The Role of Community in Environmentalism
Aisling Bailey, Anthropology, Monash University
Internationally, environmentalism has emerged as a key issue in response to concerns of climate change, species extinction rates, water shortage, etc. It is an issue increasingly considered by environmentalists as being directly related to our lifestyles. This research project is a response to the different understandings we have of nature and community, and how these understandings shape our behaviour towards nature. It aims to explore responses to the Western dualist construction of nature and community, by focusing upon understandings and experiences seeking to connect nature/community rather than those which maintain their long history of separation in the West. CERES (Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies) in a northern suburb of Melbourne, was chosen as a place to undertake the research for this thesis as it is an organizaion which actively seeks to connect nature and community through projects which bring them together. Anthropology’s central focus upon ‘culture’ allows a qualitative exploration of these issues in a localised setting where I aim to develop my theoretical focus on connecting nature and community. Anthropology is also a discipline that allows the research results obtained from this localised setting to be related to wider social and political environmental and community based issues. The objective is to investigate the significance of the relationship between our conceptions and behaviour, as well as to wider cultural aspects, through the example of environmentalism, to determine whether a connected understanding of nature and community could enhance the quality of life for person, community, and nature.
