Community participation in habitat mapping : learning through the emergence of an eelgrass stewardship network
Date
2009-09-09T21:54:32Z
Authors
Boyer, Leanna
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Abstract
This thesis explores learning in and through the emergence of a network of communities who participated in the B.C. Coastal Eelgrass Stewardship Project (the Project). I draw on a two-year ethnographic investigation of 20 community groups who were trained to map and monitor eelgrass habitat and carry out education and stewardship-related activities.
People from a multitude of backgrounds, including scientists and non-scientists, and a diversity of places, from small coastal communities to urban centers, worked towards the collective goal of mapping and conserving the extent of eelgrass habitat along the coast. Using cultural-historical activity theory, I develop an alternative framework for understanding learning and change in a network of communities. The collection of three main chapters, shows that learning, emergence, and stabilization of the network arose through the following dialectical relations: individual/collective, social/material, and agency/structure. This thesis shows that viewing and supporting the Project as a dynamic learning network makes it more stable.
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conservation, marine resources, citizen participation, British Columbia