Anthropological Perspectives on Environmental Communication

This is an open access book.

• environmental communication
• sustainability
• local culture
• livelihoods
• place
• landscape
• applied anthropology
• applied ethnology
• material culture
• Open Access

"Adaptive and inclusive governance, key aspects of steering towards sustainable use of land and water, require cross-cultural and respectful communication. A basic prerequisite is insight into the diversity of ways that people perceive and interact with the rest of nature. This book brings to the fore the significant contributions that anthropological research offers in this respect. The volume not only provides a number of highly interesting and theory-framed cases of the multi-faceted relationships between people and their local environments from various parts of the world, it also stimulates a healthy uncertainty regarding the context and rationale for human actions, which encourages more open-minded approaches in environmental communication and mutual exchange in the search for sustainable solutions."

"Nature, culture, and people are generally perceived as independent entities in the world around us. The environmental situation presents us with new challenges within the confines of our lives on Earth. Researchers seek an explanation for human societies’ various strategies, some of which are rooted deeply in the past; they reveal a faith in the value of models linked to heritage in the form of rituals, social relations, and work techniques, as well as adaptations prompted by changes in the landscape and environment. This collection of studies documents the ongoing processes of diversity that are grounded in environmental and cultural differences across the globe, taking the reader from South and North America (Chile, Arizona, Alaska) to Northern and Central Europe (Sweden, Slovakia). The results demonstrate the surprising diversity of historical contexts of place versus environmental constraints, as well as that of life in depopulated regions."

—Viera Feglová, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava

—Josef Kandert, Professor of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague

"Environmental conflicts are increasingly heated, and the need to listen and hear diverse voices has never been greater. This timely volume uses case studies from around the world to understand environmental communication from many perspectives. It will help practitioners and theorists understand what is being said, by whom, and to what purpose. With cases including cultural landscapes, community voices, living and material heritage, toxic legacies, continuity and abandonment, this volume brings invaluable anthropological insights and reflections on the connections between language and place."

—Simone Abram, Professor in Anthropology and Co-Director of the Durham Energy Institute, Durham University

"This groundbreaking intervention is fresh, interdisciplinary, and internationally authored. It not only challenges taken-for-granted assumptions about environmental communication and anthropology, but also follows that challenge with a suite of heuristics for ways to deepen what is meant by the label “environmental communication.” The editors have assembled a highly diverse group of authors and integrated their ideas into a superb example of transdisciplinary scholarship that offers insights for other scholars, for advocates, and for citizens. This is a volume that will immediately reward its readers, while simultaneously beckoning them to return over and over."

—Tarla Rai Peterson, Professor of Communication, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas, El Paso

• School of Global Studies & Gothenburg Research Institute, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

  Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist

• Department of Social Studies and Ethnology, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

  Ivan Murin

• Department of English and American Studies, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

  Michael E. Dove