Collaborative Research: Understanding lay theories of environmental change and adaptation in southern Appalachia

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

Collaborative Research: Understanding Lay Theories of Environmental Change, Climate Change, and Adaptation in Southern Appalachia The research funded by this award will investigate lay observations of environmental change: how people who live in a particular place use their own experiences to understand change in the natural world. The research will be conducted by Dr. Meredith Welch-Devine (University of Georgia) and Dr. Brian J. Burke (Appalachian State University), anthropologists affiliated with the NSF-supported Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program in southern Appalachia. Drawing on more than 80 years of data, Coweeta scientists have developed projections of future environmental change in the region and have outlined anticipated effects on local biodiversity and ecosystems. Their scientific findings provide a rich resource for local environmental governance and adaptation planning. In parallel, local non-scientist residents of the same region have gathered their own experiential data on biodiversity and change, transmitting it across generations and developing their own theories of its causes and consequences. Unfortunately, such local theories are rarely studied systematically even though they can be contribute significantly to science and to improved policy making. Place-based theories enhance science findings by connecting broad-scale changes to specific locations and micro-level change processes, as well as to the livelihoods, landscapes, and issues that move people to act. Because lay theories can significantly shape how we as a society respond and adapt to the changes around us, it is important to understand where local knowledge comes from and how it is affected by local history, economy, and culture. The Coweeta region provides an ideal venue for such an investigation because of the availability of comparative scientific data. Also, the region is home to a mix of long-term and newcomer populations with different ways of engaging the natural world. For some residents, nature provides their livelihood, while others have been drawn to the area by its scenic beauty and recreation opportunities. Recognizing that plants and animals are central to people's experiences of their environment, the researchers have chosen to focus on perceptions of biodiversity. They will construct a sample of 90 local residents stratified by how long they and their families have lived in the area (multi-generational residents, one or two generation residents, and newcomers). The researchers will conduct life history and environmental interaction interviews with all members of the sample. An additional 45 residents will be asked to complete comprehensive freelisting exercises to elicit their cognitive models of the natural world, which will be complemented with follow-up interviews focused on changes in the freelisted items. The researchers will also conduct semi-structured interviews with resource managers and environmental policy makers; analyze official documents for differential inclusion of local and scientific knowledge and concerns in policy making; and conduct participant observation at relevant community events. Findings will document how local non-scientists experience and understand the same environmental changes that Coweeta scientists are measuring and recording. Parallel research, funded elsewhere, is being conducted in France, Zimbabwe, and Cameroon; data will be analyzed at the country level and then across the four countries through synthesis workshops. The overall goal is to understand how perceptions of environmental change vary, why they vary, and what the implications are for planning and policy.