<p> When I was growing up in the beautiful Red Lick Valley in eastern Kentucky, I saw many families practicing intensive subsistence production. They grew large gardens, raised chickens for eggs and meat, built their own homes, and fixed their own cars and trucks. On the Yurok Reservation, I again saw a profound and ongoing engagement with hunting, gathering, and crafting activities - and then encountered contemporary subsistence yet again when I visited my wife's childhood home in rural Ireland. When I began my graduate studies, however, I could find little reflection of these activities in either the scholarly record or popular media. When they were noticed at all, they were often targeted for stereotyped ridicule: contemporary homesteaders in the US were either remnant hippies from the `60s, or quaint mountain folks lost in time. I already knew that these stereotypes were misleading and insufficient. However, they also highlighted the lack of understanding of a genuinely puzzling phenomenon: why, in the heart of an advanced industrial nation, are so many people still embracing what is, in essence, peasant production? Using multiple research methods - including in-depth, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, surveys, and archival work - I have found that contemporary homesteading is not a window lingering open upon the past, but a thoughtful and serious attempt to respond to the present. It is best thought of as an unusual kind of social movement. Rather than attempting to foster change by modifying policy or reforming dominant institutions, homesteaders pursue change through a conscious reworking of the economic foundations of their lives. Barbara Epstein calls this a "prefigurative" strategy: it aims to directly manifest - to prefigure - ways of life and relationships that dissidents believe are more appropriate. Because they do not require the visible organizational armature and attention-grabbing strategies of more traditional social movements, prefigurative movements - like the back-to-the-land movement - have often been overlooked by researchers. Contemporary homesteading is also an unusual social movement in that it attracts participants from widely different socioeconomic backgrounds. In eastern Kentucky there is an acute cultural distinction between two groups, known to each other, somewhat pejoratively, as hicks and hippies. I have found that neither group is accurately described by the dismissive stereotypes to which they are often subjected. There is indeed a countercultural back-to-the-land movement in the research area that emerged originally out of the radical leftist ferment of the 1960s. But rather than representing a dwindling cohort of aging hippie communards, this movement is comprised of people of all ages; my research suggests that there are more back-to-the-landers in the area now than there were forty years ago. Moreover, it is a movement comprised of a multi-stranded left, in which participants are as likely to have been radicalized through, say, the Quaker tradition or Catholic liberation theology as through the Grateful Dead or Timothy Leary. The stereotype of the "hick" homesteaders is no more accurate. They are not simply country folks carrying on Appalachian subsistence traditions despite the fact that those traditions have lost all practical relevance. Many of them have lived in cities and worked modern jobs, and consciously embrace homesteading in response to those experiences. They, too, are part of a back-to-the-land movement, in the sense of having chosen to live a certain way as a strategy of resistance. The presence of two groups who embrace homesteading, and yet remain distinct and somewhat distanced from one another provides one of the most profound and difficult questions that my research confronts. While there are individuals who move freely between these two groups, in general they remain remarkably segregated - even when they live side by side along the same country road. What accounts for this cultural distance? Whatever the difference between "hick" and "hippie" homesteaders, it is not straightforward: nearly half of those who can clearly be identified as belonging to the group of "countercultural back-to-the-land homesteaders" are themselves from rural Appalachian families. By far, the single most consistent difference between these two groups is that one group is not only college educated, but actively and independently literate; members of the other group, with few exceptions, have not attended college and seldom read. But this finding begs another question: why should a difference in the practice of literate intellectuality stand at the heart of profound cultural differences that encompass everything from diet and diction to religious belief and political orientation? The answer is complicated, but it emerges from the recognition that a modern capitalist society is one in which people have profoundly different experiences in all aspects of their lives, from cradle to grave, based on their socioeconomic position. As children, they attend radically different kinds of schools, or are slotted into separate tracks within a given school. After they leave school they have access to different kinds of jobs - shelving products at Wal-Mart, say, versus teaching in a college classroom. When people spend decades of their lives working such jobs, they end up with such divergent life experiences that they might as well be living in different societies. These divided institutional experiences are reinforced in turn by sharp segregation and by the development of opposition to the culture of those in other socioeconomic positions. The command or lack of literate intellectuality plays multiple roles in shaping and sustaining these starkly distinct life experiences, perhaps most clearly by shaping how a particular individual moves through the positions provided by dominant institutions. Taken together, these dynamics culminate in a forceful process that I refer to as "capitalist ethnogenesis": a process of cultural differentiation within a single society, rather than through geographic separation within separate, non-interacting or weakly interacting societies. The homesteading movement contains two groups who turn to the rural landscape for answers to the problems of modern civilization - but how they perceive and interpret that civilization and its problems are markedly different. They are, in effect, responding to different modernities. They turn to homesteading as people indelibly marked by the system they dream of escaping.</p>

<p> This research focuses on the social aspects of ecological restoration. Ecological restoration is assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has be damaged or destroyed because of human actions. This process has been used to combat the loss of prairie habitat that was once abundant in Illinois. Reintroduction of these habitats can be mutually beneficial to humans and the environment. First, prairie restoration provides habitat for native species that have been displaced due to human development. Secondly, prairie ecosystems sequester and store carbon. Lastly, restoration increases the fertility of the soil by reestablishing the nitrogen cycle. Despite the benefits that ecological restoration can bring, it can cause conflict between stakeholder groups. This conflict arises due to (1) the removal of economically viable land and (2) the fear of property damage from the use of fire as a management tool. </p><p> The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of lay and expert stakeholder perceptions of ecological restoration in Illinois. Using Nachusa Grasslands Preserve in Franklin Grove, IL, data from interviews with both stakeholder groups are presented. The data demonstrates disconnect between these two groups about funding, operations, purpose, and support.</p>

Since the mid 1900s Pacific salmon have declined at an alarming rate. The burden for conserving this regional icon has been placed primarily upon the US Forest Service, whose mandates often times collide with state and private interests and whose actions frequently impact local communities. How much affect such small-scale focus actually has on the recovery of salmon is a topic of much debate.My research investigates the highly regulated industry of commercial floatboating and how it may impact spawning salmon. No significant variance in the timing of redds established in areas that are floated vs. those that are not was identified. Despite this, commercial floatboating remains highly regulated, while other more affective actions are minimally regulated.Results indicate that large disparities currently exist relative to how we regulate actions that impact listed salmon, largely attributed to current interpretation of the ESA. Specific examples include high regulation of local level, federally managed land use strategies such as outdoor recreation and minimal regulation of historic and more affective, state managed land use strategies such as water use and irrigation.Those who support broader scale approaches to recovery have begun to call for a shift in management strategies that focus more on the watershed as a whole. Perceived power, effect and value of various land use types play a prominent role in how recovery strategies are directed and whether or not they are consistent with sound science. Land uses recognized as having the most constituent power were identified as having the most adverse impact on salmon and their recovery. Although a shift in management strategies toward a watershed scale approach would benefit salmon and land users that have the least impact on salmon, it appears unlikely to occur because it would not benefit those that have the most influence or power.With uncertainty surrounding global climate futures, and understanding that we must re-configure institutions to provide alternatives to sustain coupled natural and human systems, I call for a watershed scale approach and consilience across disciplines and scales of governance.

In South Africa, as in other parts of the continent and beyond; land claims on nature conservation land have in many cases become part and parcel of Community-Based Conservation (CBC) and related discourses such as Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). This thesis investigates key socio-spatial and political dynamics involved in the acquisition of private game farms by land reform beneficiaries. This acquisition of private game farms by land reform beneficiaries has in many cases given rise to the so called community game farms/reserves. The two community game farms/reserves studied here are the Ngome Community Game Reserve and Nqabayamaswazi Game Farm in KwaZulu-Natal. The two community game farms are managed by community trusts in partnership with the KZN Hunting and Conservation Association (KZNHCA), a private partner which has in return gained hunting rights on the community game farms. From a scientific wildlife management context, the role of KZNHCA in community game farms is based on a need to transfer âexpertâ wildlife management skills to land beneficiaries. In the process, KZNHCA seeks to align community game farms with their previous status as private game farms in terms of economic benefit and wildlife conservation. But, is it realistic to expect that community game farms will resume their old form, from a time when they were managed as family businesses, holiday homes and leisure havens? The thesis explores the processes involved in the continuation of game farming by land beneficiaries and the extent to which community game farming was âimposedâ on beneficiary communities by their representatives, namely: community trusts, chiefs and the former DLA for continuities in land use and âwildlife productionâ- after the land transfer. The role of chiefs in community game farming is explained by paying close attention to their vanguard roles in land reform, leading to an increase of land under their control. Land beneficiary perceptionsâ towards this role of chiefs raises important questions of democracy in the countryside against provisions of the Communal Property Association (CPA) Act partly designed to curtail the power of chiefs on land acquired through land reform.

The purpose of this study is to describe the nature and quality of settlement in a typical part of the Quebec country-side, and to trace the evolution of the present pattern of settlement and the cultural landscape. The Richelieu Valley was chosen because of its significance in the history of the province of Quebec and because of its geographical interest. In the southern part of the Province of Quebec are round the St. Lawrence Lowlands. This level, fertile area, along the St. Lawrence River provides a great contrast to the rough, forested lands of the rest of the province. The lowlands were the first lands in Quebec to be settled, and they have become the most densely populated, as well as being the most productive agricultural region in the province.· The Richelieu River, flowing north from Lake Champlain, and almost parallel to the St. Lawrence, crosses the Montreal Plain, a section of the lowlands, and for most of its length the river valley may be regarded today as a cross-section of this part of Quebec. The land on either aide of the river is, then, very flat, and the Richelieu Valley is not an obvious physical unit. In order to delimit the area to be studied, the land included within the drainage system of the Richelieu in Quebec was delineated and this line was adopted as the boundary. A few minor changes were made, and these are considered in the following paragraphs.[...]

<p> This paper investigates geographical conditions that may have helped the establishment of settlements throughout the American Bottom Region of the Middle Mississippi River Valley dating to the Mississippian Period. Archaeological sites and various geographical variables are obtained from many sources, including the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency central database, LiDAR digital elevation models, reconstructed pre Columbian landscape landform assemblage maps, soils data compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture, and geographic proximity models generated using a GIS. The known archaeological sites are pooled with a sample of non-sites from the study area. The entire sample of sites and non-sites is modelled in a logistical regression to distinguish sites from non-sites through qualitative and quantitative geographical variables. This analysis reveals that people living in the American Bottom region at the time of the establishment of the Mississippian period appear to have settled in areas that were relatively higher in elevation on the landscape, that were suitable for farming, and were possibly in the nearby vicinity of natural resources including access to fresh water and minerals.</p>

This dissertation examines the relationships between the state and reterritorialization of social life by examining the role transborder regions, commonly known as Euroregions, play in the reterritorialization of the international state system. Europe is currently experiencing an unprecedented process of state reterritorialization in the context of European Union integration. In the territorial state system that has characterized Europe for the past four centuries, borders have been the central locus of state territoriality. Euroregions, created across state borders, are crucial to the European reterritorialization process aimed to redefine centralized state territoriality that has proven inadequate in a world of flows. This research investigates the ways in which traditional state territoriality is changing in Eastern Europe by the establishment of Euroregions. In the context of the European Union's enlargement it is as yet less evident how the State-Euroregions-European Union nexus will play out in Eastern Europe where EU membership has not yet been achieved by all states. I examine this process through an intensive case study of the Lower Danube Euroregion, created between Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova. Findings drawn from the experience of the Lower Danube Euroregion show that the capacity of Euroregions to reterritorialize social life in East European borderlands unfolds through a series of dimensions including institutional, political-territorial, legal, and cultural. However, state transborder reterritorialization in Euroregions is a highly contingent process that is imbued with power relations structured around supranational, national, and subnational scales. Transborder reterritorialization takes place at the juncture of these scales which generates a multiscalar geopolitics of Euroregions where Euroregions are used as tools in international politics to advance the interests of states, the European Union, and subnational actors. Under these circumstances, transborder reterritorialization in Eastern Europe remains a top-down enterprise that does not penetrate deep enough into the civil society to allow the emergence of sustainable transborder spaces of living. So far, the significance of Euroregions resides more in their territorial potential rather than in their achievements. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: April 28, 2006. / Reterritorialization, Euroregions, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Geopolitics, Cross-Border Regions, Boundaries / Includes bibliographical references. / Jonathan Leib, Professor Directing Dissertation; Dale Smith, Outside Committee Member; Barney Warf, Committee Member; Patrick O'Sullivan, Committee Member.

Throughout history and all over the world, dolphins have been welcomed across the human-animal boundary as an ethical subject fit for human companionship. The dolphin's charismatic status has led to a burgeoning swim-with-dolphins industry that offers eager customers opportunities for close, in-water interactions with dolphins. With qualitative methods, I investigate human-dolphin encounter geographies in the marketplace today. Contributing to a growing animal geographies literature, three case studies in Florida and the Bahamas inform a situated understanding of particular animal encounter spaces. Through the use of narrative, I suggest that as encounter spaces change, so do the views and experiences associated with human-dolphin interactions, as well as the essential nature of what it means to be dolphin. Encouraging further dialogue about how we ought to interact with dolphins, I evaluate various encounter contexts, consider policy alternatives, and propose a practical ethic for human-dolphin encounters in a decidedly normative effort to advance the well-being of dolphins, humans and the spaces we share. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: March 2, 2006. / Protect dolphins, Anthropomorphism, Anthropocentrism, Marine parks, Nature-society, Human-animal divide, Case studies, Interpretative narrative, Wildlife encounters, Interpretative tradition, Dolphinarium, Oceanarium, Aquarium, aquaria, Zoos, Captivity, Dolphin sanctuaries, Wildlife law, Wildlife policy, Wildlife ethics, Dolphin law, Dolphin ethics, Dolphin captivity, Critical reflexivity, Hermeneutics, Dolphin protection, Dolphin protection policy / Includes bibliographical references. / J. Anthony Stallins, Professor Directing Dissertation; Andrew Opel, Outside Committee Member; Janet E. Kodras, Committee Member; Barney Warf, Committee Member.

The 1920's blues scene is a time and scene often depicted in books, plays, film, and music. However much the time and place have been popular for artistic exploration, the story of the lesbian and lesbian existence in this time and place has been largely forgotten, overlooked, ignored or erased. I wish to change that. I wish also to pay tribute to the female blues singers of the 1920s, a group of women who have in a large part been disinherited in their position as being at the forefront of the blues and jazz tradition. They have been ignored and replaced in popular culture and history with the men of the same time period. I wish to give them their due in fiction, as they were an inspiration for this project. The novel pivots on the moment when Frankie, a young white girl meets Jean Bailey, an African American woman blues singer. With the novel I investigate Frankie's struggle with her place, or lack of place, in a society that is complicated by issues of sexuality, gender, and race. The voice of particular identities is often erased, ignored, and rendered invisible, especially the lesbian and transgendered voice in literary history. I am interested in recreating these stories and voices. My novel is the dramatization of that hot rush of discovery of self intermingled with what can sometimes be the cold stillness of living on the margins of society. Through the setting of The Palace Blues I intend to reflect loss and dislocation as the narrative moves backwards through the chronological progression of the blues scene. Rather than beginning in New Orleans and moving through the South and ending in Chicago or New York, I take my characters on the opposite path. One of the things I do with the novel is trace the beginnings of the blues to small communities in the South. During these beginnings the first women blues singers were making their mark, and I aim to pay tribute (through fictional characters based loosely on Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith) to the groundwork that these women laid. The early women blues singers asserted their independence in business and in their personal lives some fifty years before the second wave of the women's movement, a fact I wish to illustrate in the novel. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Committee Chair - Victor Mesev, Outside Committee Member - Austin Mast, Committee Member - Tingting Zhao, Committee Member - Xiaojun Yang

Hurricane track data from the NHC HURDAT best track dataset from 1900-2003 are analyzed with respect to landfalls along the east coast of Florida. Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method changepoint analysis technique, a changepoint in the landfalls along the coast of east Florida is identified in 1969. The changepoint represents a significant decline in the number of hurricane landfalls along the coast of east Florida starting in 1969 relative to the period 1900-1968. Overall Atlantic activity and U.S. landfalls are analyzed with respect to this date and it is found that despite an increase in hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin and little variance in the number of landfalls elsewhere in the U.S. between the two periods, landfalls along Florida's east coast have declined significantly. Using spatial intensity analysis, hurricane activity shows a marked decrease around the Florida peninsula, the Bahamas, and the western Greater Antilles since 1969, as compared to the period from 1900-1968. A domain is constructed that covers this area of decreased activity. Using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, NOAA Extended Reconstructed SST, and NOAA/CPC SOI and NAO data, an analysis of the regional climate with respect to variables that have previously been found to be important to hurricane formation and distribution is performed. Reanalysis data for seven thermodynamic and dynamic parameters (SST, 500-700hPa average RH, surface air temperatures, 200-850hPa zonal vertical shear, 925hPa relative vorticity, 200hPa divergence, and sea-level pressure) as well as observations of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, and the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) are used to form yearly seasonal averages, covering the months of August through October over the domain from 1948-2003. These yearly seasonal averages are then used to construct a forward stepwise Poisson regression model that predicts the number of landfalls along the east coast of Florida. The variables that contribute significantly to the model are variables that have an important influence on the number of landfalls the east coast of Florida receives. The variables that had the greatest significance in the model were 200-850hPa zonal vertical shear, the NAOI, and surface air temperatures. Decreases in all three variables correspond to increased landfall rates in the model. When these variables are examined, it is found that the average trend in shear and the NAOI were highest during the period of most suppressed hurricane activity along the east coast of Florida and lowest during the active period for Florida. The trends in the two variables display a cyclic nature with a period on the order of approximately 40 years. In addition, the trend for both variables has been moving towards a more favorable regime for hurricanes since the early 1990s. This suggests that the regional climate may be returning to a regime that is conducive for increased hurricane activity in and around Florida. However, this trend may be tempered by the relatively steady increase in surface temperatures over the study domain. This increase in surface temperatures may be due to deforestation and other changes in land use over the region during the last 50 years and could have a significant effect on convection in the region, as evidenced by a decreasing trend in OLR over the domain. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: October 28, 2004. / Tropical Climatology, Climate Change, Florida, Hurricanes, Climatology / Includes bibliographical references. / James B. Elsner, Professor Directing Thesis; Robert E. Hart, Outside Committee Member; J. Anthony Stallins, Committee Member.