Browsing by Subject "Political Ecology"

Large-scale Marine Protected Areas (LSMPAs) have recently and rapidly proliferated as a tool in global conservation governance, despite growing concerns for the implications for social justice and equity. This dissertation contributes to the emergent scholarship on the “human dimensions” of LSMPAs through a qualitative, multi-sited ethnography of the process of establishing two LSMPAs in Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), focusing on how politics and power affect outcomes for equity in marine conservation practice. It engages with the anthropological literature on conservation, using the framework of political ontology to explore the following three, thematic research questions:

1) Collapsing the Nature/Culture Divide: What are the “human dimensions” of large-scale marine conservation in sites characterized as “remote” and “pristine”?

2) Identifying Multi-natures in LSMPA Establishment: What are the effects of LSMPAs that purport to conserve remote and pristine spaces on indigenous ontologies of marine territory in Rapa Nui?

3) Multi-culturalism in LSMPA Establishment: How do the power relations and the politics of authority and recognition within participatory LSMPA establishment processes affect social justice outcomes for the indigenous Rapanui people?

Overall, this dissertation engages with anthropological theories of conservation and the emergent field of political ontology to provide an account of the human dimensions of LSMPAs, with a focus on how ontological politics and power relations affect indigenous participation in establishment processes. The dissertation is divided into three chapters, which are introduced with short, ethnographic vignettes that root this data within its ethnographic context and use storytelling to further develop the theoretical contributions of each chapter through the words and perspectives of the individuals who contributed to this ethnography. This dissertation contributes to anthropological analyses of conservation practice through an ethnographic account of the ontological dimensions of environmental conflict. It contributes to the burgeoning literature on the human dimensions of LSMPAs through an empirical engagement with participatory practice in LSMPA establishment processes.

In the United States, marine aquaculture is increasingly viewed as way to offset stagnating wild fisheries production, help faltering coastal community economies, and address a growing national seafood trade deficit. The national government has outwardly supported the development of the sector through policies, plans, and other statements. However, many social and environmental questions surround prospective expansion, and actual policy development and implementation has been slow. This dissertation builds on recent work in human geography and policy studies to explore US national marine aquaculture policy processes, conceptualizing policy as a dynamic assemblage of actors, spaces, practices, and relations. It contributes to our understanding of oceans geography and policy processes by addressing three questions: (1) How do actors interact within the assemblage negotiate, construct, and develop national policies? (2) What practices are actors employing to shape aquaculture policymaking, and what views underlie them? (3) What are the practical, and often local, implications of these processes, and how do actors interact with and within policy development (or not)?

These questions are approached empirically by tracing the US national marine aquaculture policy assemblage across time, space, and scale. The dissertation draws on research conducted within and outside the US government, focusing on the internal practices of the state and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as a case of local and regional policy implementation and development in New England. It also focuses on offshore aquaculture policy, as well as marine aquaculture more generally. The dissertation uses discourse analysis, ethnography, and other approaches to conduct a geographic policy analysis that explores the processes and relationships producing national marine aquaculture policy in the United States.

Overall, this research shows that broad or monolithic conceptualization of the state, its motivations, its practices, and their implications are oversimplified. The federal government features a diversity of actors, discourses, and ideas about marine aquaculture and its policy development, which manifest in different paths to reform and conflicting efforts within the state itself. Further, national policy processes are not contained within the national government, but are co-produced by mobile and dynamic actors and policies across contexts. Actors deploy particular discourses about marine aquaculture’s risks and opportunities, government agencies and offices claim and reclaim authority over the sector, bureaucrats engage in diverse everyday policy practices and interactions, and policy ideas and policies themselves change as they are translated and deployed in new spaces and by different actors. Together, these processes suggest that rather than expecting a totalizing form of marine aquaculture development in the United State, it is important to consider the ruptures and opportunities within the assemblage that might allow for alternative forms of policy, coordination, and implementation at all scales.