Civic ecology practices: insights from practice theory

Ecology and Society

Marianne E. Krasny¹  Philip Silva¹  Eunju Lee¹  Robert Ligas²  Cornelia Barr³  Eve Mosher⁴  Andrea Reynosa⁵  Zahra Golshani⁶ 

[1] Civic Ecology Lab, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University;Five Rivers MetroParks;Gateway Environmental Initiative;Seeding the City;Tusten Heritage Community Garden;University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;

关键词: civic ecology;    practice theory;    stewardship;    urban;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ES-07345-200212

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Our aim was to explore the use of practice theory as an approach to studying urban environmental stewardship. Urban environmental stewardship, or civic ecology practice, contributes to ecosystem services and community well-being and has been studied using social-ecological systems resilience, property rights, communities of practice, and governance frameworks. Practice theory, which previously has been applied in studies of consumer behaviors, adds a new perspective to urban stewardship research, focusing on how elements of a practice, such as competencies, meanings, and physical resource, together define the practice. We applied practice theory to eight different civic ecology practices, including oyster gardening in New York City, a civil society group engaged in litter cleanup in Iran, and village grove restoration in South Korea. Our analysis suggests that in applying practice theory to the civic ecology context, consideration should be given to social and communication competencies, how meanings can motivate volunteers and sustain practice, and the nature of the resource that is being stewarded. Future studies may want to focus on how practice elements interact within and vary across practices and may be used to more systematically analyze and share ideas among diverse civic ecology practices.

【 授权许可】

Unknown