Abstract
For ENVS 350 Environmental Theory course, praxis is an opportunity to ground the theories we read grapple with in practice. Using Douglas County, Oregon as a case study, we investigated different aspects of theory (reality, knowledge, ethics, and politics) by engaging with different citizens and histories of a real life place. See my posts for more information regarding our field trip, my project, and the process of merging theory with that thing some might call “reality.”
Framing Question: How do communities use knowledge to cope with loss?
Focus Question: How do residents of Douglas County use different types of knowledge in their visions for the future?
Using Doreen Massey’s “Landscape as a Provocation” to explore human interaction with nature as inherent loss, Gauchat’s study of public trust in science, and Susan Moser’s treatment of the challenges faced by environmental leaders, I explored the use of knowledge in various communications by residents of Douglas County, Oregon faced with different types of loss. Through meetings and interviews with county officials and young entrepreneurs, I investigated how residents of Douglas County rely on different types of knowledge to create narratives of place. I focused on three of many groups that reference one another: county officials, environmentalists, and young entrepreneurs. In addition to field research, I analyzed primary sources such as Oregon Valley Verve and the websites of environmental groups Umpqua Watersheds and Oregon Wild. I categorized the types of knowledge they expressed as historical knowledge, scientific knowledge, and social knowledge. While each of these groups used each type of knowledge selectively in their communications, knowledge was used broadly to create narratives of progression, collapse, and progression contingent on collapse.
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