7,999 research outputs found

    Swimming with captive dolphins: current debates and post-experience dissonance

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    Dolphins have widespread contemporary appeal and anthropomorphic social representations of dolphins have fuelled a growing desire in tourist populations to seek interaction with them. This paper is concerned with the staged performance of swim-with-dolphin interaction programmes in aquaria. Qualitative interviews with tourists who have swum with captive dolphins identified their immediate recollections and stressed the grace, size and power of dolphins, but also a belief that the experience was too staged, too short and too expensive. Post-purchase dissonance focused on concerns with the size of enclosures and about captivity, too many tricks, limited interpretation and unfulfilled expectations of a quality interaction

    Claiming Spaces: Proceedings of the 2007 National Maori and Pacific Psychologies Symposium 23rd-24th November 2007

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    This is the full conference proceedings of Claiming Spaces: Proceedings of the 2007 National Maori and Pacific Psychologies Symposium 23rd-24th November 2007

    Blue therapeutic spaces on islands : coastal landscapes and their impact on the health and wellbeing of people in Malta

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    This paper emphasises that the coastal environment is important for the health and wellbeing of inhabitants living in deprived neighbourhoods in the small island state of Malta. Using qualitative research, it explores how the respondents experience their interaction with the coast and the sea in diverse ways and how this impacts on their health and wellbeing. Making use of qualitative in-depth interviews it analyses the symbolic connections that the respondents have with the sea, the potential that the natural, coastal environment has in enhancing physical activity and mental wellbeing, feelings of embodiment, social interaction and the aspect of temporality. Yet, some nostalgic memories also referred to the aspect of loss and the importance of protection of the natural coastline. This paper acknowledges the deep emotions and strong loving connections that Maltese inhabitants have with the coastal environment and how valuable these spaces are for their health and wellbeing. The fluid, dynamic landforms at sea are greatly important for the health and wellbeing of these individuals and are highly valued therapeutic landscapes within a densely built up environmental island context.peer-reviewe

    Climate Change Narrative for the Indonesian Village

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    The sponsor for this project was the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES), a community environment park in Australia. We conducted interviews with 32 Indonesian living in Melbourne collecting 10 hours of footage. Using the major themes raised by the interviewees we produced five short-form educational videos on flooding, changes in seasons and weather patterns, air pollution, development and deforestation, and improper rubbish disposal. These videos will be used by CERES to educate the school groups in the Indonesian village, and be accessible to all visitors through the CERES mobile app. We created an archive with detailed, timestamped notes that will enable the efficient creation of future videos by CERES staff as well as later IQP teams

    Decolonising the Waters: Interspecies Encounters Between Sharks and Humans

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    Often portrayed as ‘man–eaters’, sharks are one of the most maligned apex species on earth. Media representation has fuelled public imagination, perpetuating fear and negative stereotypes of sharks and hysteria around human-shark interactions; whilst government initiatives such as beach netting and drum-lines target sharks for elimination. This interdisciplinary article, written from the points of view of environmental science and cultural studies, proposes humans as simply another species when entering the ocean, presenting a decolonising shift in paradigm that supports an interspecies ethics of engagement in understanding shark-human interactions. The shifting environmental, political, social and cultural realities of shark-human interactions are examined from the point of view of an endangered species that is hunted by humans in the pursuit of making beaches ‘safe’ for human leisure activities. The human ‘right to leisure’ enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) raises philosophical and ethical implications in respect of human rights taking precedence over a species’ right to live in its environment. The article builds upon philosophical debates in environmental ethics, offering a point of cultural recognition of the profound imbalance that is being imposed upon Nature. The article proposes a shift in approaches to human attitudes and uses of the ocean, decentralizing the anthropocentric, reinstating the ecological kinship of species

    A perspective on radical transformations to sustainability: resistances, movements and alternatives

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    A transformation to sustainability calls for radical and systemic societal shifts. Yet what this entails in practice and who the agents of this radical transformation are require further elaboration. This article recenters the role of environmental justice movements in transformations, arguing that the systemic, multi-dimensional and intersectional approach inherent in EJ activism is uniquely placed to contribute to the realization of equitable sustainable futures. Based on a perspective of conflict as productive, and a “conflict transformation” approach that can address the root issues of ecological conflicts and promote the emergence of alternatives, we lay out a conceptual framework for understanding transformations through a power analysis that aims to confront and subvert hegemonic power relations; that is, multi-dimensional and intersectional; balancing ecological concerns with social, economic, cultural and democratic spheres; and is multi-scalar, and mindful of impacts across place and space. Such a framework can help analyze and recognize the contribution of grassroots EJ movements to societal transformations to sustainability and support and aid radical transformation processes. While transitions literature tends to focus on artifacts and technologies, we suggest that a resistance-centred perspective focuses on the creation of new subjectivities, power relations, values and institutions. This recenters the agency of those who are engaged in the creation and recuperation of ecological and new ways of being in the world in the needed transformation
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