healthier behavior at church and in general at 1-year follow-up. Six churches received mini-grants and technical assistance for 1 year to support policy and environmental changes for healthy eating (HE) and physical activity (PA). Socioenvironmental (social support and social norms) and behavioral (HE and PA at church and in general) outcomes were derived from baseline and 1-year follow-up church member surveys ( n = 258). Three of six churches demonstrated significant improvements in all three socioenvironmental aspects of HE. Two of five churches exhibited significant socioenvironmental improvements for PA at follow-up. Church social environmental changes were related to health behaviors at church and in general ( p < .05). Change in social support for HE, social support for PA, and social norms for PA were each associated with three church-based and general behavioral outcomes. Social norms for healthy eating were related to two general behavior outcomes and social norms for unhealthy eating to one general behavioral outcome. Study findings demonstrate that socioenvironmental characteristics are essential to multilevel interventions and merit consideration in designing policy and environmental change interventions.

8. Prometheus

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-160
Author(s):  
Erle C. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Earth System ◽  
System Science ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Social And Environmental Change ◽  
The Many ◽  
Global Environmental Changes

The Anthropocene continues to be controversial across the many scholarly communities that study social and environmental change, including not only archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and environmental historians, but also ecologists and Earth scientists. Will creating a new unit of geologic time help to advance scientific efforts to understand Earth’s human transformation? ‘Prometheus’ considers the new challenges faced by Earth System science: the anthroposphere, geoengineering, and the need to guide efforts to adapt to an increasingly dynamic human planet. Given the overwhelming scale, rate, and diversity of harmful global environmental changes produced by human societies, it is hard not to view the Anthropocene as an unmitigated disaster, but could a better Anthropocene be a possibility?

Singa Transitional: Rock-art Saywas Marking Boundaries of Identity and Socializing Landscape in Huánuco, Peru

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Landscape Feature

This paper introduces a new art style, Singa Transitional, found painted onto a mountainside near the modern town of Singa in the north of Huánuco, Peru. This style was discovered during a recent regional survey of rock art in the Huánuco region that resulted in the documentation of paintings at more than 20 sites, the identification of their chronological contexts and an analysis of the resulting data for trends in changing social practices over nine millennia. I explore how the style emerged from both regional artistic trends in the medium and broader patterns evident in Andean material culture from multiple media at the time of its creation. I argue that the presence of Singa Transitional demonstrates that local peoples were engaged in broader social trends unfolding during the transition between the Early Horizon (800–200 bc) and the Early Intermediate Period (ad 0–800) in Peru. I propose that rock art placed in prominent places was considered saywa, a type of landscape feature that marked boundaries in and movement through landscapes. Singa Transitional saywas served to advertise the connection between local Andean people and their land and was a medium through which social changes were contested in the Andes.

Pleistocene–Holocene environmental change in the Canary Archipelago as inferred from the stable isotope composition of land snail shells

2011 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yurena Yanes ◽  
Crayton J. Yapp ◽  
Miguel Ibáñez ◽  
María R. Alonso ◽  
Julio De-la-Nuez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Isotope Composition ◽  
Moving Average ◽  
Land Snail ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
The Times

AbstractThe isotopic composition of land snail shells was analyzed to investigate environmental changes in the eastern Canary Islands (28–29°N) over the last ~ 50 ka. Shell δ13C values range from −8.9‰ to 3.8‰. At various times during the glacial interval (~ 15 to ~ 50 ka), moving average shell δ13C values were 3‰ higher than today, suggesting a larger proportion of C4 plants at those periods. Shell δ18O values range from −1.9‰ to 4.5‰, with moving average δ18O values exhibiting a noisy but long-term increase from 0.1‰ at ~ 50 ka to 1.6–1.8‰ during the LGM (~ 15–22 ka). Subsequently, the moving average δ18O values range from 0.0‰ at ~ 12 ka to 0.9‰ at present. Calculations using a published snail flux balance model for δ18O, constrained by regional temperatures and ocean δ18O values, suggest that relative humidity at the times of snail activity fluctuated but exhibited a long-term decline over the last ~ 50 ka, eventually resulting in the current semiarid conditions of the eastern Canary Islands (consistent with the aridification process in the nearby Sahara). Thus, low-latitude oceanic island land snail shells may be isotopic archives of glacial to interglacial and tropical/subtropical environmental change.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document