Pub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.22
Adam Mayer, M. Lopez, Guillaume Leturcq, E. Moran
Nations in the Global South have increasingly embraced large hydropower. Hydropower development typically involves the displacement and resettlement of entire communities and has a range of social and ecological impacts. Some communities become the operational center for the dam construction, as well as host new neighborhoods of resettlers. One of the less-studied impacts of dams is the potential loss of social capital both in resettled and host communities. Here, we ask how the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon is associated with social capital in a resettled group and a non-resettled population that, while not experiencing resettlement, nevertheless was impacted by the dam as well. We use measures of cognitive and structural social capital. Results suggest that resettlers have lower structural social capital across two proxy indicators, whereas the host community has lower cognitive social capital. Future research and social impact assessments should pay more attention to how hydropower impacts both kinds of social capital.
{"title":"Changes in Social Capital Associated with the Construction of the Belo Monte Dam: Comparing a Resettled and a Host Community","authors":"Adam Mayer, M. Lopez, Guillaume Leturcq, E. Moran","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.22","url":null,"abstract":"Nations in the Global South have increasingly embraced large hydropower. Hydropower development typically involves the displacement and resettlement of entire communities and has a range of social and ecological impacts. Some communities become the operational center for the dam construction, as well as host new neighborhoods of resettlers. One of the less-studied impacts of dams is the potential loss of social capital both in resettled and host communities. Here, we ask how the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon is associated with social capital in a resettled group and a non-resettled population that, while not experiencing resettlement, nevertheless was impacted by the dam as well. We use measures of cognitive and structural social capital. Results suggest that resettlers have lower structural social capital across two proxy indicators, whereas the host community has lower cognitive social capital. Future research and social impact assessments should pay more attention to how hydropower impacts both kinds of social capital.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41773621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.60
Marnie K. Watson, N. Alshabani, Scott Swiatek
Akron, Ohio, is home to many who came to the United States as refugees from Bhutan. Originally of Nepali background, they fled Bhutan during a period of ethnic cleansing beginning in the 1990s. As the Nepali/Bhutanese population grew, local providers (e.g., resettlement agencies, social services, emergency room personnel) noted significant levels of problem drinking compared to other local refugee populations. We use a Critical Medical Anthropology framework informed by intersectionality to illuminate the ways that both the intersecting identities and the interlocking systems of oppression experienced by refugees shape Nepali/Bhutanese experiences in the United States, particularly relating to drinking as a coping mechanism. This study focused on gaining local understandings surrounding alcohol use in the Nepali/Bhutanese community in order to inform culturally sustaining solutions for those who suffer from alcohol misuse. We found demographic variables of the Nepali/Bhutanese, particularly those related to gender and generation, intersect with additional identities acquired in the sociocultural system of the United States, such as that of “refugee,” resulting in unique reasons for problem drinking. Results indicate that these unique reasons for problem drinking necessitate a range of interventions. We provide recommendations for providers, community members, and future research.
{"title":"An Intersectional Approach to Problem Drinking in the Nepali/Bhutanese Community in Northeast Ohio","authors":"Marnie K. Watson, N. Alshabani, Scott Swiatek","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.60","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.60","url":null,"abstract":"Akron, Ohio, is home to many who came to the United States as refugees from Bhutan. Originally of Nepali background, they fled Bhutan during a period of ethnic cleansing beginning in the 1990s. As the Nepali/Bhutanese population grew, local providers (e.g., resettlement agencies, social services, emergency room personnel) noted significant levels of problem drinking compared to other local refugee populations. We use a Critical Medical Anthropology framework informed by intersectionality to illuminate the ways that both the intersecting identities and the interlocking systems of oppression experienced by refugees shape Nepali/Bhutanese experiences in the United States, particularly relating to drinking as a coping mechanism. This study focused on gaining local understandings surrounding alcohol use in the Nepali/Bhutanese community in order to inform culturally sustaining solutions for those who suffer from alcohol misuse. We found demographic variables of the Nepali/Bhutanese, particularly those related to gender and generation, intersect with additional identities acquired in the sociocultural system of the United States, such as that of “refugee,” resulting in unique reasons for problem drinking. Results indicate that these unique reasons for problem drinking necessitate a range of interventions. We provide recommendations for providers, community members, and future research.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42798931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.47
Madeline Brown, T. Murtha, Whittaker Schroder, Luwei Wang
Integrating cultural and natural resources for large landscape conservation remains an applied challenge for landscape planners and resource managers across North America. When resources are considered at a regional scale, developing shared priorities, definitions, and metrics is an essential but complex process for successful conservation partnerships. Strategies exist for designing regional conservation models for natural resources, but methods for cultural resource conservation planning often remain focused on individual sites and buildings. Here, we build on our previous work with the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives to advance frameworks and spatial models for regionally integrated natural and cultural resource conservation design and planning. Specifically, we present the results of our survey of cultural resource specialists in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States to better understand how cultural resources are defined, classified, and valued by this group. Methods from applied cognitive anthropology are useful for uncovering cultural consensus and more marginalized perspectives around resource management priorities, offering a clear pathway for integrating cultural and natural resource conservation. We conclude by restating a call for a National GAP-like research program for cultural resources that integrates diverse cultural practices, perspectives, histories, and values of communities for designing future conservation priorities.
{"title":"Defining Cultural Resources: A Case Study from the Mid-Atlantic United States","authors":"Madeline Brown, T. Murtha, Whittaker Schroder, Luwei Wang","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.47","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.47","url":null,"abstract":"Integrating cultural and natural resources for large landscape conservation remains an applied challenge for landscape planners and resource managers across North America. When resources are considered at a regional scale, developing shared priorities, definitions, and metrics is an essential but complex process for successful conservation partnerships. Strategies exist for designing regional conservation models for natural resources, but methods for cultural resource conservation planning often remain focused on individual sites and buildings. Here, we build on our previous work with the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives to advance frameworks and spatial models for regionally integrated natural and cultural resource conservation design and planning. Specifically, we present the results of our survey of cultural resource specialists in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States to better understand how cultural resources are defined, classified, and valued by this group. Methods from applied cognitive anthropology are useful for uncovering cultural consensus and more marginalized perspectives around resource management priorities, offering a clear pathway for integrating cultural and natural resource conservation. We conclude by restating a call for a National GAP-like research program for cultural resources that integrates diverse cultural practices, perspectives, histories, and values of communities for designing future conservation priorities.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":"696 24","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41281879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.83
Patricia M Clay, Courtland L. Smith
{"title":"Measuring Subjective and Objective Well-being: Analyses from Five Marine Commercial Fisheries—Where Are We Now?","authors":"Patricia M Clay, Courtland L. Smith","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.83","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.83","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67455935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.71
Lauren Smith
{"title":"Reflection on: “The Cultural Conceptions of Dengue Fever in the Cayo District of Belize”","authors":"Lauren Smith","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.71","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.71","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49336698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.1
Catherine M. Mitchell Fuentes
Feminists anthropologists have long fought against idealized discourses of the “good” mother based on traditional, White, middle-class, heterosexual values. Extensive participant-observation, in-depth interviews with twenty-one mothers and focus groups with a total of sixty-four mothers incarcerated in a large, urban county jail in North Carolina revealed marginalized women’s pathways to incarceration via trauma (particularly physical/sexual violence beginning in childhood) and its sequela (e.g., substance abuse, sex work, abusive partners) within a context of scarce resources. This research sought to illuminate how such events have shaped women’s motherhood experiences, definitions of “good” mothers, self-definitions as mothers, and motherhood goals. Incarcerated mothers in this study both accepted and resisted hegemonic discourses of “good” mothering by simultaneously retaining and redefining motherhood in adverse circumstances in ways that can be best understood through the model of motherhood that I label the “struggling good mother.” Specific service and policy recommendations are offered that address ways to ameliorate the structural inequalities that prevent marginalized women’s ability to access basic resources needed to break the seemingly endless cycle of trauma, its consequences, and incarceration in the lives of incarcerated mothers and their children.
{"title":"The “Struggling Good Mother:” The Role of Marginalization, Trauma, and Interpersonal Violence in Incarcerated Women’s Mothering Experiences and Goals","authors":"Catherine M. Mitchell Fuentes","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.1","url":null,"abstract":"Feminists anthropologists have long fought against idealized discourses of the “good” mother based on traditional, White, middle-class, heterosexual values. Extensive participant-observation, in-depth interviews with twenty-one mothers and focus groups with a total of sixty-four mothers incarcerated in a large, urban county jail in North Carolina revealed marginalized women’s pathways to incarceration via trauma (particularly physical/sexual violence beginning in childhood) and its sequela (e.g., substance abuse, sex work, abusive partners) within a context of scarce resources. This research sought to illuminate how such events have shaped women’s motherhood experiences, definitions of “good” mothers, self-definitions as mothers, and motherhood goals. Incarcerated mothers in this study both accepted and resisted hegemonic discourses of “good” mothering by simultaneously retaining and redefining motherhood in adverse circumstances in ways that can be best understood through the model of motherhood that I label the “struggling good mother.” Specific service and policy recommendations are offered that address ways to ameliorate the structural inequalities that prevent marginalized women’s ability to access basic resources needed to break the seemingly endless cycle of trauma, its consequences, and incarceration in the lives of incarcerated mothers and their children.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42580764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-29DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.282
J. Scott
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half of the United States prison population, or five times the rate found in the general population, had been infected. Limited social distancing and difficult to implement preventative measures helped to spread COVID-19 in prisons, while many incarcerated individuals felt that government policy prevented their ability to self-care. These feelings of alienation reflect a history of policy that links disease to deviance and social death. Based on the written self-reflections of anthropology students in Wisconsin prisons, this article outlines an ethnographic and pedagogical model for analyzing pandemic policy. Students learned to relate anthropological terminology to their critiques of policy and revealed how prisoners adapted to feelings of invisibility and hopelessness during a pandemic.
{"title":"“Whoever Dies, Dies”: A Pedagogical Model forUnderstanding the COVID-19 Outbreak in United States Prisons","authors":"J. Scott","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.282","url":null,"abstract":"A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half of the United States prison population, or five times the rate found in the general population, had been infected. Limited social distancing and difficult to implement preventative measures helped to spread COVID-19 in prisons, while many incarcerated individuals felt that government policy prevented their ability to self-care. These feelings of alienation reflect a history of policy that links disease to deviance and social death. Based on the written self-reflections of anthropology students in Wisconsin prisons, this article outlines an ethnographic and pedagogical model for analyzing pandemic policy. Students learned to relate anthropological terminology to their critiques of policy and revealed how prisoners adapted to feelings of invisibility and hopelessness during a pandemic.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48895789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-29DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.272
Shana Harris, Allison Schlosser
Harm reduction is a public health approach that emphasizes reducing the negative effects of drug use rather than eliminating it. It has been practiced for decades; however, the COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges for people who use drugs (PWUD) and harm reduction providers. In the United States, public health recommendations to curb the pandemic are complicating harm reduction efforts. Harm reduction programs are rethinking how they engage with PWUD to comply with these recommendations while also providing essential services. In this article, we draw on academic literature, news articles, and information distributed by harm reduction programs to discuss issues currently faced by PWUD and harm reduction providers across the country. This discussion focuses on policy changes and programming adaptations related to three harm reduction interventions—syringe services programs, overdose prevention, and medications for opioid use disorder—that have emerged or gained traction during the pandemic. We argue that anthropologists should play a key role in addressing the obstacles and opportunities for harm reduction in the United States during and post-pandemic. Ethnographic research can generate important knowledge of how pandemic-related service and policy changes are localized by providers and experienced by PWUD and uncover how race, class, and gender may shape access to and experiences with modified harm reduction services. Applied anthropologists also have an important role in collaborating with harm reduction programs to ensure that the voices of marginalized individuals are not ignored as policy and programming changes take place during and after the pandemic.
{"title":"At the Intersection of Harm Reduction and COVID-19: The Role of Anthropologists during and Post-Pandemic","authors":"Shana Harris, Allison Schlosser","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.272","url":null,"abstract":"Harm reduction is a public health approach that emphasizes reducing the negative effects of drug use rather than eliminating it. It has been practiced for decades; however, the COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges for people who use drugs (PWUD) and harm reduction providers. In the United States, public health recommendations to curb the pandemic are complicating harm reduction efforts. Harm reduction programs are rethinking how they engage with PWUD to comply with these recommendations while also providing essential services. In this article, we draw on academic literature, news articles, and information distributed by harm reduction programs to discuss issues currently faced by PWUD and harm reduction providers across the country. This discussion focuses on policy changes and programming adaptations related to three harm reduction interventions—syringe services programs, overdose prevention, and medications for opioid use disorder—that have emerged or gained traction during the pandemic. We argue that anthropologists should play a key role in addressing the obstacles and opportunities for harm reduction in the United States during and post-pandemic. Ethnographic research can generate important knowledge of how pandemic-related service and policy changes are localized by providers and experienced by PWUD and uncover how race, class, and gender may shape access to and experiences with modified harm reduction services. Applied anthropologists also have an important role in collaborating with harm reduction programs to ensure that the voices of marginalized individuals are not ignored as policy and programming changes take place during and after the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41399811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-29DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.332
Kristin Hedges
There have been enormous strides in response to the AIDS epidemic in the past decades; however, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) remain at high risk for new HIV infection throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Recognizing this continued discrepancy, I call for more attention to girls’ perceptions of vulnerabilities by revisiting an ethnographic study of HIV risk carried out in 2004 in a rural community in Kenya. My analysis situates Maasai AGYW perceptions and understandings of HIV risk as a culturally constructed idiom of distress: “Ukimwi ni Homa” (AIDS is a fever). I examine the emic perspectives of HIV vulnerability and the association of sexual relationships within the context of economic precarity. Findings demonstrate how references to fevers expressed feelings of helplessness, which increased indifference to HIV risk. This indifference led AGYW to prioritize imminent economic needs over long-term effects of a viral infection that they perceived as inevitable. Critically reflecting on AGYW understandings of their own risk perceptions can influence effective HIV intervention design. My conclusions support the need for tailoring combination prevention approaches to address perceived vulnerabilities within populations. Such perspectives add valuable insights to studies rooted in cultural constructions of illness perspective.
在过去几十年中,在应对艾滋病流行方面取得了巨大进展;然而,在整个撒哈拉以南非洲地区,少女和年轻妇女感染新的艾滋病毒的风险仍然很高。认识到这种持续的差异,我呼吁通过重新审视2004年在肯尼亚一个农村社区进行的一项关于艾滋病毒风险的民族志研究,更多地关注女孩对脆弱性的看法。我的分析将马赛AGYW对艾滋病毒风险的看法和理解定位为一种文化构建的痛苦习语:“Ukimwi ni Homa”(艾滋病是一种发烧)。我在经济不稳定的背景下研究了艾滋病毒脆弱性和性关系关联的流行病视角。研究结果表明,发烧是如何表达无助感的,这增加了人们对艾滋病毒风险的漠不关心。这种漠不关心导致AGYW将迫在眉睫的经济需求置于他们认为不可避免的病毒感染的长期影响之上。批判性地反思AGYW对自身风险认知的理解可以影响有效的HIV干预设计。我的结论支持有必要调整组合预防方法,以解决人们认为的脆弱性。这些观点为植根于疾病视角的文化建构的研究增添了宝贵的见解。
{"title":"Maasai Girls’ Experiences of Ukimwi ni Homa (AIDS Is a Fever): Idioms of Vulnerability and HIV Risk in East Africa","authors":"Kristin Hedges","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.332","url":null,"abstract":"There have been enormous strides in response to the AIDS epidemic in the past decades; however, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) remain at high risk for new HIV infection throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Recognizing this continued discrepancy, I call for more attention to girls’ perceptions of vulnerabilities by revisiting an ethnographic study of HIV risk carried out in 2004 in a rural community in Kenya. My analysis situates Maasai AGYW perceptions and understandings of HIV risk as a culturally constructed idiom of distress: “Ukimwi ni Homa” (AIDS is a fever). I examine the emic perspectives of HIV vulnerability and the association of sexual relationships within the context of economic precarity. Findings demonstrate how references to fevers expressed feelings of helplessness, which increased indifference to HIV risk. This indifference led AGYW to prioritize imminent economic needs over long-term effects of a viral infection that they perceived as inevitable. Critically reflecting on AGYW understandings of their own risk perceptions can influence effective HIV intervention design. My conclusions support the need for tailoring combination prevention approaches to address perceived vulnerabilities within populations. Such perspectives add valuable insights to studies rooted in cultural constructions of illness perspective.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42078264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-29DOI: 10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.322
A. Cantor
Despite Costa Rica’s efforts to promote international tourism, the economy continues to struggle with unprecedented unemployment rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially concerning for tourism-dependent regions, such as the Monteverde Zone, where most residents have abandoned land-based livelihoods in favor of tourism. This study uses photovoice to illustrate the ways that small-scale food producers have adapted to the unique challenges of the COVID-19 global pandemic in a region that was already experiencing a loss of agrarian identity. Overall, local food producers have been affected by the diminished tourism economy through the closing of restaurants and the decrease in tourists, causing them to experience crop loss. Food producers have adapted to the economic impacts of the pandemic by re-investing their efforts into a local economy. As part of this shifting strategy, some food producers have begun to expand, diversify, and embrace an approach to growing food that is in line with building more resilient models of food production and engaging with their clients in different ways. Using community-based participatory methods, this study illustrates how food producers have adapted to changes brought on by the pandemic, re-positioning some of these rural agrarian actors as prominent figures in the local food movement.
{"title":"Through the Eyes on the Ground: Re-positioning Rural Agrarian Actors as Leaders in the Local Food Movement during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"A. Cantor","doi":"10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-80.4.322","url":null,"abstract":"Despite Costa Rica’s efforts to promote international tourism, the economy continues to struggle with unprecedented unemployment rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially concerning for tourism-dependent regions, such as the Monteverde Zone, where most residents have abandoned land-based livelihoods in favor of tourism. This study uses photovoice to illustrate the ways that small-scale food producers have adapted to the unique challenges of the COVID-19 global pandemic in a region that was already experiencing a loss of agrarian identity. Overall, local food producers have been affected by the diminished tourism economy through the closing of restaurants and the decrease in tourists, causing them to experience crop loss. Food producers have adapted to the economic impacts of the pandemic by re-investing their efforts into a local economy. As part of this shifting strategy, some food producers have begun to expand, diversify, and embrace an approach to growing food that is in line with building more resilient models of food production and engaging with their clients in different ways. Using community-based participatory methods, this study illustrates how food producers have adapted to changes brought on by the pandemic, re-positioning some of these rural agrarian actors as prominent figures in the local food movement.","PeriodicalId":47620,"journal":{"name":"Human Organization","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47525641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}