Human-nature Relationship Research Articles

Ecological discourse analysis of COVID-19 news reports in CNN Philippines and Rappler

Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA) examines the relationship between language and the environment, focusing on how discourse shapes and reflects ecological and social behaviors. By analyzing linguistic patterns, EDA seeks to uncover how language conveys ideologies, values, and attitudes towards ecological issues, such as sustainability, environmental justice, and human-nature relationships. This paper was positioned to analyze the appraisal characteristics of COVID-19 news reports in CNN and Rappler from January 2020 to November 2021. A total of 28 news articles, evenly sourced from the two outlets, were analyzed. AntConc 4.0.2 identified the use of appraisal resources, including attitude, engagement, and graduation. The findings revealed that CNN Philippines adopted a more balanced tone, characterized by 32.67 percent attitude, 38.07 percent engagement, and 29.26 percent graduation resources. In contrast, Rappler demonstrated a more critical stance, with 36.46 percent attitude, 36.94 percent engagement, and 26.6 percent graduation resources. The engagement system showed that both outlets favored heteroglossic expressions, incorporating multiple perspectives to enrich their reporting. The graduation system, focusing on force, highlighted how both news organizations used intensity in their language to emphasize the significance of COVID-19-related issues. These linguistic patterns reveal distinct ideological orientations and strategies for engaging audiences, highlighting the media’s role in shaping public understanding and response during a global health crisis. The study underscores the significant impact of linguistic choices in news reporting, offering insights into how media narratives influence public discourse in times of uncertainty.

Comparing contested sustainabilities: how diverse human–nature relationships give rise to different approaches to sustainability

AbstractDespite increasing acknowledgement of the diversity and different approaches at play in research on sustainability transitions, systematic comparisons of these approaches are scarce. This is a problem for sustainability research, as the coexistence of multiple approaches to sustainability in the absence of an overarching comparative vocabulary may result in disparate and potentially incommensurable assumptions affecting the analysis, implementation, and impact of sustainability transitions. By means of a review and conceptual investigation, we develop a conceptual model for comparing multiple and diverse sustainability approaches. Investigating both the descriptive (stationary) and actionable elements of sustainability, we create a comparative space based on distinguishable parameters shared among sampled sustainability approaches as empirical literature-based units: (1) from instrumentalist to intrinsic valuations of nature; and (2) from holistic to particularistic system considerations. Using a vector-based method to represent a sustainability approach, we systematically compare various perceptions of sustainability problems and solutions, thereby allowing us to characterize different movements towards imagined sustainable futures.

A relational turn in climate change adaptation: Evidence from urban nature-based solutions.

The emergence of nature-based solutions (NbS) in science, policy, and practice signals a paradigmatic shift in urban climate change adaptation, yet empirical investigations into its impact on adaptation definitions and progress tracking remain scarce. Addressing this gap, we conducted thematic analysis on semi-structured interviews (n = 15) with practitioners responsible for implementing and evaluating urban NbS in different countries. We provide a nuanced understanding of urban adaptation goals within urban NbS according to the insights from these practitioners, extending beyond hazard mitigation and towards cultivating and strengthening relationships between humans and nature. Tracking adaptation progress towards such relational adaptation goals requires acknowledging knowledge pluralism and the diversity of human-nature relations. We propose an alternative definition of adaptation supported by our data that aims to foster a more holistic approach to urban climate adaptation that accounts for the potential benefits of urban NbS across interconnected climate, biodiversity, and social goals.

Chain of Oppression: An Aquapelagic Reading of Industrial Fishing in Port of Lies

Tang Fu-jui’s Port of Lies is a Taiwanese crime fiction that critiques the complex network of political and corporate interests undergirding Taiwan’s fishing industry and the industry’s historical exploitation of Indigenous and migrant fishers. Using Philip Hayward’s concept of the aquapelago, this essay reads industrial fishing represented in the novel not simply as a mode of production, but as a more-than-human aquapelago that sustains itself by creating and maintaining specific social and human-nature relations. The essay first reviews Tang’s representation of the major forms of violence in industrial fishing under the conceptual framework of hydrocolonialism to provide a historical context. With an aquapelagic reading, it then highlights the moments in the novel in which industrial fishing sustains itself by reproducing specific subjectivity, social relation, and human-nature relation. The essay concludes with a reflection on ways to decolonise human’s fishing activities.

The Transformation of Climate Justice: New Approaches in Environmental Ethics and Human-Nature Relations

This study aims to examine climate justice from the perspective of environmental ethics. While climate justice is often discussed in the context of international, class, and gender inequalities, the inequality between species and the connection to nature are frequently overlooked. This study seeks to propose an environmental ethics-based approach to end the climate crisis justly. The study employs literature review and theoretical analysis methods to examine environmental ethics approaches (anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric) and evaluate the concept of climate justice in light of these approaches. Additionally, it explores the relationship between climate change and justice by drawing on deep ecology and justice theories. The study reveals that climate change creates significant injustices not only among human communities but also between humans and nature. It is found that low-income groups and women are more adversely affected by climate change despite being less responsible for it. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the need to redefine human-nature relationships to achieve climate justice. Climate change is not merely a matter of fair distribution but also a crisis that necessitates restructuring the human-nature relationship. Inclusive and fair approaches from an environmental ethics perspective must be developed to address this crisis. The deep ecology approach, which acknowledges the intrinsic value of nature beyond human needs, provides crucial guidance for a sustainable future. This study contributes uniquely to the literature by addressing climate justice in the context of not only human inequalities but also interspecies inequalities and recognizing nature as an ethical subject.

Out of Frame: Invisibilisation of Non-Human Nature in Media Framing of a Land Conflict Transformation Policy in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Public policy response to land-use conflict often exacerbates contestation rather than fostering consensus, further polarising stakeholders and darkening peacebuilding prospects. The Nigerian government conceived the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) to tackle the protracted land-use conflict between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers. This study examined the framing of the policy in three select Nigerian newspapers, the Daily Sun, the Daily Trust, and Punch, published between January 2018 and June 2021. The findings revealed the preponderance of five anthropocentric frames. The environmental frame was absent from the newspaper framing of NLTP, reflecting a blind spot in the representation of a farmer–herder conflict rooted in the asymmetric visions of human–nature relations of the conflict parties. The voices of environmental actors and the scientific community did not feature in the discourse on the Plan. Their detachment from the framing contest contributed to the information blackout on the policy’s relationship with the natural environment. Nature is a stakeholder in land-use conflict, a reality that may be obscured, misrepresented, or underrepresented by human-centred news framing. Media framing of land-use conflict policy should aim at the nuanced reflection of the conflict universe and the embeddedness of biodiversity – the voiceless, non-aligned, and indispensable actants in ecological conflict.

An Analysis of Spring and All from the Perspective of Ecocriticism

This paper presents an ecocritical analysis of William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All, a modernist poem that encapsulates the essence of ecological renewal and the human-nature relationship. Through close reading, it reveals the poem’s portrayal of nature’s resilience and the cyclical processes of life, symbolized by the transition from winter to spring. The study emphasizes how Williams’ focus on sensory perception cultivates a mindful engagement with the environment, challenging anthropocentric perspectives and advocating for ecological interconnectedness. Spring and All is positioned as a work that transcends its modernist context, offering profound insights for contemporary environmental discourse and advocating for sustainable practices.

Human-Nature Boundaries: Cultural Heritage, Landscape Ecology, and Healing in the Kumano Kodo

Abstract: The Kumano Kodo, an ancient pilgrimage route network in the Kii Peninsula of Japan, serves as a unique case study in the intersection of cultural heritage, landscape ecology, and human-nature relationships. This paper explores the dynamic interactions between human interventions and natural processes along the Kumano Kodo, highlighting how landscape ecology principles illustrate the blurred boundaries between nature and culture. The rewilding of the human-imposed structures, coupled with the restorative experiences of modern pilgrims, reinforces the notion of coexistence rather than dominance over nature. The findings support Turners theory of landscape dynamics and Mortons assertion that the human-nature dichotomy is artificial, showing how human interventions and natural processes coalesce in a living landscape. The study also applies Kaplans Attention Restoration Theory to demonstrate the psychological benefits of engaging with cultural landscapes. However, the research is limited by its focus on a specific demographic of pilgrims and calls for more diverse methodologies in future studies. Broader data collection will offer deeper insights into the long-term psychological effects and cultural significance of such heritage sites.

Redefining human–nature relations: decolonial perspectives on Inter-American Court environmental jurisprudence

ABSTRACT Debates surrounding environmental protection and its intersection with human rights have gained significant traction in the past decade, coinciding with the advancement of decolonial thought across political, academic and social spheres. These discussions and agendas have become intertwined as humanity faces unprecedented threats to essential global ecosystems while indigenous peoples and traditional black communities, often the primary stewards of the environment, seek emancipation from historical violence. This dynamic struggle between resilience and violence, along with the link between nature and human rights, is also evident within the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Drawing upon decolonial insights and employing a dialectical method, our analysis aims to scrutinize the Court’s jurisprudence to understand its approach concerning the connection between human and environmental rights.

Systematic Literature Review of Ecological Discourse Analysis From 2014 to 2023

One of the crucial foci of contemporary linguistics is upon the complex human-nature relationship within the Anthropocene. An essential methodology of eco-linguistics is Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA), a field which combines linguistics and ecology. The philosophical underpinning of EDA is rooted in an ecological thematic framework, emphasising the significance of biodiversity and sustainability in the natural world. Despite gaining attention over the past decade, EDA still lacks a comprehensive explanation to adequately and accurately explain the fundamental assertion of its philosophical framework: it gives undue prominence to language biodiversity and sustainability. This systematic literature review, conducted using the PRISMA 2020 paradigm, covers studies from 2014 to 2023. It examines 38 works on EDA across several genres. Further clues illustrate the application of EDA to various genres, often informed by theoretical frameworks associated with systemic functional linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and corpus linguistics. EDA research concentrates on ecological discourse and advocating for protection, exposing the lack of nomenclature, analytical framework, application domain, theoretical framework, and objectives. Furthermore, EDA faces challenges in effectively addressing ecological issues within discourse construction because it does not have a sound theoretical paradigm or enough systematicity. Furthermore, the texts analysed using EDA predominantly focus on ecological discourse, with only a few studies incorporating non-ecological literary texts. This underscores the necessity of expanding the scope of ecological linguistic research.

Unveiling the Human-Nature Relationship: An Analysis of Ted Hughes’ Poetry

Unveiling the Human-Nature Relationship: An Analysis of Ted Hughes’ Poetry

What about the negatives? An integrated framework for revealing diverse values of nature and its conservation

Abstract Taking into account the perspectives of local stakeholders is essential for just and effective biodiversity conservation. Plural valuation, making visible the diverse values people hold in relation to nature, has emerged as a key approach towards better inclusion of stakeholders' perspectives. So far, plural valuation has mainly focused on positive values, leaving equally important negative values underexposed. To address this, a concrete proposal has been presented to also consider ‘disvalues’. However, accessible frameworks to help practitioners apply this concept are arguably still lacking. To address this gap, we here propose the ‘Integrated Nature Futures Framework’ (I‐NFF), where ‘integrated’ indicates joint consideration of positive and negative values. The I‐NFF draws on the popular Nature Futures Framework (NFF) to develop disvalue thinking in a more accessible form. The I‐NFF considers three perspectives (‘nature’, ‘society’ and ‘culture’), based on which something can be placed on a spectrum from positive (‘for nature’, ‘for society’ and ‘as culture’) to negative (‘against nature’, ‘against society’ and ‘in conflict with culture’), and can be represented as two mirrored triangles. Using empirical data, we illustrate various purposes for which the I‐NFF can be used: to inventory nature‐related topics ‘at play’ in a given context, to depict how people frame their overall relationship with nature or to depict how people frame specific issues. This demonstrates how the I‐NFF helps reveal value pluralism and trade‐offs, capture the reciprocity of human–nature relationships and identify where perspectives differ and share common ground. We close by discussing how the I‐NFF can enhance the inclusion of stakeholder voices in biodiversity conservation, which is indispensable for a more nature‐ and people‐positive future. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Seeing the Anthropocene through Montage

Environmental changes and the age of the Anthropocene demand new ways of seeing. This article contends that montage serves both as form and as argument in representing the modern Western experience of human-nature relations in the supposed Anthropocene. It suggests that montage resists a single narrative of the Anthropocene and allows for modified readings to address race and capital through alternative notions such as the Capitalocene and Black Anthropocenes. Montage in relation to the Anthropocene is exemplified through two works by contemporary British artists that visualize agencies and legacies of human interventions into fluvial geographies, the sea, and whales: the touring film installation Vertigo Sea (2015) by John Akomfrah, and the site-specific intervention BERLINWAL (Berlin Whale) (2018) by Elizabeth Price at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. Both works, though differing in medium, use montage as a structure to hold different materialities and multiple spatial and temporal scales, affording integration as well as confrontation. Their multifocal perceptions and multiple perspectives challenge ontologies and afford a decentering of the viewer toward de-exceptionalizing the human.

How to increase nature connectedness? Effectiveness and mechanisms of a gratitude journal intervention

Abstract Nature connectedness can promote pro‐environmental behaviour and psychological well‐being, but little is known about how nature connectedness can be strengthened. Interventions that seek to enhance nature connectedness by promoting direct nature contact may be impractical because urban areas often lack opportunities for interactions with nature in the daily lives of people. This study examines the effects of a gratitude journal exercise on nature connectedness, psychological well‐being, and engagement in wildlife gardening. Participants (N = 114) were either asked to write down daily three things relating to nature that they were grateful for over a 14‐day period or they were assigned to one of two control groups (a traditional gratitude condition and an activity list condition). Compared to the two control groups, there were no significant differences in any of the outcome variables during the 14‐day period and at 1‐week and 3‐month follow‐ups. However, significant increases in all those outcome variables emerged independent of the group. Qualitative data analysis suggests that the journal exercise promoted increases in the outcome variables by generating self‐knowledge as well as positive emotions and attitudes. Moreover, participants noted that the journal activity made them think about nature in new ways, presumably through answering daily survey questions on nature connectedness. We suggest that the mere activity of regularly reflecting on one's relationship with nature may increase nature connectedness. Interventions that encourage people to contemplate the interconnectedness between themselves and nature could be a viable strategy to strengthen human–nature relationships, especially in urban areas that lack opportunities for interactions with nature. The findings of this study can inform future research concerned with the processes of strengthening nature connectedness and the design of interventions that employ nature‐based journal exercises. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Which landscape do you prefer? The role of emotions on choices for landscape management

Landscape preferences refer to the subjective likes and dislikes people have regarding various types of landscapes. However, the specific role that emotions play in this question and their impact on influencing choices for landscape is still poorly studied. To address this gap, we hypothesise that landscapes evoke emotions and we explore whether they have a role in shaping landscape preferences. Using 109 semi-structured interviews we captured the diversity of emotions on different landscapes in SE Spain, employing a random parameter logit model to explain how emotions could influence the probability of choosing a landscape. Results revealed that different landscapes were perceived as preferred, with specific emotions associated with them. Results also showed that two main factors significantly influenced landscape preference choices: specific positive emotions and distinct landscape typologies. These insights may contribute to reframe human-nature relationships in landscape management, considering emotional bonds and human behaviour as important aspects for guiding conservation policies.

Changing human–nature relationships: Insights from Guinea‐Bissau woodlands

Abstract The ecological impacts of landscape changes resulting in significant simplification of natural systems have been extensively studied worldwide. Yet, few studies have examined how such biophysical changes affect the value local communities place on nature and their relationships with it. In this study, we delve into the case of Guinea‐Bissau, where woodland cover has been increasingly replaced by commercial cashew plantations. Using a sociocultural valuation approach, our empirical research provides a comprehensive assessment of the woodlands' contributions to local communities as well as the potential disruptions caused by the ongoing biophysical changes on the woodlands. We focused on 20 villages of four different ethnic groups—Manjack, Balanta, Mandinka and Fulani—and used a combination of focus group discussions and walks‐in‐the‐woods. The study's participants identified 19 nature's contributions to people from the woodlands, which revealed a combination of instrumental, relational and intrinsic values in ways that reflect their subsistence needs and social–cultural contexts. We also found that these values are being impacted, mostly negatively, by the ongoing biophysical changes in the ‘natural’ landscapes tied to regional and global dynamics. Moreover, our study reveals that local communities are aware of ongoing biophysical changes in their woodlands and perceive them as having negative ecological and psychological consequences for them. Synthesis and applications: Our study highlights the significance of using a sociocultural perspective to investigate how changes in the landscape affect local peoples' values of nature and their relationships with it. This information can help shape policies and management decisions towards creating better futures that are meaningful for both humans and non‐humans. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

The effect of shared ecological value on buyer–supplier relationship within mountaineering tourism

Shared values play an important role in attracting new tourists, retaining existing ones and gaining an important competitive advantage. Building upon the Commitment-Trust model, this study tested the role of shared ecological values in the creation of tourist trust and relationship commitment, and finally tourist behavioral intention. To test the hypotheses, a sample consisting of 480 mountaineering tourists of two representative travel agencies were surveyed, and a mixed-method approach based on a quantitative survey (n = 436) and qualitative interviews (n = 60) was also adopted to examine their relationships. Results revealed that shared ecological values between tourists and travel agencies were significantly negative predictors of credibility, while credibility and benevolence emerged as significantly positive predictors of relationship commitment. Moreover, credibility and relationship commitment were partially positively predictors of tourist’s behavioral intentions. The findings enrich the extant knowledge on mountaineering tourist relationship marketing and human-nature relationships and provide implications for destination management and wildlife protection.

Ecological Imperialism and Indigenous Resistance: A Postcolonial Ecocritical Analysis of Selected Indian English Novels

This paper examines the representation of environmental degradation and critique of postcolonial development paradigms in two contemporary Indian English novels: Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide (2004) and Indra Sinha's Animal's People (2007). Employing a postcolonial ecocritical framework, the study analyzes how these works articulate the environmental consequences of development in India, challenge Western models of progress, and highlight indigenous environmental perspectives. The research reveals that both novels effectively portray multi-faceted environmental issues, from biodiversity loss in the Sundarbans to long-term impacts of industrial pollution in urban areas. They offer pointed critiques of anthropocentric development models while presenting indigenous knowledge as a valuable alternative for sustainable human-nature relationships. The study contributes to postcolonial ecocriticism by demonstrating how Indian English literature engages with and critiques the environmental costs of postcolonial development. It underscores the potential of literature to provide nuanced, culturally-specific insights into complex environmental issues, challenging dominant narratives and proposing alternative visions of progress.

La relación hombre-naturaleza como fundamento de la responsabilidad ambiental

Environmental responsibility has been analyzed since the mid-20th century, establishing its foundation in the disruption of the relationship between humans and nature. The urgency of these evaluations is a consequence of the negative impacts that human development has had on nature, endangering human existence itself. Delving into the study of the processes affecting this relationship, with the philosophical dimensions it implies, is a task that demands engagement with the body of knowledge of this science. Philosophy, as a conception of the world, includes ontological, ethical, and gnoseological dimensions. Therefore, addressing environmental issues should be done from this same philosophical perspective, more specifically from dialectical materialism, which allows for an understanding of the dynamics of natural and social development. Many scientists and intellectuals converge on the foundation and conceptualization of environmental responsibility. At this point, it is necessary to clarify the elements that allow for the establishment of the human-nature relationship as the basis of environmental responsibility. This research aims, from a historical-philosophical perspective, to analyze the human-nature relationship as the foundation of environmental responsibility based on ontological, ethical, and gnoseological dimensions. Given the qualitative nature of the research, it is based on the dialectical materialist conception of the world, supported by analytical-synthetic, hermeneutic, and historical-logical methods, which allowed for the determination of contributory elements for the theoretical foundation of environmental responsibility. In this sense, it was concluded that the relationship between the ontological, ethical, and gnoseological dimensions established in the study of the human-nature relationship allows it to be established as the basis of environmental responsibility. It also contributes to the integral analysis of phenomena occurring in nature, additionally providing essential elements for the development of contemporary environmental ethics.

Access to land and nature as health determinants: a qualitative analysis exploring meaningful human-nature relationships among Indigenous youth in central Canada

BackgroundHuman relationships with and connections to nature and the “land” are a commonly accepted Social Determinant of Health. Greater knowledge about these relationships can inform public health policies and interventions focused on health equity among Indigenous populations. Two research questions were explored: (1) what are the experiences of meaningful human-nature relationships among Indigenous youth within central Canada; and (2) how do these relationships function as a determinant of health and wellness within their lives.MethodsDrawing from three community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects within two urban centers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the integrated qualitative findings presented here involved 92 interviews with 52 Indigenous youth that occurred over a period of nine years (2014–2023). Informed by “two-eyed seeing,” this analysis combined Indigenous Methodologies and a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach.ResultsOur integrative analysis revealed three cross-cutting themes about meaningful human-nature relationships: (1) promoting cultural belonging and positive identity; (2) connecting to community and family; and (3) supporting spiritual health and relationships. The experiences of young people also emphasized barriers to land and nature access within their local environments.DiscussionPolicies, practices, and interventions aimed at strengthening urban Indigenous young peoples’ relationships to and connections with nature and the land can have a positive impact on their health and wellness. Public Health systems and healthcare providers can learn about leveraging the health benefits of human-nature relationships at individual and community levels, and this is particularly vital for those working to advance health equity among Indigenous populations.