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Issue 15.1 Abstracts

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The Distinction between Humans and Nature: Human Perceptions of Connectedness to Nature and Elements of the Natural and Unnatural

By Joanne Vining, Melinda S. Merrick, and Emily A. Price

The perceived separation between humans and nature may have implications for subsequent environmental values, attitudes, and behavior. This research examines people's perceptions of their connection to nature as well as their ideas about what constitutes natural and unnatural environments. We asked participants from three separate studies if they thought of themselves as part of or separate from nature. We also asked participants to list words that came to mind when thinking of natural and unnatural environments. The results show that even though the majority of the participants considered themselves part of nature (76.9%), natural environments were largely described as places absent from any human interference. Gaining an understanding of this apparent contradiction may lead to a better awareness of the importance of people's perceptions of themselves in nature and how that perception relates to general human-environment interactions as well as management and policy.

Keywords : conservation psychology, nature, human-environment interaction, connectedness, environmentally responsible behavior

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Redefining Community in the Ecovillage

By Debbie Van Schyndel Kasper

Ecovillages provide important insights into the human dimensions of sustainability, but remain relatively unexplored. In this paper I highlight critiques of the society/nature divide and emphasize the need to pay attention to the paradigms that influence how people think and what they do. I discuss the ecovillage model as a rejection of the outmoded “dominant western worldview” in favor of one that recognizes human-ecosystem interdependence. Drawing on field research, I examine the practical means by which ecovillages strive to institute and reinforce an alternative paradigm. In addition to explicit intention, rules, the organization of social interaction, and physical characteristics, I identify an expanded notion of community and its accompanying ethic as distinguishing features of the ecovillage. I suggest the possibility that these are necessary features of a sustainable society.

Keywords: ecovillage, sustainable community, sustainability, society/nature divide

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Ecology of Fermented Foods

By Robert Scott and William C. Sullivan

Fermented foods arise in the human relationship to the microbial environment. Human survival is connected to yeasts and bacteria that produce lactic acid and alcohol in preserved foods. This constitutes a fermentation ecosystem that embodies the succession of species, partitioning of resources, disturbance and equilibrium found in larger ecosystems. Fermented foods are preserved by microbes that live in food storage vessels. In many societies, the contribution of fermented food has been central. Fermentation ecosystems can be used as an engaging instructional tool to illustrate ecological concepts and lead to a more complex understanding of the ecology of human nutrition.

Keywords: alcohol, ecosystem, fermentation, food, lactic acid

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Representing Recovery: Science and Democracy in the Framing of US Pacific Northwest Salmon Policy

By Troy E. Hall and David D. White

Framing is a process of highlighting certain facets of reality to make specific issues more prominent, consequential, and memorable. Framing is important in policy debates because it affects what counts as knowledge, which actors are empowered or disenfranchised, and the forum for decision-making. This paper presents a discourse analysis of framing processes in Pacific Northwest salmon recovery policy. Analysis of testimony from more than 100 witnesses to six U.S. Congressional committees identified two prominent frames: one based on scientific discourse and another based on local control discourse. Actors used these frames to define the problem, outline solutions, support their positions, and undermine the positions of others. Results reveal distinctions between stakeholder groups in the frames that they do and do not use in policy debate, and the discussion addresses reasons for these differences. The results imply that the policy community has limited potential for creative decision-making to address salmon decline.

Keywords: environmental policy, discourse analysis, natural resources, issue framing, qualitative methods

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Anglers' Appraisals of the Risks of Eating Sport-Caught Fish from Industrial Areas: Lessions from Chicago's Calumet Region

By Lynne M. Westphal, Mario Longoni, Cherie L. LeBlanc, and Alaka Wali

We conducted a participant observation study of recreational fishing in the industrialized Calumet region of northwest Indiana and southeast Chicago to gage the extent of fishing for consumption and to learn about perceptions of the risks of eating contaminated fish. Of the 97 study participants who provided definitive information about their fish consumption habits, 70% reported ever eating fish from Calumet waters. When assessing pollution, anglers relied mainly on their senses, personal experiences, judgment, and/or information from friends, family, and other anglers rather than on written fishing guides, local officials, or the media. When considering consumption risks, they focused on four primary factors: the general environment, water quality, fish characteristics, and observable human health. Different anglers used different risk assessment cues. There were also differences in risk perceptions and fish consumption patterns across racial-ethnic lines. Finally, we consider the challenges of disseminating risk information to diverse urban populations.

Keywords: urban angling/fishing, fish consumption, risk perception, ethnography, rustbelt landscapes

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Terrorism Risk Perceptions and Proximity to Primary Terrorist Targets: How Close is Too Close?

By Joshua Woods, Toby A. Ten Eyck, Stan Kaplowitz, and Vladamir Shlapentokh

A survey of Michigan residents (N = 1,003) conducted in 2005 found a positive relationship between people's closeness to a “primary” terrorist target and their judgments of the likelihood of a terrorist attack in their home communities in the next 12 months. This relationship was especially strong among female respondents and people with lower household incomes. Similarities and differences between this study and a previous study conducted by Fischhoff et al. (2003) immediately following the 9/11 terrorist events are discussed. Empirical results suggest that public perceptions of terrorism risk are being shaped more by the environment in which people reside than by other common predictors of risk perception.

Keywords: risk perception, terrorism, geography, gender, income

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Environmental Awareness in the Church: An Autoethnography of Obstacles and Opportunities

By Randy Haluza-DeLay

Drawing on two decades of personal involvement, this autoethnographic analysis highlights a number of obstacles and opportunities for engaging with environmental matters in church-based contexts. Obstacles are summarized in four clusters: paradigmatic (beliefs that disable environmental engagement), applicability (doubt about the appropriate amount of attention to give environmental concerns), critical ( inadequate attention t o social or cultural factors as they affect faith or environmental matters), and conviction (lifestyle and willingness to act). Opportunities fall into three categories: subcultural (social practices of faith communities that may lead to more effective learning), commitment (sense of responsibility, duty, and desire to follow through on religious commitment), and public theology (facets that aid constructive engagement with the public discourse). The study concludes that there is reason to believe that engagement of environmental topics in church-based contexts can be productive, particularly with attention to such obstacles and opportunities.

Keywords: religion and environment, environmental education, autoethnography

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The Justice of Ecological Restoration: Environmental History, Health, Ecology, and Justice in the United States

By C. R. Palamar

Although environmental problems continue to worsen, the mainstream environmental movement seems to be losing strength. Part of this declination rests on the movement's historical roots in and elevation of conservation, preservation, and wilderness protection as the headlining goals of environmentalism. These goals were promoted at the expense of other, perhaps more popular, motivators such as health ecology and environmental justice. In addition, such goals have not taken seriously the deleterious effects of environmental contamination on women, the poor, people of color, and residents of urban areas. Despite a somewhat diverse history, the mainstream environmental movement chose to most vigorously promote the protection of wild species and places, utilized a very limited understanding of the term ‘environment' and has not promulgated a way of dealing with environmental destruction's concomitant shame. Taken together, these failings could be part of the movement's waning social significance. Beginning with an historical investigation of health ecology and environmental justice, this paper argues that the mainstream movement could be reinvigorated by contemporaneous attention to health ecology, environmental justice, and ecological restoration, all of which remain on the borders of the movement, and all of which have ample precedent within the sidelined history of American environmentalism.

Keywords: environmental justice, environmental movement, health ecology, environmental history, women

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