Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Learning on Agroecological Conservation among Landless Farmers

博士论文研究：失地农民学习对农业生态保护的影响

• 批准号: 1060888
• 负责人: J Brosius
• 金额: $ 1.98万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-03-15 至 2013-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1060888&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Effects; Learning

Doctoral candidate David Meek (University of Georgia), supervised by Drs. Peter Brosius and Julie Velasquez-Runk, will engage in research in an Amazonian community of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement to determine how new settlement movements impact the participants and the rainforest environments they are using. The research will focus on how informal learning, gained through social movement participation, influences agroecological knowledge, agroforestry practices, and resulting land cover changes. The researcher will combine life history interviews, participant observation of agricultural and movement activities, semi-structured interviews, and free-lists to examine whether movement participation influences levels of agroecological knowledge and agricultural practices. Spatial data, gathered from satellite imagery and participatory mapping, will be used to examine the spatial extent of agroforestry areas, and their contribution to larger processes of land cover change.The relationship between Amazonian land reform and land cover change remains highly debated among those concerned with balancing the need for economic development with the impact on the forest. This research is important as it will explore potential linkages between political ideology and informal learning about critical issues of deforestation and reforestation. Research findings will contribute to debates about the environmental impact of land reform settlements, and will thereby support efforts within civil society to achieve agrarian reform and sustainable development. It will also facilitate future comparative long-term ecological research between social movement and other agrarian settlements, informing land change science and political ecology. Empirical details on the role of informal learning, in a region characterized by lack of consistent access to formal education, will promote more effective movement planning and equitable settlement policy-making in the future.

博士候选人大卫米克（格鲁吉亚大学），由博士彼得·布罗修斯和朱莉贝拉斯克斯-伦克监督，将在巴西无地工人运动的亚马逊社区从事研究，以确定新的定居点运动如何影响参与者和他们正在使用的雨林环境。研究将侧重于通过参与社会运动获得的非正式学习如何影响农业生态知识、农林实践以及由此产生的土地覆盖变化。研究者将结合联合收割机生活史访谈、农业与运动活动的参与观察、半结构式访谈、自由清单等方法，探讨运动参与是否影响农业生态知识与农业实践的水平。从卫星图像和参与性绘图中收集的空间数据将用于审查农林业地区的空间范围及其对土地覆盖变化的更大进程的贡献，那些关心平衡经济发展需要和对森林影响的人仍然对亚马逊河流域土地改革与土地覆盖变化之间的关系有很大的争论。这项研究很重要，因为它将探讨政治意识形态与关于毁林和重新造林关键问题的非正式学习之间的潜在联系。 研究结果将有助于就土地改革定居点的环境影响进行辩论，从而支持民间社会为实现土地改革和可持续发展所作的努力。它还将促进未来社会运动和其他农业定居点之间的比较长期生态研究，为土地变化科学和政治生态学提供信息。在一个缺乏持续获得正规教育机会的区域，非正规学习作用的经验细节将促进今后更有效的流动规划和公平定居决策。