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Issue 8.2 Abstracts

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Outport Adaptations: Social Indicators through Newfoundland's Cod Crisis

By Lawrence C. Hamilton and Melissa J. Butler

The 1992 moratorium on fishing for Northern Cod marked a symbolic end to the way of life that had sustained Newfoundland's outports for hundreds of years. It also marked the completion of an ecological regime shift, from an ocean ecosystem dominated by cod and other predatory groundfish, to one in which such fish are comparatively scarce, and lower-trophic-level invertebrates more common. We examine patterns of change seen in large-scale social indicators, which reflect the smaller-scale adaptations of individuals and communities during this ecological shift. Trends in population, migration, age, unemployment and dependency suggest declining conditions in rural Newfoundland over the years of fisheries troubles. The 1992 crisis accelerated previous trends, but did not produce great discontinuities. Some trends date instead to the late-1980s resource-depletion phase that ended the "glory years" of Newfoundland's groundfish boom. Government interventions meant to soften the economic impact of the 1992 crisis also blunted its social impacts, effectively postponing or distributing these over a number of subsequent years. Outport society is adapting to shifts in the regulatory and global-market environment, as well as changing marine ecology. Adaptive strategies include new investments in invertebrate fisheries, changes in education and migration, and continuing reliance on the informal economy.

Keywords: Newfoundland, fisheries, social indicators, population, migration, cod crisis, dependency

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Toward an Ecology of Social Action: Merging the Ecological and Constructivist Traditions

By Paul McLaughlin

In this article, I trace organizational sociology's inability to develop a comprehensive framework integrating structure, agency and environment to the persistence of essentialism within the ecological tradition and nominalism within the constructivist tradition. Drawing on parallels with the Darwinian revolution, I argue that these impasses can be overcome through a combination of population thinking and a relational approach to categorization. This combination provides the metatheoretical foundation for an "ecology of social action" which merges organizational ecology and resource mobilization theory's insights into structure-environment interactions with constructivists' attention to agency, language, culture and power. The concept of a socially constructed adaptive landscape is put forward as a central metaphor for linking the ecological and constructivist traditions.

Keywords: organizational ecology, constructivism, agency, essentialism, nominalism

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Public Participation in Watershed Management Planning: Views on Process from People in the Field

By Thomas Webler and Seth Tuler

Watershed planning is an important focus of environmental protection efforts in many states. Still, how to involve the public in watershed planning remains controversial. This paper reports on research that used Q methodology to study how experienced watershed management planners and activists perceive the proper way to involve the public in decision-making. Four perspectives about how best to involve the public in watershed planning emerged. One emphasizes that a good process is credible and legitimate and that it maintains popular acceptance for outcomes. A second sees a good process as one that produces technically competent outcomes. A third focuses on the fairness of the process. A fourth perspective pays attention to educating people and promoting constructive discourse. Differences among these views suggest an important challenge for those responsible for designing and carrying out public participation processes. Conflicts may emerge about process designs because people disagree about what is appropriate in specific contexts.

Keywords: public participation, Q methodology, watershed planning

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Elements and Test of a Theory of Neighborhood Civic Participation

By Michael R. Greenberg

A theory of neighborhood civic activity is proposed, and a telephone sample of 2,517 residents of the Philadelphia metropolitan region gathered for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press was used to test the theory. Two dimensions of neighborhood civic engagement were found, one with government and the political process, and the second with schools, hospitals, and other non-government organizations. Both forms of engagement were associated with a family history of public involvement, a strong sense of personal efficacy, relatively high socioeconomic status, and financial and long-term investments in the neighborhood. Beyond those similarities, those that engaged in government-related civic activities tended to be older, Black, cognizant of crime and blight problems in their area and not trust government and many people in their neighborhood. Non-governmental civic activism was most strongly correlated with younger women with strong religious ties who trust the people with whom they interact. Implications of these observations for building a broader theory of civic engagement and enhancing government policy are discussed.

Keywords: trust, neighborhoods, civic engagement, social capital, efficacy, environment

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Caiçara Communities of the Southeastern Coast of São Paulo State (Brazil): Traditional Activities and Conservation Policy for the Atlantic Rain Forest

By Rosely Alvim Sanches

This paper addresses the traditional resource use by Caiçara communities, their means of subsistence and the critical aspects related to their survival within a restrictive protected area - the Estação Ecológica de Juréia-Itatins (EEJI). This study is based on historical and social data and its approach is ethnographic and ethnoecological. Caiçara communities descend from the intermarriage of Portuguese colonists, Indian populations and African slaves. Traditional activities linked to the ecological calendars are analyzed within economic and environmental policy contexts. The response of Caiçara subsistence economy to external changes is also appraised. The EEJI is located on the southeastern coast of São Paulo State and is covered by the Atlantic Rain Forest. This forest is a severely endangered tropical and subtropical ecosystem, due to 500 years of demographic and urban growth. Knowledge of the historical background and the comprehension of the Caiçara resource and land use practices should be integrated to policies of preservation of the Atlantic Rain Forest and, particularly to EEJI management plans.

Keywords: Caiçara, Atlantic Rain Forest, ethnoecology, traditional communities, Juréia-Itatins

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Literary Theory and Ecology: Some Common Problems and a Solution

By Vernon Gras

At first glance, present literary theory (poststructuralism) and ecology seem to be going in opposite directions. Roland Barthes, for example, used the words "to naturalize" to describe the falsification of historically motivated conventional truth. For Barthes, culture is always a semiological system. Forget nature. Ecology, on the other hand advocates a return to nature. The looming catastrophe that awaits us is due to anthropocentrism. Our relation to nature is bogus; we must get back to a more genuine relationship with nature by paying attention to nature's requirements. Each position opposed in their use of nature seeks emancipation from the bondage of a misperception. However, it does not take long for a postmodern literary theorist to feel comfortable in the "natural" abode of the ecologist. Both seek emancipation from an inadequate cultural habitation inherited from the past. Both agree that a naïve "objectivity" or absolute is not available. But the literary theorist has to solve the problem of proliferating points of view and trivialization of standpoints. Ecology has to solve the essentializing of the new holistic paradigm as promoted by the deep ecologists. Using the lessons learned from feminist literary theory - a progress from essentialism (C. Spretnak and C. Wolf) to deconstruction (J. Butler) to dialogism (L. Alcoff and T. Lauretis) - ecology can also embrace dialogism as illustrated by William Cronon, Michael Pollan, and Carolyn Merchant. That ecology could also replace worn out patriarchal religions is a needed and hoped for prospect though still only speculation. F. Capra's The Web of Life (1996) embodies that prospect in an appealing non-idolatrous way.

Keywords: dialogism, feminism, social construction of reality, jumping the culture/nature gap, grand narratives, contingency

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Real Animals? An Inquiry on Behalf of Relational Zoöntology

By Ralph R. Acampora

The intelligibility of certain environmentalist critiques and animal advocacy positions is underwritten by a realist ontology of animality (or 'zoöntology'). Various constructionist commentaries in human ecology and allied fields tend to undermine this foundation. The present article seeks to defend an intermediate stance ontologically and epistemologically, so as to preserve the significance of eco-critical theories while allowing concerns of contextuality due entry into such analyses. Particular attention is paid to the ontic and epistemic standing of animate entities.

Keywords: realism, constructionism, zoöntology, animals, eco-criticism

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