Hi again, well, yesterday's and today's posts have provided lots of food for thought.
First, in response to Phil wondering about the lull in environmental concerns and Wendy referring him to World Watch.... If I could recommend some perhaps more even-handed sites (WW is a bit too neo-malthusian for me, since we need to be open about our perspectives) take a look at the results of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx) or the World Resources Institute website (www.wri.org). I might also add that I work for a project that is co-sponsored by several so-called "international global environmental change research programs" -- the International Geospher-Biosphere Program (IGBP), the World Climate Resaerch Program (WCRP) and the International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP)-- all of which are co-sponsoring our project, which is trying to get a handle on current and future threats that global environmental change pose for food systems and food security. So, Phil, in some parts of the virtual world, environmental concerns are alive and well, and people are trying to bring science to bear on policy concerns through integrated/ interdisciplinary scientific approaches! Just a note on frameworks: the MA used a framework that it took an entire book to explain, but in response to Margaret's point about whether it matters where frameworks come from, OH YES.. is my answer. Even within the very multi-disciplinary MA, there was a bias from the start towards ecologists and world-reknowned scientists, which they tried to redress with a lot of success but not total, as it was too late to correct for all of the (implict and explicit) power relationships already in place. Now to question 2 of Topic 2: How can a learning approach help the science/user/policy dialogue? Well, ideally, a learning approach will help the dialogue because everyone comes to the table to learn from one another. Thus no one body of knowledge should inherently be privledged over another-- however, we cannot be naive about power structures. Similiarly to some of you, I also started out trying to do "participatory" research with smallholder farmers. In between and at the moment my focus is more on scientific researchers and those involved in the "policy process"... but the skills I learned working with farmers always apply, although the issues about how to construct the dialogue are different, of course, because the context and power relationships are different. Re getting the dialogue started -- most advice on informing the policy process will tell you to start with concerns relevant to policy makers... which can be tricky for environmental issues.. Within my project, GECAFS, we have started to talk about the initial policy- science dialogue as a period of "mutual awareness raising". The most interesting conceptual framework for policy-science dialogue that I have found lately are the scenarios exercises undertaken in the MA and now being adapted by others... check out the following citations: Carpenter, S. and L. Gunderson. 2001 Coping with Collapse: Ecological and Social Dynamics in Ecosytem Management. BioScience 51 (6) and Walker, B. et al. 2002. Resilience management in social-ecological systems: a working hypothesis for a participatory approach. Conservation Ecology 6(1) art14 Actually the online journal Ecology and Society which is run by the Resilience Alliance has some creative minds contributing to topics of relevance to this group. It is open access so check it out. Best to all, Polly Polly Ericksen GECAFS International Project Office NERC - Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Wallingford Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK Tel: +44 1491 692210 Fax: +44 1491 692313 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GECAFS Website: http://www.gecafs.org ECI website: http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/ -- This message (and any attachments) is for the recipient only. NERC is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the contents of this email and any reply you make may be disclosed by NERC unless it is exempt from release under the Act. Any material supplied to NERC may be stored in an electronic records management system. _______________________________________________ IntSci mailing list [email protected] http://mail.learningforsustainability.net/mailman/listinfo/intsci_learningforsustainability.net
