Symbolic Politics or Generification ? The Ambivalent Implications of Tree Ordinations in the Thai Environmental Movement

Since the early 1990s, tree ordinations have become an important practice for some Thai environmental activists who seek greater legitimacy for local management and use of natural resources.  This paper, explores the political and cultural effects of tree ordinations by applying the concepts of “cultural objectification” and “cultural generification. It argues that recent uses of tree ordinations depend on a process of cultural objectification, facilitating the generification of the ritual and its various components as an example of the larger category of “local wisdom.” Significant forms of power difference are implicated in the process. Middle class NGO activists largely controlled the practice and representation of the ritual and its symbols, and tended to objectify and simplify the values and practices of rural people. The tree ordinations of 1996-1997, dedicated to King Rama IX, had the further effect of symbolically bolstering the hierarchical structure of the Thai state and Thai society as a whole – a structure in which local leaders and middle class NGO activists exercise power as arbiters of “good” and “bad” culture among rural people. These are the ambiguous implications to which the title of this article refers: a process of objectification and generification and its place in the reproduction of a hierarchical political and cultural order, together with some decidedly positive outcomes of tree ordinations for the conservation and control of natural resources by rural people. Key words: Thailand, environmental activism, social hierarchy, power, cultural objectification

The library study at Fresno State

From the Institute of Public Anthropology, pp. 1-58, available online: http://fresnostate.edu/socialsciences/anthropology/documents/ipa/TheLibraryStudy(DelcoreMulloolyScroggins).pdf. Copyright © 2009 by Fresno State

Interactions between urban water policy, residential irrigation, and plant & bird diversity in the Fresno-Clovis Metro Area

*Background/Question/Methods:*

Ecological theory has begun to incorporate humans as part of coupled socio-ecological systems. Modern urban development provides an excellent laboratory to examine the interplay among socio-ecological relationships. Urban land and water management decisions result from dynamic interactions between institutional, individual and ecological factors. Landscaping and irrigation at any particular residence, for example, is a product of geography, hydrology, soil, and other local environmental conditions, the homeowners’ cultural preferences, socioeconomic status, identity construction, neighborhood dynamics, as well as zoning laws, market conditions, city policies, and county/state/federal government regulations. Since land and water management are key determinants of habitat for other species, urban biodiversity is strongly driven by the outcome of interactions between these variables. This study addresses the significance of water as a key variable in the Fresno-Clovis Metropolitan Area (FCMA), shaping current patterns of landscape and water use, at a time when the city of Fresno is installing meters as a regulatory tool to conserve water. We combine data from a citizen science bird monitoring project, field surveys of trees, and mail surveys of residents to address interactions among key components of the urban socioecological system.

*Results/Conclusions:*

We present results of multivariate analyses of bird and tree surveys to show that neighborhood income and irrigation levels interact to influence species diversity of both taxa. Data from the Fresno Bird Count found that bird species richness and functional group diversity are both strongly correlated with residential irrigation and neighborhood income levels. Tree species diversity shows a similar pattern. We examine these results to test and develop several theoretical models explaining outdoor water use behaviors, with the aim of assessing the resilience of such behaviors with the introduction of water metering in Fresno, and the resilience of urban plant and bird communities to resulting changes in water use in the landscape. We argue that socioeconomic status results from a complex interplay of cultural, economic, structural, and social-psychological factors, influencing institutional policies regarding the governance of water resources, and in turn impacts biodiversity within the urban landscape through spatial and temporal variations in water usage. This study is part of a long-term research project that examines the impacts of human water usage and water use policies on biodiversity within an urban environment

College Students, Technology, and Time

Our research explores CUNY students’ lived experiences using digital technology in and out of class, on and off campus. Beyond checking grades or emailing a professor, students use digital technology to create space and time for their schoolwork. However, technology can also impede students’ opportunities for making space and time. Understanding how students use digital technology is crucial for colleges and universities to better support students in their academic work

Development and the life story of a Thai farmer leader

In the anthropology of development, the contributions of poststructuralist theory have been marred by tendencies toward discursive determinism and an inadequate theorizing of agency. The life history approach is a strategy for probing the cultural politics of development in a way that better addresses the reality of development actors. Development does not just determine what counts as knowledge or truth, but also opens opportunities for individual cultural experiments. Richard Fox's concept of the "cultured life" is here used to explore the various cultural and political entanglements in the life of a northern Thai farmer who has helped pioneer a new form of agricultural development in Thailand.Ethnology, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Winter, 2004), pp. 33-50https://doi.org/10.2307/377385

Situatedness and Variations in Student Adoption of Technology Practices: Towards a Critical Techno-Pedagogy

Aim/Purpose: The effective adoption of an ICT across every segment of the student population may occur where the design, implementation and supports recognize and adjust for variations in adoption practices across the student population and the situatedness of the promoted ICT adoption. The goal of this study was to demonstrate methods to explicate variations in perceptions and meanings associated with the adoption of a technology; facilitate the segmentation of the population based upon these variations and sociodemographic variables; constitute agents’ practice, within a respective segment, based upon their behaviors and beliefs; and compare these agents’ adoption of a specific technological practice relative to their adoption of the critical practice of effectively selecting and using technologies. Background: Students emerge into a world infused with ICT where the critical technological practice of effectively selecting and using ICT affects students’ participation in a network society and information economy. Education policies and practices, regarding technology use for instruction and learning, often assume student populations are homogenous in their perceptions and practices concerning a given technology and do not account for how situatedness influences students’ perceptions and experience with technology. Universities and faculty, while promoting an ICT, may unintentionally reproduce inequity when not attentive to the ways in which students, as socially situated actors, acquire or fail to acquire the practice of effectively adopting technological innovations. Methodology: This study was an instrumental case study of the phenomenon of ICT adoption, in this instance tablet technology for academic purposes, at a public university where over 30% of students in the study self-identified as the first generation university attending student within their household. This study utilized mixed methods to identify students’ perceptions regarding this ICT, using a two-phase survey (phase 1 n=652; phase 2 n=440), and then explored students’ experiences and associated meanings regarding this technology through the use of photo diary interviews (n=11) and focus groups (n=6,6,2). The survey items were based upon constructs found in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. These constructs include determinants and moderators for behavioral intention and use behavior for user adoption of a specific ICT. Contribution: This study contributed to research as follows: 1) ICT adoption from students’ perspectives; 2) evidence for segments within populations based upon perceptions and meanings associated with ICT adoption; 3) evidence for how situatedness affects adoption; 4) a practice-oriented approach that distinguishes adoption of a specific technology relative to efficacious practice of selecting and using ICT; and 5) how promoting adoption of a specific technology, given effects of situatedness and variations in segments, may help or hinder the adoption of the critical practice of effectively selecting and using technology thereby affecting students’ participation in modern society. This study points to ways to better understand and support segments of students based upon variations in ICT perceptions and practices, differences in ICT assemblages, and dissimilar situatedness. This study advocates for a criticaltechno-pedagogy whereby students culti-vate the practice of critically choosing and effectively using ICT thereby improving their agency within a digital society. Findings: The findings from this study included 1) variations among students in perceptions, meanings, and practices associated with the adoption of a specific technology; 2) segments of students, based upon sociodemographic variables, for whom there were similar perceptions, meanings, and practices; 3) situatedness affecting students’ adoption of a given technology based upon students’ available ICT assemblage, instructional context, settings of student work, and social and cultural contexts; and, finally, 4) technology adoption as a practice, shared from teacher to students and promulgated within an educational institution, may compel some students to adopt a given technology rather than promote the critical practice of effective selection and use of ICT. Recommendations for Practitioners: Universities and faculty should ascertain and accommodate segments of students who have variations in perceptions and practices associated with ICT adoption as well as differences in situatedness relative to students’ available ICT assemblage, instructional contexts, and social contexts. Universities should insist on student participation in the design and implementation for prospective ICT adoptions and ensure student voice from a diverse set of students. Universities should accommodate variations among student segments by tuning ICT designs, implementations, and supports for each segment. The methods described in this study facilitate timely discovery of student perceptions and practices as well as situatedness of students relative to an ICT adoption. Institutions and teachers should model ICT adoption practices that foster mature student-centered ICT adoption in ways that cultivate the competent practice of effectively selecting and using ICT. Recommendation for Researchers: Research on ICT adoption should consider 1) the voice of adopters, 2) segments among adopters differentiated by perceptions, practices, or sociodemographic variables, and 3) in what ways situatedness affects ICT adoption. Re-searchers should evaluate effectiveness of accommodations to ICT adoption initiatives where design, implementation and supports better facilitate each of the defined student segments. Impact on Society: A critical techno-pedagogy understands that students’ technological practices, as learned perspectives and embodied practices, affect students’ participation as co-agents within socio-technical systems of education, employment and life in current and as-yet-imagined futures. A critical techno-pedagogy is mindful of the hegemonic influence of technology firms upon education; is attentive to the non-technological dimensions shaping socio-technical systems; and is aware that technological practices embody and engender values, thereby reproducing inequity or inclusion. Institutions intent to adopt this or that technology must not forget the future-ready imperative of cultivating students’ critical techno agency, namely, setting students on the journey of effectively selecting and using ICT in ways that realize students’ participation in an information economy and net-worked society. Future Research: Future research should explore the interplay of student learning experiences and outcomes relative to pedagogical practices as well as available ICT assemblage including devices, connectivity, and applications. Research should also explore how the interplay of agents and social practices within education effect the development of the practice of effectively selecting and using ICT. </jats:p

Indigenous peoples and the collaborative stewardship of nature: Knowledge binds and institutional conflicts

Involving Indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge in natural resource management produces more equitable and successful outcomes. Unfortunately, argue Anne Ross and co-authors, even many "progressive" methods fail to produce truly equal partnerships. This book offers a comprehensive and global overview of the theoretical, methodological, and practical dimensions of co-management. The authors critically evaluate the range of management options that claim to have integrated Indigenous peoples and knowledge, and then outline an innovative, alternative model of co-management, the Indigenous Stewardship Model. They provide detailed case studies and concrete details for application in a variely of contexts. Broad in coverage and uniting robust theoretical insights with applied detail, this book is ideal for scholars and students as well as for professionals in resource management and environmental policy. [Back cover