The Places that Speak to Us and the Publics We Talk With: Shaping Environmental Histories

“对我们说话的地方和我们交谈的公众”发展了两个网络的工作，这两个网络是在研究环境变化网络的号召下资助的："地方，全球进程：环境变化的历史“和”气候的文化空间“。"地方“围绕着三个特定地点的工作坊，地点在Wyndham Fen（剑桥郡）、Quantock Hills（萨默塞特）和Kielder Water and森林公园（诺森伯兰郡）。在每一个场地，我们都与一个正式的项目合作伙伴合作--分别是国家信托基金、AONB服务和诺森伯兰水务公司--并与其他环境管理组织建立了关系，包括林业委员会和野生动物信托基金。我们结合了室内活动，如学术论文、项目合作伙伴的演讲和有合作伙伴代表参加的圆桌讨论，并与当地人直接接触。气候文化空间网络更倾向于在研讨室进行传统的学术讨论，并需要与艺术和人文代表、更广泛的研究界、学术和专业团体以及公共部门进行创新性接触，以确定纠正气候讨论中的全球和科学偏见的方法，探讨气候在不同时空背景下对不同群体的意义，并质疑气候的本体论地位。“地方”调查员和“气候文化空间”首席调查员的这一联合提案结合了他们的经验和专业知识，以开展新一轮的活动，这些活动开发了原始的研究议程，但结合使用它们来阐明不同背景下的沟通过程和意义的转变如何塑造对环境的理解，通过不同的研究链与各种公众的结构化互动。目的和目标主要目的是：1.在从艺术和人文角度研究过去环境变化的学者与管理环境和应对环境变化的专业人士（我们的项目合作伙伴）之间进行创新和富有成效的知识交流。2.通过应用考虑到人的感知、社区参与和其他文化因素的观点，努力为管理决策做出贡献。我们的长期目标是帮助制定公共政策。通过我们不同的子项目之间的相互关系，包括“环境”这一大类，研究不同的方法，背景和公众，以及这些元素之间的沟通过程，如何塑造环境理解和理解的翻译。4.与合作伙伴合作开展一系列项目、研讨会和活动，以实现这些目标。其中一些活动与以前的讲习班和网络产出直接相关：一个采访项目，采访了参与管理网站的专业人员和当地社区成员，以及一个讲习班，以推动《当地地方》一书的出版。还有一些是衍生产品：Quantock果园项目，研究果园在当地景观中的作用;步行军事化景观，设计军事训练区周围的步行路线;在Wyndham Fen举行的关于“环境愿景”的公开讲座系列。这些项目发展了现有的合作伙伴关系（国家信托基金、AONB服务和Northumbrian Water），并使与林业委员会和皇家地理学会（与英国地理学家协会）的联系正式化。我们将两个网络的研究直接结合在一起，调查当地的合作生产和环境管理人员采用的气候变化适应战略的接受情况。潜在的应用和效益潜在的研究应用包括为管理场地和解决环境变化的专业人员提供决策信息;提高公众对这些问题的认识;为学术和非学术合作伙伴提供关于交流实践和意义出现的见解;并为公共政策决策做出贡献。考虑到这些，我们还计划由环境记者Erin Gill召集一个新闻工作坊，探讨如何从我们的研究中提取有新闻价值的故事，用适当的语言传达它们，并将它们放置在最大限度地提高公众和学术价值和影响力的地方。我们还将在林业委员会和国家信托基金的支持下举办一个后续的森林和林地工作坊，从文化和社会的角度对关键概念进行分析，如所有权和管理、社区、可及性和价值，这是我们上次DEFRA会议（2011年9月）强调的。

Context‘The Places that Speak to Us and the Publics We Talk With’ develops the work of two Networks funded under the Researching Environmental Change Network call: ‘Local Places, Global Processes: Histories of Environmental Change’ and ‘Cultural Spaces of Climate’. ‘Local Places’ revolved around three site-specific workshops on location at Wicken Fen (Cambridgeshire), Quantock Hills (Somerset), and Kielder Water and Forest Park (Northumberland). At each venue, we worked with a formal project partner - the National Trust, the AONB service and Northumbrian Water, respectively - and forged relationships with other environment management organizations, including the Forestry Commission and the Wildlife Trusts. We combined indoor pursuits such as academic papers, presentations by project partners and round table discussions involving partner representatives, with direct engagement with the locales themselves. The Cultural Spaces of Climate’ Network was more orientated towards traditional academic discourse in the seminar room, and entailed innovative engagement with arts and humanities representatives, the broader research community, learned and professional societies and the public sector, to identify ways to redress the global and scientific bias in climate discourse, to explore the meaning of climate for different groups in different spatial and temporal contexts and to interrogate climate’s ontological status. This joint proposal from the ‘Local Places’ Investigators and the Principal Investigator for ‘Cultural Spaces of Climate’ combines their experience and expertise in pursuit of a new round of activities that develops the original research agendas but uses them in combination to shed light on how processes of communication and the transformation of meaning in different contexts shape understanding of the environment, through the structured interaction of different research strands engaging with a variety of publics. Aims and ObjectivesThe principal aims are:1. To generate innovative and productive knowledge exchanges between academics studying past environmental change from arts and humanities perspectives and professionals – our project partners – who manage environments and address environmental change. 2. To endeavour to contribute to management decisions by applying perspectives that take account of human perceptions, community involvement and other cultural considerations. Our longer term aim is to help inform public policy.3. To examine, through the inter-relations of our different sub-projects embracing the broad category ‘the environment’, how different methods, contexts and publics, and processes of communication across these elements, shape environmental understanding and the translation of understanding across audiences. 4. To pursue a range of projects, workshops and events in collaboration with partners to secure these ends. Some of these undertakings are directly related to previous workshops and Network outputs: an interview project, with professionals involved in managing the site and local community members, and a workshop to advance the book arising from ‘Local Places’. Others are spin-offs: the Quantock Orchard Project to research the role of orchards in the local landscape; Walking Militarized Landscapes to devise walks around military training estates; a public lecture series on ‘Environmental Visions’ at Wicken Fen. These projects develop existing partner relationships (National Trust, AONB service and Northumbrian Water) and formalize links with the Forestry Commission and the Royal Geographical Society (With Institute of British Geographers). We bring the two Networks’ research directly together by investigating local co-production and reception of climate change adaptation strategies adopted by environmental managers. Potential applications and benefitsThe potential research applications include informing decisions by professionals who manage sites and address environmental change; heightening public awareness of such issues; providing insight on practices of communication and the emergence of meaning for academic and non-academic partners; and contributing to public policy decisions. With these in mind, we also plan a Journalism Workshop convened by Erin Gill, an environmental journalist, to explore how to extract newsworthy stories from our research, convey them in appropriate language and place them to maximize the public as well as scholarly value and impact.We will also hold a follow-up Forests and Woodlands Workshop with Forestry Commission and National Trust support, to bring historical, cultural and social perspectives to key concepts, such as ownership and management, community, access, and value, highlighted at our previous DEFRA meeting (September 2011).