Dams and Flows: Immersing in Western Meaning Systems in Search of Ecocultural Reflexivity |
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Authors: | Tema Milstein Mariko Thomas Jeff Hoffmann |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Geography &2. Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA;3. Department of Communication &4. Journalism, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA |
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Abstract: | In this unprecedented era of anthropogenic ecological destruction, this study illustrates inadequacies in conceptual language available in Western settings to think deeply and holistically about “nature.” At the same time, the study illustrates transformative potential of moments of ecocultural reflexivity. Using free write methodology, we examine ways participants in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia articulate what they mean when they say “nature.” We interpret participant streams of consciousness as representative of a wider Western river-way, a channel of dominant, multiple, and contradictory meanings in continuous movement. We identify conceptual obstructions that provide glimpses into ways Western ecological relations are bounded and dammed by binary, fragmented, and unconsidered meanings. Yet reflexivity in the face of such obstructions, and in potent ecocultural side streams of childhood remembering and ecocentric cosmology, provides some participants a lucid flow of regenerative narratives at a time such shared stories are urgently needed. |
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Keywords: | Ecocultural reflexivity western environmental discourse meanings of “nature” cosmology childhood streams of consciousness free writing |
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