Pathways to understanding the changing climate: time and place in cultural learning about the environment

人们在多大程度上意识到环境随时间变化的过程，以及如何观察和反映这些变化？人们在思考未来的环境情景时，包括与气候变化有关的情景时，是否利用了对过去环境的了解？该项目将制定创新方法，积极看待特定地区的环境。迈克·休姆（Mike Hulme）在《为什么我们对气候变化持不同意见》（Why We Disagree About Climate Change）一书中认为，对气候变化的看法不同，是因为我们对自然和社会世界的文化观点不同，以及对气候风险的暴露程度不同。这使我们迫切需要找到方法来引出和记录这些文化观点，同时也使我们问：人们在多大程度上将他们的当地环境知识与全球进程联系起来？为了将环境变化与对气候变化等过程的看法联系起来，有必要详细了解环境经验是如何形成和叙述的。我们将收集并建立一个叙事和图像数据库，探索和反思东安格利亚的环境过去和未来，该地区具有悠久的景观变迁历史，由于其平坦和低洼的性质，特别容易受到气候变化的影响。认识到，在保持与气候变化经济学斯特恩审查，代际公平问题是我们应对不断变化的环境的挑战的能力的核心，我们的研究的一个组成部分将是学校和学童的参与。通过在Fen景观中行走，体验地方，物体和图像，孩子们将参与关于他们所生活的环境的不同叙述和专业知识形式（从自然特征到精神和传说）。与大沼泽博物馆合作伙伴关系，谁拥有丰富的社区和学校外展经验，我们将组织一系列的活动日，在这些活动中，学生将利用为数据库收集的叙述，并与艺术家，环境科学家和博物馆工作人员合作，以产生创造性的反应，他们的区域环境历史。这将在一个展览中达到高潮，由大沼泽博物馆伙伴关系主办，由孩子们策划。这些将提供一个有价值的洞察儿童能够感知和参与环境历史的途径，以及如何在气候变化的背景下将其纳入未来的愿景。学校项目和展览的成果将被添加到数据库中。气候变化是特定地区的社区所经历的，但只能被理解为一个全球过程。因此，我们研究的一个重要部分将是促进学校和基层组织之间的跨文化联系，探索不同地区可以找到共同点的方式。利用现有的网络在地区的社会人类学的司有很强的工作关系，特别是阿拉斯加，蒙古和越南（但开放的未来合作在其他地方），我们将探讨在何种程度上我们正在英国开发的方法适用于这些不同的研究背景和可以学到什么教训。通过建立学校和组织在东安格利亚与他们在世界其他地方的同行之间的联系，我们将不仅是探索社区如何看待自己的地方环境变化，而且他们如何接收和应对变化的经验在世界其他地方。除了建立虚拟链接，我们还将邀请来自这些不同环境的教育工作者和社区组织者参加研讨会，为围绕环境变化问题的互动和知识转移提供机会。

To what extent are people aware of processes of environmental change over time, and how are such changes observed and reflected upon? Do people draw upon a knowledge of past environments in thinking about future environmental scenarios, including those associated with the changing climate? This project will develop innovative methodologies for engaging with the active perception of the environment in particular localities. Mike Hulme, in 'Why We Disagree About Climate Change', has argued that variations in the perception of climate change arise from different cultural outlooks on our natural and social worlds and different levels of exposure to climate risk. This points us towards the pressing need to find ways of eliciting and recording these cultural outlooks, while also leading us to ask: to what extent do people connect their local environmental knowledge with global processes?In order to relate environmental transformations to the perceptions of processes such as climate change, it is necessary to have a detailed knowledge of how environmental experiences are shaped and narrated. We will gather and build a database of narratives and images exploring and reflecting upon environmental pasts and futures in East Anglia, a region with a long history of landscape flux and, due to its flat and low-lying nature, a particular vulnerability to processes of climate change. Recognising, in keeping with the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, that questions of intergenerational equity are central to our capacity to respond to the challenges of the changing environment, an integral part of our research will be the involvement of schools and schoolchildren. By walking pathways in the Fen landscape and by experiencing places, objects and images children will engage with different narratives and forms of expertise about the environment they are living in (from natural features to spirits and legends of the place). Working with the Greater Fens Museum Partnership, who have extensive experience of community and school outreach, we will organise a series of activity days in which schoolchildren will draw upon the narratives collected for the database, and work with artists, environmental scientists, and museum staff to generate creative responses to their regional environmental history. This will culminate in an exhibition, hosted by the Greater Fens Museum Partnership and curated by the children. These will give a valuable insight into the routes by which children are able to perceive and engage with environmental history, and how this feeds into visions of the future in the context of climate change. Outcomes from the schools projects and the exhibitions will be added to the database.Climate change is experienced by communities in particular localities, but can only be understood as a global process. For this reason, an important part of our research will be to foster cross-cultural links between schools and grassroots organisations exploring the ways in which different localities can find common ground. Drawing on existing networks in regions where the Division of Social Anthropology has strong working relationships, especially Alaska, Mongolia, and Vietnam (but open to future collaborations elsewhere), we will explore the extent to which methods we are developing in the UK are applicable in these different research contexts and what lessons can be learned. By establishing connections between schools and organisations in the East Anglia with their counterparts elsewhere in the world, we will not only be exploring how communities perceive environmental change in their own locality, but also how they receive and respond to the experience of change elsewhere in the world. In addition to establishing virtual links, we will invite educators and community organisers from these diverse settings to participate in the workshops providing opportunities for interaction and knowledge transfer around issues of environmental change.