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      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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      BIOCULTURAL PLACES FOR TRANSFORMATIVE COMMUNITIES AND PROTECTED AREAS: CRITICAL PLACE INQUIRY AND YOUTH PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH IN COLOMBIA

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      MCRUER-DISSERTATION-2017.pdf (14.91Mb)
      Date
      2017-08-23
      Author
      McRuer, Jennifer Kent 1980-
      ORCID
      0000-0003-4695-5905
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Doctoral
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      This dissertation affirms the importance of explicitly and politically attending to place in research. Taking up such a critical inquiry of place, I facilitate a participatory and action-oriented approach through Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and methods of photovoice and participatory mapping. This approach engaged six youth living in Isla Grande, Colombia, to co-investigate the significance of biocultural place relationships to their lives. This focus supports their community’s efforts toward sustainable development and self-determination of ancestral territories alongside a National Park and Marine Protected Area. Emphasizing place in research conceptualization, orientation, approach, design, and practice, we achieved the following objectives: (1) to explore youths’ relationships with place through critical place inquiry by supporting their role as co-researchers using a YPAR approach; (2) to encourage youth-led inquiry with place related to their experiences and understandings of well-being and sustainability in ancestral territory places; and (3) to assess and mobilize youth perspectives on place significance, based on biocultural interdependence. Through analysis, this dissertation offers practical insight on the relevance of a biocultural framework to discern interdependent and evolving place relationships. Resultant findings illustrate youths’ biocultural relations using a UNESCO-sCBD framework in terms of how language; material culture; knowledge, technology, innovations, and improvisations; social and economic relations; beliefs; and values are interconnected with biodiversity. These relations are discussed in connection with youths’ understandings of well-being and sustainability. Local implications of this research include applying a biocultural framework to support formal education and livelihood diversification, and encouraging youth participation in community efforts toward sustainable development. Broad implications for protected areas include how a biocultural framework can inform governance decisions based on the knowledge, values, and interests of local communities to protect both nature and culture. Implications for future research include: going "beyond the research" to capture the daily lives of youth through mobile approaches; building on participatory approaches to facilitate intergenerational learning and exchange; expanding on economic relations to support biocultural heritage innovations; and supporting collaborative processes among diverse place actors through the development of biocultural indicators
      Degree
      Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
      Department
      Educational Foundations
      Program
      Educational Foundations
      Supervisor
      McKenzie, Marcia
      Committee
      Wilson, Alex; Miller, Dianne; Walker, Ryan; Dunlop, Andrew
      Copyright Date
      October 2017
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/8041
      Subject
      Education for Sustainable Development
      Community-led Conservation
      Place
      Participatory and Action-Oriented Methodologies
      Youth Voice
      Collective Biocultural Heritage
      Buen Vivir
      Regenerative Development
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      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
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