Ecological Identity Research Articles

Održivost i ekologija u arhitekturi Fridensrajha Hundertvasera

Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser today stands for a veritable example of a man as an accomplished ecological being. The merging of art, architecture, politics, and ecology into one utopian concept oriented towards the future positioned Hundertwasser not only an architectural experimenter but also as a specific visionary of ecological architecture. Throughout his lifetime, Hundertwasser opposed the so-called "mainstream" culture and materialism, which later contributed to his popularity. This popularity is certainly limited just as for those circles of social activists who believed that architecture must possess a "human figure". He was a man who, through art, knowledge of nature and its processes, created a new chapter in various fields, such as painting and design, all the way to architecture and the fight to preserve nature. This paper deals with the contribution of an unconventional artist to architecture and ecology. The introductory discussion approximates the significance of sustainable architecture, while the first part of the paper presents a brief biographical overview of Hundertwasser's character and oeuvre, as well as his understanding of life. The second part of the paper focuses on his views of the importance of ecological identity and the place of architecture in it, while the third part of the paper shows examples of the ideas of sustainable construction and their possible implementation in practice.

Exploring ecological identity from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics

AbstractEcological identity, acting as the baton to guide the public’s behavior in nature, is closely correlated with environmental crises that threaten human survival. Previous studies of ecological identity are mostly conducted in the domain of sociopsychology with an emphasis on human’s attitude and behavior. Less attention, however, has been paid to the discursive construction of one’s ecological identity. The current study aims to build a framework to explore the mechanism of discursive strategies in constructing one’s ecological identity. To this end, this article classifies different ecological identities according to their impact on nature and the ecosophy of holism. It then puts forward a framework based on systemic functional linguistics to explore how lexicogrammatical resources can be employed strategically in the construction of ecological identity. The framework is significant for ecolinguistic investigations of identity and the cultivation of human’s critical language awareness related to the protection of ecosystems.

Relevance of cultural ecosystem services in nurturing ecological identity values that support restoration and conservation efforts

The research examines the potential role of restoring cultural ecosystem services in sustainably and equitably managing forested landscapes. It looks at how facilitating enhanced usage of cultural ecosystem services may mobilize ecological identities - or one’s identification as a responsible agent to a natural system. The study focuses on the village groves of Korea that were restored during the first phase of the village grove restoration program (2003–2015) led by Korea Forest Service (KFS). Questionnaire survey was used to collect data on village leaders’ ecological identity values (EIV) and their perception of how village groves’ different ecosystem services are being used by villagers and non-villagers. These data were complemented by KFS-published information regarding the village groves’ social-ecological system factors. Government documents and independent evaluation reports were analyzed to understand specifically how the restoration program addressed the task of restoring cultural values. Relationship between EIV and ecosystem service usage levels were examined by linear regression analysis, while difference tests were conducted to infer whether or not select social-ecological factors exhibit distinct difference in EIV or in ecosystem service usage levels. While the analytical results are far from conclusive, they hint at certain directions: first, the restoration program is found to have treated village groves themselves to be embodiments of cultural values. This approach leaves a wide gap to effective revival or reinvention of specific cultural uses or values that users can associate with. Second, the regression analysis shows generally stronger influence on village leaders’ EIV by cultural ecosystem service usage than by usage of other service types. Examining by subtypes of cultural ecosystem services, those that are villager-oriented compared to visitor-oriented show higher influence on EIV, as do those individually-used compared to collectively-used. Third, the difference tests show no conclusive results about social-ecological system factors, except to speculate that factors conducive to visitor-oriented uses are found associated with lower EIV in village leaders. Furthermore, tourism attraction presence shows not only association with lower EIV but also with generally lower usage of the village groves' varoius ecosystem services. Such findings that show distinctions between villager-oriented andvisitor-oriented services and uses of village groves call for deliberative balancing of possible trade-offs between benefits to different user groups. This seminal study calls for further research on ecological identities, cultural values and cultural ecosystem services as potentially useful approaches to achieve more sustainable and equitable outcomes in restoration and conservation efforts.

The Shaping of Environmental Identity in Germany and Italy: Actors and Practices

One of the important components of environmental policy in recent years is the formation of environmental identity. This article analyzes the German and Italian practices of ecological identity formation, identifies the actors of such a policy, and evaluates the prospects of ecological identity formation in the European Union. Based on case studies and in-depth interviews, the author describes the experience of implementing the Zero Waste concept in the Italian municipality of Capannori and the coastal German city of Kiel. The conclusion that the success of measures to form an environmental identity is influenced by the nature of political culture, the level of economic development, regional development features, but also by targeted environmental education initiatives and the success of grassroots practices in the environmental sphere, is substantiated. As the research has shown, in promoting eco-practices at the local level in Italy the leadership factor plays a large role, including in the framework of protest eco-activism, in Germany ‒ the self-organization of local communities in cooperation with the city authorities. The politicization of environmental identity contributes to the consolidation of citizens around environmental priorities. However, factors such as generation gaps and uneven regional development, as well as the rise of populism, can contribute to deepening divisions and confrontations around the environmental agenda.

Progress, problems, and key directions for establishing the first national park demonstration province in Qinghai, China

Establishing a national park system is an important component of the ecological identity of China and an essential measure to achieving natural and ecological protection though governance systems. The goal was to create a model province that integrated environmental protection, ecological integrity, management and support systems, coordinated development, comprehensive evaluation, and livelihood protection, with national parks serving as the main body. A further goal was to obtain a reference and basis for the official establishment of a number of national parks and the initial establishment of a national park system in 2021. Based on the progress of the pilot national park system in Qinghai, in this study, we have summarized some common and individual problems encountered in the construction of a model national park province. Further, five key foci were revealed during the 14th Five-Year Plan period: resource management and functional areas, ecosystem protection, support system construction, coordinated community development, and nature education and ecological experience.

GEOGRAPHY AND IDENTITY: AN ANALYSIS OF GEOGRAPHY CURRICULA IN TURKEY

Although there are differences in identity construction depending on countries and periods, some courses have come to the fore in the education system in each per i od. In Turkey, the education system in general, and history, geography, citizenship and social studies courses, in particular, have instrumental importance in the construction of identity. When the literature is examined, it can be observed that there are many studies on history, social studies and citizenship lessons for identity construction. However, there is a limited number of studies on identity construction for the geography curricula. The main purpose of this research was to examine the secondary education geography curricula in Turkey in terms of identity and citizenship construction. The study was planned and carried out as a qualitative case study. Case studies often describe the exploration of a bounded system. In this research, the sample was limited to the 2005 and 2018 geography course curricula, and a detailed description was made by using “content analysis” based on the research purpose. As a result of the research, it was determined in both curricula that the national identity theme had the most expressions, and national identity was aimed to be built by presenting details about the geography of the homeland. In addition to national identity, it was determined that there were also contents related to social identity, ecological identity, universal identity, and a limited number of digital identity and religious identity themes.

When the Rainbows Bring the Crawfish

In this article I present the social life of camarones, a Peruvian river crustacean used in some of the region’s favorite dishes, and the liminal space they occupy in the geography, minds, and ecosystem of Peru and its people. I situate the relationship between these crawfish and the folks who capture them, known as camaroneros, within insights of environmental anthropologists and food scholars who also explore the connections between cultural and biological diversity and the entangled socio-ecological histories that inform the manner in which nature is mediated and understood by local societies. In this article, however, I expand this understanding to reveal unexpected spaces of engagement, especially those that emerge while eating, which tend to be overlooked by bounded notions of culture and nature and limit the ways we can imagine human-nature relationships. Via the story of camarones and camaroneros of one river valley of Peru, I argue that eating is a socio-ecological act that is imbued with profound cultural meanings involving a wide range of participants—not just farmers or producers—each with their own ecological identities yet still implicitly linked to one another through the process of producing, preparing, and consuming food.

Hubert J.M. Hermans, Rob Bartels. Citizenship Education and the Personalization of Democracy. Routledge. 2021. 220 pp. Paperback. ISBN 9,780,367,467,890

Citizenship education is a topic of great relevance in a historical period characterized by a strong change in social morphology. There is a shared awareness of the need to cross strict national borders in order to promote a broader sense of citizenship conceived in terms of globality. Hubert Hermans and Rob Bartels in the book Citizenship Education and the Personalization of Democracy, designed for undergraduate and graduate levels in higher education, support these goals by adding a psychological dimension based on the theory of the Dialogical Self. The authors aim to promote not only critical thinking in general, but also self-critical thinking, inviting students to examine the ways they relate to themselves. The book also underlines the personal and social responsibilities that everyone has as a citizen of a wider global community, that of the whole world, which must be preserved and respected from an ecological point of view. For this reason there is a need to develop "ecological identities" aware of being an integral and active part of the planet Earth. The book achieves these objectives through critical information on basic democratic principles, but mainly through the promotion of the personalization of democracy, through the exploration of students' life experiences.

Environmental attunement in the health and physical education canon: emplaced connection to embodiment, community and ‘nature’

ABSTRACT There have been unresolved calls for educators to connect and translate environmental links within health and physical education given the enduring absence, yet overlapping citizen priorities of health. In this Introductory paper to the Special Issue of environmental attunement in the health and/or physical education canon, we question if and how notions of nature and the environment might paradigmatically belong more centrally to the discipline. After some author positioning and situating this work, we draw on theories of attunement to consider what our use of the term ‘environmental attunement’ offers for shaping epistemological habits and ontological work across health studies and physical education. As part of this, we explore the possibilities and challenges for expanding embodied connections to place, space and ‘nature’. We highlight the omnipresence of eco-health, environmentalism, ‘nature’ and Indigenous ways of knowing as central to a pressing socio-cultural context and politics, yet the absence of epistemological habits in health and physical education responding to this need. To conclude we map links and possibilities from the literature to argue for the necessity of ‘environmental attunement’ to more centrally underpin teachers’ ecological identities in learning about health and human movement.

Cultivating Nature Identity and Ecological Worldviews: A Pathway to Alter the Prevailing Dominant Social Paradigm

The worsening environmental problems demand a shift from the prevailing Dominant Social Paradigm to the New Ecological Paradigm. Yet, little is known on the conditions necessary for societal adoption of conservation behaviour. This qualitative study explores the social-psychological aspects and processes cultivating ecological identity and worldviews by uncovering the activities, interpretation of experiences that capture mental thoughts, emotions and symbolic meanings within the richness of lived experiences. The findings theorise the process of ecological identity building and offers in-depth insights into the motivations and stages of ecological identities and worldviews that support pro-environmental behaviour. The insights extend the identity theory to illustrate the process of nature identity development to include the stages of identity activation, creation and synthesis; reveal Asian values and beliefs that consumers use to rationalise their consumption behaviour; and provide implications for macromarketing, education and sustainability initiatives, and policy making.

Environmental Identity: Information Strategies for Mobilizing ˋNegative Memory' of the Audience

The article analyzes the issues of interactive media culture development in modern society. The authors consider information and media strategies as tools for constructing the ecological identity of deprived territories residents (on the example of Chelyabinsk region). The article is based on research carried out between 2015 to 2019, monitoring the environmental situation in Chelyabinsk region. Mass representative surveys, held among the southern Urals citizens, expert interviews, content analysis of official information sources and informal channels of communication users (social networks), thematic debates with regional journalistic community served to ground the main ideas for this work. The resource mobilization idea of the ‘negative memory’ of the audience is the key conclusion, obtained during the analysis of sociological data. Negative memory is a stable negative perception of the territory ecological image under the influence of the broadcasted media content. The theoretical principles of memory studies are the base of this approach. The research has fixed the contradiction between the subjective readiness of the audience for constructive mobilization in the area of environmental initiatives and the ’negative ecological memory’ of the territory. To model the favorable environmental media content it is essential, firstly, to adjust it by: i) using the resource of opinion leaders and social advertising; ii) engaging the expert community in a broad public dialogue on environmental issues; iii) developing independent media projects aimed at radical transformation of the environmental agenda coverage in Chelyabinsk region.
 Keywords: information strategies, audience, ecology, identity, negative memory

The Pandemic as an impulse for the reflections of pedagogy students – the point of view of qualitative analysis

The article presents selected extracts of qualitative research results on the psychological and social situation experienced by people during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in the opinion of pedagogy students. An attempt to prevent the virus from spreading by introducing lockdown confined millions of people in their homes, limited their freedom and interpersonal contacts. For many, this time was an impulse for a more profound existential reflection. The researchers, interested in the issue of students’ reflectiveness, asked a group of them to prepare short essays collecting reflections dating back to the first wave of the pandemic. The research involved 36 students of the Academy of Special Education, in two age groups – those beginning their studies and those heading towards the end. The gathered texts were subject to an analysis complying with the methodology of the grounded theory. The discourse analysis performed from the interpretative perspective allowed for selecting 4 key categories in the students’ comments, and then for pointing to differences between the groups as far as the issues discussed were concerned. This article presents the results of the research encompassing two categories: reflections of the subjects on their own subjectivity and reflections concerning their ecological identity. The younger subjects demonstrated a bigger concentration on the personal perspective and their comments were more emotional and optimistic. The older ones, more distanced towards reality, more often reflected bitterly on social policy, consumerism and egotism of modern societies, more frequently treating the pandemic not as a goal on its own but as a starting point for broader social and ecological criticism.

Transformation of indigenous peoples’ Ecological conciousness

The world of Indigenous ecological reality has a spatial and temporal structure. The need for a favorable natural environment, sufficient natural resources’ quantity and quality, as well as env ironmental security has been permanently present in autochtonous existence. Researchers of North American and Siberian indigenous peoples’ ecological identity agree that of the two criteria, spatial structure plays more important role than temporal. The indigenous peoples’ spatial identity is linked to their deep conviction that everything in the world “stops” periodically, so if you pray in the right locality, where higher powers are most likely to stop at that very moment, prayer would be heard. Thus the feeling of attachment to ethnic homeland is crucial in the process of creating an ethnic niche. Most of the Indigenous people believe that their nations were created at the territory they live now, so this locus is the center of the universe for them. The past and the future are understood by the natives at the level of physical perceptible sound, visual, tactile and sensory sensations, thus the concept of the sacred landscape is formed, and each nation has its own notion of it. Indigenous writers sometimes shift temporal-spatial layers, superimposing chronotopic planes, suspending astronomical time, thus destroying the boundaries of the real world and at the same time creating fascinating spaces that are an important part of the indigenous spatial identity. Thus, spatiality functions in fictional texts as a stylistic device designed to express the opposition of different worlds.

Knowledge politics, vulnerability and recognition-based justice: Public participation in renewable energy transitions in India

Public participation plays a crucial role in achieving Renewable Energy Transitions (RET). Existing research on energy transitions suggests that for seeking the active participation of all stakeholders, transition frameworks must be sensitive to the dynamic and complex interplay of power and agency. Knowledge politics that determine terms of engagement within energy transition projects often enable asymmetric agency resulting in vulnerability, exclusion and injustices. However, very little is known about how vulnerable and marginal groups resist subversion and re-define terms of engagement. This paper presents three cases of RET projects from India to engage with the interplay of knowledge politics, vulnerability and recognition-based energy justice. The cases bring comparable insights from RET projects on three different energy sources (second-generation bioethanol, advanced biogas and solar micro-grid), initiated by the government, industry and non-governmental actors in India. Based on the qualitative, empirical data gathered through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and ethnographic field observations, we argue that non-participation is a mode of resistance against subversive knowledge politics. Despite projected benefits and “apparent needs”, people do not accept the pre-defined roles and identities prescribed for them in RET projects. In contrast, vulnerable and marginal social groups mobilize their agency by framing needs and priorities in relation to situated as well as emergent social, political and ecological identities and demand for recognition-based energy justice.

Revealing new sponge-associated cyanobacterial diversity: Novel genera and species

Cyanobacteria are often reported as abundant components of the sponge microbiome; however their diversity below the phylum level is still underestimated. Aiming to broaden our knowledge of sponge-cyanobacteria association, we isolated cyanobacterial strains from Aegean Sea sponges in previous research, which revealed high degree of novel cyanobacterial diversity. Herein, we aim to further characterize sponge-associated cyanobacteria and re-evaluate their classification based on an extensive polyphasic approach, i.e. a combination of molecular, morphological and ecological data. This approach resulted in the description of five new genera (Rhodoploca, Cymatolege, Metis, Aegeococcus, and Thalassoporum) and seven new species (R. sivonenia, C. spiroidea, C. isodiametrica, M. fasciculata, A. anagnostidisi, A. thureti, T. komareki) inside the order Synechococcales, and a new pleurocapsalean species (Xenococcus spongiosum). X. spongiosum is a baeocyte-producing species that shares some morphological features with other Xenococcus species, but has distinct phylogenetic and ecological identity. Rhodoploca, Cymatolege, Metis and Thalassoporum are novel well supported linages of filamentous cyanobacteria that possess distinct characters compared to their sister taxa. Aegeococcus is a novel monophyletic linage of Synechococcus-like cyanobacteria exhibiting a unique ecology, as sponge-dweller. The considerable number of novel taxa characterized in this study highlights the importance of employing polyphasic culture-dependent approaches in order to reveal the true cyanobacterial diversity associated with sponges.

Defining Dry Rivers as the Most Extreme Type of Non-Perennial Fluvial Ecosystems

We define Dry Rivers as those whose usual habitat in space and time are dry channels where surface water may interrupt dry conditions for hours or a few days, primarily after heavy rainfall events that are variable in time and that usually lead to flash floods, disconnected from groundwater and thereby unable to harbor aquatic life. Conceptually, Dry Rivers would represent the extreme of the hydrological continuum of increased flow interruption that typically characterizes the non-perennial rivers, thus being preceded by intermittent and ephemeral rivers that usually support longer wet phases, respectively. This paper aims to show that Dry Rivers are ecosystems in their own right given their distinct structural and functional characteristics compared to other non-perennial rivers due to prevalence of terrestrial conditions. We firstly reviewed the variety of definitions used to refer to these non-perennial rivers featured by a predominant dry phase with the aim of contextualizing Dry Rivers. Secondly, we analyzed existing knowledge on distribution, geophysical and hydrological features, biota and biogeochemical attributes that characterize Dry Rivers. We explored the capacity of Dry Rivers to provide ecosystem services and described main aspects of anthropogenic threats, management challenges and the conservation of these ecosystems. We applied an integrative approach that incorporates to the limnological perspective the terrestrial view, useful to gain a better understanding of Dry Rivers. Finally, we drew main conclusions where major knowledge gaps and research needs are also outlined. With this paper, we ultimately expect to put value in Dry Rivers as non-perennial rivers with their own ecological identity with significant roles in the landscape, biodiversity and nutrient cycles, and society; thus worthy to be considered, especially in the face of exacerbated hydrological drying in many rivers across the world.

Sweetness and HPOWER: Waste, Sugar and Ecological Identity in the Development of Honolulu’s HPOWER Waste-to-Energy Facility

Abstract Recent studies have demonstrated the high spatial, economic and ecological stakes of solid waste management in remote island environments, like Hawaii, but also suggested ways in which conceptions of risk and identity have factored into stakeholders’ decisions regarding particular waste management technologies and processes. Through an analysis of historical and archival documents, this article examines linkages between a declining sugar plantation industry and the development of a major waste disposal project, and shows how an ecological identity narrative which combined an understanding of Honolulu as a place needing to reduce reliance on imported resources with an understanding of metropolitan Honolulu as a major centre for plantation sugarcane agriculture resulted in a plan for combining waste disposal with sugarcane processing. Focused on the historical case of the HPOWER facility on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, I argue that ecological identity offers new insights for understanding how environmental infrastructures are conceptualised and resisted, and that explicit consideration of ecological identity in the analysis of environmental governance may lead to improved scholarly understanding as well as improved outcomes for governance itself.

Oromo Orature: An Ecopoetic Approach, Theory and Practice (Oromia/Ethiopia, Northeast Africa)

Using available empirical data of Oromo Orature, particularly folksongs, obtained from the field through interview and observation in Oromia, central Ethiopia, in 2009 and 2010, and other sources in print, this study has two objectives to tackle. First, reflecting upon the questions of a native model of origin narratives in relation to ecology, this study examines some examples of Oromo ecopoetics to determine: (a) how ecology and creative process conspire in the production of folksongs and performance, and (b) how the veil of nature hidden in the opacity of songs is revealed through the rites of creative process and performance as the human and ecological realms intersect. When put in relation to ecology, I theorize, the ecocultural creative act and process go beyond the mundane life activities to determine the people’s use (of nature), perceptions, and implications. Second, damages to the ecology are, I posit, damages to ecoculture. Drawing on the notion of ecological archetypes, thus, the study makes an attempt to find a common ground between the idea of recurrent ecological motifs in Oromo orature and the people’s ecological identity. The findings show that the political and social attitudes the Oromo songs embody are critical of authorities and the injustices authorities inflict on peoples and the environment they live in. For the folksinger, singing folksongs is a form of life, and through performance, both the performance and the song sustain the test of time. In its language, critique, imagination, and cultural referents, Oromo Orature is a voice of the people who rely on traditional agricultural life close to nature along with facing challenges of the dominating religious, political and scientific cultures.

Reproduction Forms of Sustainable Development Policy in Russia

The objective meaning of the sustainable development process in relation to the neo-industrialization of the economy is to create conditions for the restoration of the ecological identity of the national economy as a multi-industry production complex. We consider the neo-industrial development of the economy as the re-establishment of a competitive manufacturing complex in it, capable of saturating the domestic market avoiding increasing the burden on the environment with the innovative development of raw materials production, creating the material basis of national competitiveness in the environmental plan. From sustainable development point of view, neo-industrialization means conducting a comprehensive structural policy, the object of which should be national reproduction, and the subject is deep transformations of the processes that form the complex of human impact on nature, its institutional and technological structure, increasing the reproductive role of the green economy based on the potential of the internal market. At the same time, the history of greening industry, which dates back to the 1990s, testifies to the positive experience of replacing global production chains of raw materials, in particular, energy carriers, with the benefits of a fundamentally new type – alternative energy sources, biomaterials. Therefore, the development of technologically advanced manufacturing industry based on technologies of the green economy is possible as a result of the formation of production of goods and services that are maximally focused on meeting the environmental needs of society.

Enemies at the Gateway: Regional Populist Discourse and the Fight Against Oil Pipelines on Canada's West Coast

This paper explores discursive strategies of opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project – a proposal to link Alberta oil sands producers to international markets via Canada’s West Coast. It explores how regional concerns about Northern Gateway helped galvanize a movement led by regional First Nations, environmentalists, and settler communities, all of whom opposed Gateway as a means to protect regional ecosystems – and the local communities dependent on them – from “extra-regional” Gateway-backing elites. By articulating arguments against Northern Gateway with salient collective action frames concerning ecological sustainability, regional identity, Indigenous sovereignty, social justice, and democratic agency, this anti-Gateway ‘discourse coalition’ helped contribute to the project’s ultimate collapse in 2016. In this paper, we critically engage with Ernesto Laclau’s theorization of populism to analyse this movement as a form of “regional ecological populism”, explaining how a shift in spatial framing from the national to the regional enabled a particular variant of populist discourse to emerge. Furthermore, we relate Laclau’s framework to Hajer’s concept of discursive “storylines” and Gamson’s analysis of “collective action frames” to pivot away from Laclau’s focus on the ontological construction of unified popular subjects to a more grounded analysis of how coalitions articulate populist storylines designed to mobilize diverse movement constituents. In doing so, we draw on a frame analysis of communications materials produced by several prominent First Nations and environmental organizations publicly mobilizing against Northern Gateway between 2010 and 2015, tracing how these groups came to articulate a common regional ecological populist storyline. Finally, we end with some thoughts about the possibilities and challenges for scaling up regional ecological populism in Canada.