| 1. |
- Caselunghe, Elvira, et al.
(författare)
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Forskningsperspektiv på naturvägledning
- 2012
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Literature study shows a lack of Swedish nature interpretation research. The Swedish Centre for Nature Interpretation (SCNI) was established in 2007 by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences. One task of SCNI is to initiate research on nature interpretation. This research overview is intended to provide a jumping-off point. The main purpose was to investigate Swedish research that contributes to development of theory and practice in nature interpretation. In addition, research from other Nordic countries as well as international research was reviewed. A literature search for Swedish scientific publications on nature interpretation, explicitly, revealed a scarcity of such research in Sweden. Of course identifying such studies depends, in part, on how “nature interpretation” and “research” are defined. There are actually a number of Swedish researchers who work with topics that are relevant to nature interpretation, and to some extent this research is also published in scientific media. However, there is a larger quantity of educational literature. Overall, the main finding of this literature search is that nature interpretation research has not been conducted in Sweden, to date. However, relevant studies were found in such areas as outdoor recreation, nature tourism, education for sustainable development, outdoor education, environmental history, museology and environmental psychology. Various key words have been used in the selected databases, since “nature interpretation” generates no scientific hits. Definitions and pedagogical principles for nature interpretation are described in the first part of the report. Then international nature interpretation research and some different occurring theories are presented. Emphasis is then put on Swedish and Nordic research that is relevant for developing nature interpretation. The main findings below include conclusions from both the international and the Swedish/Nordic research and indicate some possible directions for development of nature interpretation research, in Sweden and elsewhere. NATURE INTERPRETATION CAN BE BOTH A MEANS OR AN END IN ITSELF There is a need for scientific development of nature interpretation evaluation principles. In Sweden, but also elsewhere, a common goal for publicly financed nature interpretation is to influence people in the direction of sustainable development. Research on interpretation evaluation is needed in order to know whether various activities correspond to our expectations. Also, there is a need to question whether this goal of influencing people is transparent and democratic enough. Internationally, there are both researchers who claim that interpretation can have a positive effect on environmental attitudes and behavior, and those who claim that effective evaluation methodologies for exploring such relationships need further development. Worldwide, interpretive evaluation research has focused heavily on knowledge gain and impacts on attitudes and behaviour, but it has seldom partitioned out the role of the emotional aspects of nature experience, although interpretation instructions stress revelation and provocation for instance. The notion of “participants gaining knowledge” could be widened and include mutual and experiential learning processes. Unlike environmental education, interpretation usually is a rather time limited activity. That could also be a reason to why long term interpretation effects are difficult to evaluate. If any effects appear, it would still be difficult to distinguish what has generated them. Nature interpretation is sometimes seen as a means for fulfilling a greater objective, but in other cases it is seen as an end in itself. For instance, within outdoor recreation, nature interpretation activities could be considered an end in themselves. Whereas nature interpretation efforts within state run nature conservation could be a means for legitimating and promoting poli-tical nature conservation decisions. NATURE INTERPRETATION AS A COMMUNICATIVE ACT The literature review indicated that the number of Swedish or international publications focusing on the communicative act of nature interpretation from an interactional micro perspective seems to be limited. What is happening within and between the persons during a nature interpretation session? How does the interpretation process really occur? Is the interpreter or the participant the one who makes the interpretation for instance? What kind of learning is taking place? CRITICAL RESEARCH ON NATURE INTERPRETATION COULD DEVELOP THEORY AND PRACTICE When discussing what Swedish nature interpretation research could concentrate on, there is not only a need to discuss the topics, but also different scientific approaches that could facilitate a greater understanding. Much of the Nordic research referred in this report is carried out within a positivistic research tradition doing quantitative studies. When approaching social science there are also some publications within hermeneutic research tradition. Critical research tradition, however, is rare among the studies reviewed. Since nature interpretation is not a natural science phenomenon, but a social one, nature interpretation research based on social constructivism has an obvious importance in further development of Swedish nature interpretation research. The role of nature interpretation in society could be better understood by analyzing what discourses characterize Swedish nature interpretation practice today. What ideas of man and nature are taken for granted which could affect the content and format of nature interpretation? Nature interpretation contributes to constructing our nature experiences, something that is seldom analysed. What values and rationalities holds the Swedish nature interpretation discourses? These questions require a critical dimension of nature interpretation research. Another division to make is research that looks for improving nature interpretation practice (how to do good interpretation), versus research that looks for understanding the phenomenon of nature interpretation (research about interpretation). Both kinds are needed. EXAMPLES ON CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF NATURE INTERPRETATION Some discussions in museology are highly relevant to nature interpretation as well. A quote by Ella Johansson (2001) about open air museums illustrates several of the inherent paradoxes in interpretation that could be interesting to further investigate. “… some contrary – or maybe complementary – aspects are lasting and necessary features in a museum: authenticity versus scene, critical distance versus deep empathy, creating knowledge versus ideology, education versus Sunday pleasure.” The content and format of nature interpretation is always a mental and social product, where the involved individuals decide what phenomena and objects are paid attention to and what questions and explanations are suggested. Søren Kruse (2002) argues that “the interpreter designs the participants’ nature visits and determines thereby frames for their nature experiences”. He further writes that: “Nature interpretation is in the centre of the normative minefield of pedagogics, where one could ask oneself: With what right can the nature interpreters claim that their design of nature visits is better than the nature contact designed by the participants themselves? My point of departure is that nature interpretation is not an interpretation of nature, but a production and reproduction of socially constructed descriptions of nature and our relations with it.” THE NEED OF ADVANCING NATURE INTERPRETATION RESEARCH IN SWEDEN Advancement of Swedish research on nature interpretation is needed for several reasons. There are national prerequisites that are unique, such as the Swedish right of public access to nature. Swedish nature interpretation is not yet systematically evaluated from a scientific point of view. There are also a number of educational programmes in Swedish universities within nature guidance and nature interpretation, and connecting these educational efforts to research would strengthen their quality. However, nature interpretation is not a research discipline, but rather a topic that requires research from various perspectives. That interdisciplinary context could be treated by different branches – from public health science, to cultural studies, to forest sciences, if it is combined with communication science, pedagogics or similar fields. Environmental psychology, marketing and media sciences could also provide knowledge about behavioural impacts that nature interpretation often aims for in a general context.
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| 2. |
- Arnell, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Naturvägledning i Sverige - en översikt
- 2009
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Naturvägledning handlar om att förmedla kunskap om och väcka känslor för naturen och kulturlandskapet. Naturvägledare finns i många verksamheter och kallas ofta för något annat i sin vardag: naturguide, museipedagog, ekoturismföretagare, naturinformatör. Centrum för naturvägledning presenterar i rapporten Naturvägledning i Sverige en bred översikt över begrepp, historik, och pågående aktiviteter inom svensk naturvägledning, med en internationell utblick. Rapporten bygger bland annat på intervjuer och enkäter med cirka 100 personer, som ger sin bilder av mål, glädjeämnen och utmaningar med arbetet som naturvägledare.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Caselunghe, Elvira
(författare)
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Deliberations on nature : Swedish cases of communication and democracy within nature conservation
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates the deliberative potential in two communicative initiatives resulting from the 2001 government policy in Swedish nature conservation, A coherent nature conservation policy. The two initiatives, which constitute the empirical material in the thesis are, (1) a national competence development programme that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency ran 2008-2011, Dialogue for nature conservation, and (2) the nature interpretation at naturum, visitor centres at national parks and nature reserves. Data was generated through qualitative interviews with nature conservation administrators at county administrative boards; participant observation at dialogue courses and workshops with researchers and nature interpreters; video analysis of recorded nature interpretation sessions at naturums; documentation from naturum exhibitions; and document and literature studies. The thesis draws from critical theory and clarifies rationales behind communicative practices in nature conservation. The analysis shows that the communicative initiatives are dominated by the instrumental state rationality, circumscribing space for communicative rationality. The 2001 nature conservation policy emphasised communication, but the communicative initiatives did not sufficiently integrate democratic aspects. By identifying the role of meaning-making as a central phenomenon in a communicative process, the thesis indicates how to include democratic dimensions in communicative work. The theoretical contribution of the thesis draws from an analysis of modernity, nature alienation and reconciliation. In the thesis, naturum is identified as a communicative forum with an underdeveloped potential for reconciliatory activities, more precisely deliberations on nature in nature. The thesis contributes to the field of environmental communication through highlighting how communicative practices of nature conservation depend on both communication and materiality.
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| 6. |
- Caselunghe, Elvira, et al.
(författare)
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Landscape and Place Concepts Meeting through Encounters between Birdwatchers and Farmers
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Determining stakeholders‘ different perspectives on the same place can create an important platform for processes of mutual learning in natural resource management. We have interviewed farmers and birdwatchers who were members in a project called Swedish birdwatchers and farmers in cooperation. The aim of the project was to create discussions and meetings between these different users of the landscape; farmers and birdwatchers. In interviews were focused on their view of landscape, birds and nature conservation. To understand how the farmers and the birdwatchers perceive the landscape and discuss around this we use a landscape relation model created by Gustafsson (1993). The model describes three ways of relating to a landscape/place. According to Gustafsson people can relate to landscapes as 1) Pictorial landscapes, 2) Perception landscapes or 3) Identification landscapes. The different perspectives on the same landscape can derive from for example a person‘s function in the landscape and how long time that he or she has spent there. The model can also be a base for discussions about identities. How one perceive and relate to the landscape will affect how one uses and talk about the landscape, the species within the landscape and farm practice
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Joosse, Sofie, et al.
(författare)
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Critical, Engaged and Change-oriented Scholarship in Environmental Communication. Six Methodological Dilemmas to Think with
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental Communication. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1752-4032 .- 1752-4040. ; 14, s. 758-771
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While calls for critical, engaged and change-oriented scholarship in environmental communication (EC) abound, few articles discuss what this may practically entail. With this article, we aim to contribute to a discussion in EC about the methodological implications of such scholarship. Based on our combined experience in EC research and drawing from a variety of academic fields, we describe six methodological dilemmas that we encounter in our research practice and that we believe are inherent to such scholarship. These dilemmas are (1) grasping communication; (2) representing others; (3) involving people in research; (4) co-producing knowledge; (5) engaging critically; and (6) relating to conflict. This article does not offer solutions to these complex dilemmas. Rather, our dilemma descriptions are meant to help researchers think through methodological issues in critical, engaged and change-oriented EC research. The article also helps to translate the dilemmas to the reality of research projects through a set of questions, aimed to support a sensitivity to, and understanding of, the dilemmas in context.
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| 10. |
- Nordström Källström, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Can social sustainability be measured?
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A socially sustainable development or social sustainability is a frequently used concept in various situations as well as in rural development. Organisations and governments want different actions to increase the social sustainability in an area or situation. But how do we know that we have achieved our social goals? How can these goals be evaluated? The aim of this paper is to discuss if and how a socially sustainable development can be assessed using social indicators. What indicators should be used? And to what extent are such indicators applicable? When evaluating the Swedish Rural Development Programme 2000-2006 a study to find useful social indicators took place. In this work different attempts from a number of organizations of using social indicators were assessed. As a result from that study 8 categories for indicators were suggested for evaluation of the Swedish Rural Development Programme: 1) Participation, democracy and social status, 2) Networks and social relations, 3) Public welfare, security, safety and working environment, 4) Equal opportunities, 5) Education and learning, 6) Service, infrastructure and accessibility, 7) Subsistence and employment and 8) Financial distribution. Another result is the need of space to create local influence defining indicators. These 8 categories are all relevant and well, but they also pose new challenges to evaluation processes: What are the contents of these categories? Do they have the same value or should they be prioritized? What categories are we missing out when we chose certain categories for measurement? There are also political and normative aspects of social indicators and with social sustainability in general. Can subjective experiences of social sustainability be taken into account? How do social indicators reflect the time aspect, change and development? Indicators are used as evaluative tool in different kinds of contexts. Political efforts towards social sustainability have to be evaluated, and it is often done in quantitative terms, very much tending to neglect important aspects that are not measurable. To grasp even factors and conditions that are less evident in that sense, it could be successful to complete qualitative evaluations with quantitative indicators (of qualitative character). Or the other way: Qualitative analysis provides meaning to and guides the interpretation of quantitative measures. The limits of both quantitative and qualitative measures must be considered when developing useful tools to evaluate achievements in for example the Swedish Rural Development Programme
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