18,621 research outputs found
Promoting Inclusivity in the Archive: A literature review reassessing tradition through theory and practice
The call for social justice and rise of postmodernism in the second half of the 20th century forced the critical re-evaluation of the traditional archive and its presumed neutral role in the collection and creation of history. Reappraisal of traditional archive theory and practice was forced by heightened critical conscious among the field and its constituents. This literature review examines contemporary methodologies and methods influenced by the postmodern movement and call for social justice in the archive. Affect theory, radical empathy, and queer/ed methodology provide new frameworks for the thinking about the archive space and work towards the creation of a more diverse and inclusive archive. The collection of oral histories and participatory, community archiving practices provide concrete methods for employing the aforementioned theories. This paper purports that these ideas may be better framed within the context of the post-postmodern movement of metamodernism and calls for the continual evaluation of archival theory and practice within this vein
Payments for Environmental Services: Some Nuts and Bolts
Payments for environmental services (PES) are part of a new and more direct conservation paradigm, explicitly recognizing the need to bridge the interests of landowners and outsiders. Eloquent theoretical assessments have praised the absolute advantages of PES over traditional conservation approaches. Some pilot PES exist in the tropics, but many fi eld practitioners and prospective service buyers and sellers remain skeptical about the concept. This paper aims to help demystify PES for non-economists, starting with a simple and coherent defi nition of the term. It then provides practical 'how-to' hints for PES design. It considers the likely niche for PES in the portfolio of conservation approaches. This assessment is based on a literature review, combined with fi eld observations from research in Latin America and Asia. It concludes that service users will continue to drive PES, but their willingness to pay will only rise if schemes can demonstrate clear additionality vis-Ă -vis carefully established baselines, if trust-building processes with service providers are sustained, and PES recipients' livelihood dynamics is better understood. PES best suits intermediate and/or projected threat scenarios, often in marginal lands with moderate conservation opportunity costs. People facing credible but medium-sized environmental degradation are more likely to become PES recipients than those living in relative harmony with Nature. The choice between PES cash and in-kind payments is highly context-dependent. Poor PES recipients are likely to gain from participation, though their access might be constrained and non-participating landless poor could lose out. PES is a highly promising conservation approach that can benefi t buyers, sellers and improv
Use of a Bayesian belief network to predict the impacts of commercializing non-timber forest products on livelihoods
Commercialization of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has been widely promoted as a means of sustainably developing tropical forest resources, in a way that promotes forest conservation while supporting rural livelihoods. However, in practice, NTFP commercialization has often failed to deliver the expected benefits. Progress in analyzing the causes of such failure has been hindered by the lack of a
suitable framework for the analysis of NTFP case studies, and by the lack of predictive theory. We address
these needs by developing a probabilistic model based on a livelihood framework, enabling the impact of
NTFP commercialization on livelihoods to be predicted. The framework considers five types of capital
asset needed to support livelihoods: natural, human, social, physical, and financial. Commercialization of
NTFPs is represented in the model as the conversion of one form of capital asset into another, which is
influenced by a variety of socio-economic, environmental, and political factors. Impacts on livelihoods are
determined by the availability of the five types of assets following commercialization. The model,
implemented as a Bayesian Belief Network, was tested using data from participatory research into 19 NTFP
case studies undertaken in Mexico and Bolivia. The model provides a novel tool for diagnosing the causes
of success and failure in NTFP commercialization, and can be used to explore the potential impacts of
policy options and other interventions on livelihoods. The potential value of this approach for the
development of NTFP theory is discussed
Revisiting a Feminist Ethics of Care in Archives: An Introductory Note
In this featured commentary, Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor revisit their article, âFrom Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in Archivesâ* and update its insights to reflect care work in our present time of crisis.
Pre-print first published online 06/11/2021
*Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor, âFrom Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in Archives,â Archivaria 81 (Spring 2016): 23-43
Migration and forests in the Peruvian Amazon: a review
This paper reviews the literature on the links between migration and forests in the Peruvian Amazon. It highlights
not only the complexity of the migrantâforest interface in Peru but also the relative lack of research on these
dynamics. Historically, official narratives point to migrants as both the culprits of, and solutions to, the Amazonâs problems. At times, the government has promoted colonization of the Amazon as a means to integrate the region into the country as well as to encourage agricultural expansion and alleviate pressure on limited land in the Andes. In other periods, migrants are blamed for deforestation and environmental degradation in the region. These discourses oversimplify the complexity of the reality facing migrants to the Amazon and the factors that âpushâ them away from their birthplaces and/or âpullâ them to the Amazon. They also treat migrants as a homogenous
group, underestimating: the role of migration within the Amazon, the cyclical nature of migration, processes of
urbanization and multi-site households, and the diversity of livelihoods migrants pursue upon arrival. A more
detailed understanding of migrants, migration and the related conditions and processes driving human mobility
in the Amazon should provide a more effective foundation for defining public policy in the region, for example,
for the identification of strategies to mitigate the impacts of road construction or to support sustainable models of production in areas occupied by smallholder farm families. This review is intended as a step toward a fuller
understanding of these processes by compiling existing information as a point of departure
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