This paper engages operationalized discourses from economics and political science on resources and conflict using anthropological theory and ethnographic techniques. Current trends among civil war scholars locate grievances as ubiquitous constructs or rhetorical tools, irrelevant in causal analysis. This de-emphasis generates an unsavory menu of options for governments seeking to eliminate domestic conflict in resource-rich regions rationalizing grievance-generating human rights abuses.In "developing" resource-rich regions the historical trajectory of indigenous populations is placed in conflict with a development agenda that serves state interests. Grievances are central to the conflict over identity within the affected communities in a struggle for national affiliation or disaffiliation. In the absence of a pluralistic political system grievance-motivated political imperatives combine with political isolation to generate political unrest. As grievances are central to understanding cultural change and social unrest, pluralistic institutions and human rights protections have "realpolitikal" value in securing stability in resource-rich regions.

Natural protected areas (NPAs) are created for the protection of biodiversity and natural resources. In NPAs, diverse social constructions of nature come together, representing the specific and often contrasting values of disparate interest groups. The establishment of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche, Mexico fueled social conflict between groups in the region, because its borders cut across existing ejidos (communal lands). The incongruence of policies and actions related to land management in Calakmul presents a particular case where national and international interests are imposed upon local conservation and development concerns. Communities have responded in multiple ways, often resisting new policies or programs, but at times taking advantage of new resources, perspectives, or knowledge. This study analyzes how the differing attitudes of local populations and conservation-oriented NGOs toward conservation, tourism, and towards each other affect how sustainable development activities are carried out within this unique social space.

Human society comes in contact with the physical environment in two ways: Through economic appropriation of physical resources and through the symbolic appropriation of nature. The two 'ways' interact via the various interpreters of nature, who as they define nature create cognitive means for the appropriation of physical resources. / Using the theory of social networks of power the thesis examines the above interplay of economic appropriation and symbolic manipulation of the physical environment from the Stone Age to the Hellenistic times in a series of civilisations in Eurasia. It reasons that as we move from the Stone Age to pristine civilisations we encounter two phenomena: first, a process of variation in nature's interpretation due to social stratification. Second, interpretation of nature becomes the subject matter of elite groups, the literati, firmly attached to political elites. Yet, with the advent of the Axial Age nature's interpreters become increasingly autonomous and use metaphors of nature as means to reflect on political and social issues of the day. In turn, as we can see in the case of ancient Greece, various political elites start to use particular readings of nature to consolidate their ideological position vis-a-vis their rivals. Thus, Axial Age ideologies about nature move from passive interpreters of what exists to dynamic advocates of what should exist. / Thus, the wisdom of the major schools of political ecology is contested in four major issues: First, there has never been a single reading of nature, but many co-existing in geographical and social proximity. Secondly, there is no specific time when nature lost its sacredness. Instead, we detect a steady withdrawal of the divine from the physical environment starting with the emergence of reflecting thinking. Thirdly, the development of nature's symbolic attributes lies not only in its relationship to politics, but also on the internal dynamics, strength and weakness, of the discourse in itself as well as on the organisational capabilities of particular schools of thought. Lastly, economic exploitation as such does not depend on specific readings of nature. Rather, it depends on technological advances, the nexus of political and ideological social networks of power.

The majority of Kenya’s wildlife exists outside the network of national parks and reserves, predominantly in private and community-owned lands. Although works must be acknowledged for having explored the community conservation approach, the body of research examining how Kenya’s wildlife conservation approach is being negotiated by local stakeholders and incorporated into local livelihood strategies is limited. Based on a case study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya, this study examines the motivations of local and non-local groups to pursue wildlife conservation. Viewed through a political ecology lens, this paper analyzes how local people moderate the influence of external conservation values and interests. Findings suggest that local people adopt wildlife conservation projects to access better systems of rangeland management, pursue strategic linkages with external stakeholders and develop basic industries. I conclude that this process represents how Samburu pastoralists strategically embrace externally driven wildlife conservation efforts in self-defining ways.

All this has implications for achieving environmental sustainability in a 'real' biosphere that still supplies the 'ecosystem services' that allow humans, and the rest of the biomass, to actually survive (at the same time that its custodians of mind-us- are 'escaping' into customised neo-worlds). This thesis makes some preliminary enquiries into these new logics, the new 'selectors' at work in human meaning making ecosystems that owe little to those produced by billions of years of 'natural selection'. What seems to be at work at present is an enormously accelerated 'cultural selection' of winners and losers in the 'real' and 'imaginary' world. It would be unwise for the modernist systems of thought that still inform many of our institutional responses to the biosphere to ignore the pre-eminent affect of these cultural processes and the strange and possibly disturbing (at least to the ecosystemic biological purists) new 'weedy' entertainment-ecosystems that might arise from their deployment. / This thesis reviews some aspects of these 'new selectors' at work and begins to chart- with an Australian focus- the tentative development of institutional/legal responses and emergent socialites that acknowledge and even leverage, these new forces. It finally suggests a radical set of possibilities, which if they came to pass, would signal the end to the kind of 'public reservationism' that has characterised the 20th century response to nature, wilderness and the 'environmental crisis', and usher in a more chaotic (but still possibly sustainable) era of 'winners' and 'losers' mediated by new social selectors of post-consumption voluntary affiliation. / The 20th century will be remembered for many 'firsts' and many 'revolutions'. One of these 'revolutions' was the process whereby issues surrounding 'nature', the non-human organisms that inhabit it, the human relationship to these organisms, and the human impact on the planet as a whole, came to occupy such a considerable amount of our individual and collective 'attention space' as the century progressed. In a nutshell, over the course of the 20th century 'the environment' became a 'thing' that almost everyone recognised, and which became associated with a wide range of qualities, dreams and fears that impacted, to varying degrees, on almost every human meaning-making system and institution. / 'Environmentalism' has largely been a product of enlightenment, modernist thinking. From the romantic philosophers, poets and travellers of the 18th and 19th century, to the founders of the ecological sciences, to the eco-activists and 'green' political parties of the 20th century, a whole series of intertwining enlightenment systems of thought and practice have informed its discourses and narratives. The logics of these discourses are all around us in our newly networked global mediasphere- at work in environmental organisations, informing government policy- and they form the basis of the environmental story telling that have made green issues so prominent in the media in the last several decades. / Thesis (PhDSoSc(Communic,InformatStud))--University of South Australia, 2005.

The 20th century will be remembered for many ‘firsts’ and many ‘revolutions’. One of these ‘revolutions’ was the process whereby issues surrounding ‘nature’, the non-human organisms that inhabit it, the human relationship to these organisms, and the human impact on the planet as a whole, came to occupy such a considerable amount of our individual and collective ‘attention space’ as the century progressed. In a nutshell, over the course of the 20th century ‘the environment’ became a ‘thing’ that almost everyone recognised, and which became associated with a wide range of qualities, dreams and fears that impacted, to varying degrees, on almost every human meaning-making system and institution. / ‘Environmentalism’ has largely been a product of enlightenment, modernist thinking. From the romantic philosophers, poets and travellers of the 18th and 19th century, to the founders of the ecological sciences, to the eco-activists and ‘green’ political parties of the 20th century, a whole series of intertwining enlightenment systems of thought and practice have informed its discourses and narratives. The logics of these discourses are all around us in our newly networked global mediasphere- at work in environmental organisations, informing government policy- and they form the basis of the environmental story telling that have made green issues so prominent in the media in the last several decades. / All this has implications for achieving environmental sustainability in a ‘real’ biosphere that still supplies the ‘ecosystem services’ that allow humans, and the rest of the biomass, to actually survive (at the same time that its custodians of mind-us- are ‘escaping’ into customised neo-worlds). This thesis makes some preliminary enquiries into these new logics, the new ‘selectors’ at work in human meaning making ecosystems that owe little to those produced by billions of years of ‘natural selection’. What seems to be at work at present is an enormously accelerated ‘cultural selection’ of winners and losers in the ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ world. It would be unwise for the modernist systems of thought that still inform many of our institutional responses to the biosphere to ignore the pre-eminent affect of these cultural processes and the strange and possibly disturbing (at least to the ecosystemic biological purists) new ‘weedy’ entertainment-ecosystems that might arise from their deployment. / This thesis reviews some aspects of these ‘new selectors’ at work and begins to chart- with an Australian focus- the tentative development of institutional/legal responses and emergent socialites that acknowledge and even leverage, these new forces. It finally suggests a radical set of possibilities, which if they came to pass, would signal the end to the kind of ‘public reservationism’ that has characterised the 20th century response to nature, wilderness and the ‘environmental crisis’, and usher in a more chaotic (but still possibly sustainable) era of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ mediated by new social selectors of post-consumption voluntary affiliation. / Thesis (PhDSoSc(Communic,InformatStud))--University of South Australia, 2005.

The 20th century will be remembered for many "firsts" and many 'revolutions'. One of these 'revolutions' was the process whereby issues surrounding 'nature', the non-human organisms that inhabit it, the human relationship to these organisms, and the human impact on the planet as a whole, came to occupy such a considerable amount of our individual and collective 'attention space' as the century progressed. In a nutshell, over the course of the 20th century 'the environment' became a 'thing' that almost everyone recognised, and which became associated with a wide range of qualities, dreams and fears that impacted, to varying degrees, on almost every human meaning-making system and institution. 'Environmentalism' has largely been a product of enlightenment, modernist thinking. From the romantic philosophers, poets and travellers of the 18th and 19th century, to the founders of the ecological sciences, to the eco-activists and 'green' political parties of the 20th century, a whole series of intertwining enlightenment systems of thought and practice have informed its discourses and narratives. The logics of these discourses are all around us in our newly networked global mediasphere at work in environmental organisations, informing government policy and they form the basis of the environmental story telling that have made green issues so prominent in the media in the last several decades. All this has implications for achieving environmental sustainability in a real biosphere that still supplies the 'ecosystem services' that allow humans, and the rest of the biomass, to actually survive (at the same time that its custodians of mind-us- are 'escaping' into customised neo-worlds). This thesis makes some preliminary enquiries into these new logics, the new 'selectors' at work in human meaning making ecosystems that owe little to those produced by billions of years of 'natural selection'. What seems to be at work at present is an enormously accelerated 'cultural selection' of winners and losers in the real and imaginary world. It would be unwise for the modernist systems of thought that still inform many of our institutional responses to the biosphere to ignore the pre-eminent affect of these cultural processes and the strange and possibly disturbing (at least to the ecosystemic biological purists) new weedy entertainment-ecosystems that might arise from their deployment. This thesis reviews some aspects of these 'new selectors' at work and begins to chart- with an Australian focus- the tentative development of institutional/legal responses and emergent socialites that acknowledge and even leverage, these new forces. It finally suggests a radical set of possibilities, which if they came to pass, would signal the end to the kind of 'public reservationism' that has characterised the 20th century response to nature, wilderness and the 'environmental crisis', and usher in a more chaotic (but still possibly sustainable) era of 'winners' and 'losers' mediated by new social selectors of post-consumption voluntary affiliation.

This research used tuberculosis (TB) as a lens to elucidate how migration, settlement, local agency and support networks influence migrants’ health in New Zealand. The study also examined specific characteristics of TB such as delays in diagnosis and the stigma attached to the disease to gain a broader understanding of TB experience for migrants in New Zealand. The research addressed these aims through the analytical framework of political ecology and incorporation of interviews, participant observation and media analysis. Participants in the research included immigrants from Mainland China, South Korea, and India, and New Zealand health care professionals. The study found that immigration policies, social discrimination and isolation have created structural inequalities between dominant host populations and Asian migrants in New Zealand. These inequalities compounded settlement problems such as language difficulties and limited employment opportunities, resulting in low income levels and perceived stress for Indian, Korean and Chinese people, which has affected their health and well being. Transnational policies and experiences of health care systems in immigrants’ countries of origin and in New Zealand strongly influenced health seeking behaviour of migrants, along with structural barriers such as lack of Asian health care professionals and interpreting services. Local cultural and biological factors including health cultures and physical symptoms also affected these practices. In relation to TB, structural processes along with clinic doctor-patient relationships and social stigmas created barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Factors that facilitated access to health care in general, and TB diagnosis and treatment in particular, included the use of support networks, particularly local General Practitioners from countries of origin, and Public Health Nurses, along with flexible TB treatment programmes. This study shows that the incidence and experience of TB is shaped by migration and settlement processes. It also builds upon other medical anthropological studies that have employed political ecology by demonstrating its usefulness in application to developed as well as developing countries. In addition, the study contributes to the growing area of Asian migration research in New Zealand, illustrating that migration and settlement processes are complex and need to be understood as multidimensional, thus demonstrating advantages in approaching them from a political ecological framework. / Human Research Council, University of Auckland

This research used tuberculosis (TB) as a lens to elucidate how migration, settlement, local agency and support networks influence migrants’ health in New Zealand. The study also examined specific characteristics of TB such as delays in diagnosis and the stigma attached to the disease to gain a broader understanding of TB experience for migrants in New Zealand. The research addressed these aims through the analytical framework of political ecology and incorporation of interviews, participant observation and media analysis. Participants in the research included immigrants from Mainland China, South Korea, and India, and New Zealand health care professionals. The study found that immigration policies, social discrimination and isolation have created structural inequalities between dominant host populations and Asian migrants in New Zealand. These inequalities compounded settlement problems such as language difficulties and limited employment opportunities, resulting in low income levels and perceived stress for Indian, Korean and Chinese people, which has affected their health and well being. Transnational policies and experiences of health care systems in immigrants’ countries of origin and in New Zealand strongly influenced health seeking behaviour of migrants, along with structural barriers such as lack of Asian health care professionals and interpreting services. Local cultural and biological factors including health cultures and physical symptoms also affected these practices. In relation to TB, structural processes along with clinic doctor-patient relationships and social stigmas created barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Factors that facilitated access to health care in general, and TB diagnosis and treatment in particular, included the use of support networks, particularly local General Practitioners from countries of origin, and Public Health Nurses, along with flexible TB treatment programmes. This study shows that the incidence and experience of TB is shaped by migration and settlement processes. It also builds upon other medical anthropological studies that have employed political ecology by demonstrating its usefulness in application to developed as well as developing countries. In addition, the study contributes to the growing area of Asian migration research in New Zealand, illustrating that migration and settlement processes are complex and need to be understood as multidimensional, thus demonstrating advantages in approaching them from a political ecological framework. / Human Research Council, University of Auckland

This research used tuberculosis (TB) as a lens to elucidate how migration, settlement, local agency and support networks influence migrants’ health in New Zealand. The study also examined specific characteristics of TB such as delays in diagnosis and the stigma attached to the disease to gain a broader understanding of TB experience for migrants in New Zealand. The research addressed these aims through the analytical framework of political ecology and incorporation of interviews, participant observation and media analysis. Participants in the research included immigrants from Mainland China, South Korea, and India, and New Zealand health care professionals. The study found that immigration policies, social discrimination and isolation have created structural inequalities between dominant host populations and Asian migrants in New Zealand. These inequalities compounded settlement problems such as language difficulties and limited employment opportunities, resulting in low income levels and perceived stress for Indian, Korean and Chinese people, which has affected their health and well being. Transnational policies and experiences of health care systems in immigrants’ countries of origin and in New Zealand strongly influenced health seeking behaviour of migrants, along with structural barriers such as lack of Asian health care professionals and interpreting services. Local cultural and biological factors including health cultures and physical symptoms also affected these practices. In relation to TB, structural processes along with clinic doctor-patient relationships and social stigmas created barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Factors that facilitated access to health care in general, and TB diagnosis and treatment in particular, included the use of support networks, particularly local General Practitioners from countries of origin, and Public Health Nurses, along with flexible TB treatment programmes. This study shows that the incidence and experience of TB is shaped by migration and settlement processes. It also builds upon other medical anthropological studies that have employed political ecology by demonstrating its usefulness in application to developed as well as developing countries. In addition, the study contributes to the growing area of Asian migration research in New Zealand, illustrating that migration and settlement processes are complex and need to be understood as multidimensional, thus demonstrating advantages in approaching them from a political ecological framework. / Human Research Council, University of Auckland