The Human Ecology Forum » People

Journey to Big Land

Deb — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:50:48 +0000

by Millie Rooney

Today I went on my first adventure out to suburban Melbourne. I want to tell you about it.
It began last night on the internet, throwing my hands in the air as the first public transport option to my destination gave instructions to catch the bus for 3 minutes, drive my car for 16 minutes and walk for 20 minutes. I began to wonder exactly what the developer meant by claiming that this master planned community had ‘easy public transport access’. After lots of faffing, starting again, looking at Google maps (which was only slightly more up to date than the Melways) I eventually realised that it was possible to get where I was going via public transport but that the Metlink website was rather, shall we say, ‘suboptimal’. Having now travelled there and back, I can confirm that while access by public transport is not easy, it is ‘possible’.
Although I didn’t travel from right in town, my guess is that it would probably take an hour to an hour and a half to travel from the city to this estate.

silhouettes of surburbia

Sitting on the train I watched suburb after suburb go by. The city centre and its odd balconies, disused train sidings, triangular corner stores giving way to old houses, new houses, small houses and the occasionally really grand house. Mostly though it seemed like your typical older Melbourne suburb, lemon trees in the backyard, falling down wooden fences. As the journey continued the small European backyards gave way to larger houses with balconies looking beyond the train line to the ocean, an RSL club rising out of the flat plain. Houses soon replaced by industrial sights, power poles, an oil refinery of storybook factory proportions. Drums and barrels, flame flues and smoke stacks, twisted and knotted pipes and taps, a spiral staircase to nowhere, wires and boxes and big fences. I found myself looking out for this inexplicable creation on future journeys, making sure I secured a seat on the right side of the train.

constucting community

The ocean lies to the south, its flatness blending in with the flatness of the land. A few horses grazed in a remaining paddock. Onwards the train continued until I could see the backs of warehouses, ‘Bike Warehouse’, ‘Snooze’, ‘Camping world’, ‘Sexy Land’, and ‘Baby Land’, everything supersized. Welcome to Big Land.
The train spat me out in this land of the large and I wondered where the people lived. A short and rather terrifying bus ride later and ‘bingo!’, there on the horizon, complete with Barbie style lamp posts was what I was looking for.
What I hadn’t realised was that the Boulevard was a part of the larger identity of Plumwood . There was an entrance wall welcoming me to Plumwood complete with gorgeous mosaics of orange bellied parrots, people playing, animals and plants. I cringed at the sight of so many houses unceremoniously plonked on the habitat of the enshrined, yet endangered parrot. A sign welcoming men to a men’s health walking group was tied to the fence.
The colourful outdoors feel of Plumwood was soon overwhelmed by the bright signs and car park of the Shopping Centre. I took myself through the car park and into the mall. A blast of dry air-conditioning greeted me at the sliding doors. A couple of black leather massaging chairs attempted to look like islands of calm amidst the assault of shiny floors, fluorescent lighting and sale signage. Clothing stores, food outlets, beauty salons; a mini mall.
The people in this place, or perhaps those responsible for its creation, seem to have an obsession with wellbeing and beauty (massage chairs, beauty parlours, a gym etc). The mall was an eclectic mix of beautifiers, boutiques (including an overpriced and over supplemented organic/health store), and cheaper more accessible places such as Woolworths, Lowes and Target.

"Although scrappier and weedier in real life, the place had the same feeling of planned idyllic perfection as the advertisements."

Escaping from the mall I went in search of a café, wandering out into the main strip of the town centre. Manicured trees, lollipops of green, lined the street, neatly packed in with concrete. Designer grasses covered the median strip in the centre of the road and women with strollers and pastel hats waited patiently at the crossings. Avoiding the glare of the concrete heat I settled myself inside a chocolate café and prepared to watch the world ‘go buy’. Women with strollers, tradesmen, older people and even the odd couple or two; the vibrancy of the place surprised me.
Leaving the café I prepared to enter the suburbs themselves. Strolling down the outside of the mall I was astonished to hear pop music was blasting from speakers outside, interrupted only by the occasional advertisement for deals at Lowes, or the Donut King. The essence of packaged lifestyle consumption seemed to be summed up in the pre-recorded soundtrack of my experience.
Deciding that it was better to wear my daggy hat than to become sunburned, I walked into my chosen estate. It was like walking into a developers PR skit. A mother was playing in the park with her two children, blond heads clad in pastel bucket hats. The spectacular spring weather meant the gardens were lush and flowers were blooming. The sun was shining. Although scrappier and weedier in real life, the place had the same feeling of planned idyllic perfection as the advertisements.
In a similar manner, the streets were not as empty as I had expected. Although devoid of many people, the number of cars parked either on the street or in driveways gave a sense of some kind of presence. It meant there was kind of a feeling of people being around.

Lifestyles for sale

People were coming and going, and generally very friendly. As I watched the tradesmen go in for their morning egg and bacon roll, I wondered what this place will be like in ten years time. The trees and vegetation will be established, the houses will be weary (some are already showing some signs) and I wonder how these shopping centres will fare. In some ways I guess they will be quite successful. It really is a long way to any other centre, yet I can’t help but worry how some of these things will survive with the absence of the building industry. But perhaps the shops will change, no longer takeaways for tradesmen, instead a cinema for teenagers, small businesses run by bored mums and services catering to the elderly. I wonder if they will ever become the empty shells that have been the fate of so many other small shopping centres in Australian suburbs.
That sense of energy in the place continued as I ventured past the school to another little shopping strip. An IGA, real estate, bakery, take away, Liquorland and a hairdresser. In an attempt to pick up some local gossip I enter the hairdresser and book an appointment. I’m overly conscious of my Birkenstock shoes and my inability to understand whether a blow wave just means drying my hair, or some kind of fancy styling. I leave feeling awkward and out of place, making a mental note to rethink my wardrobe.

And so I leave, looking forward to the travel time to think things through, and another chance to look at the oil refinery. I look forward to coming back and understanding this place more; untangling my sense of unease at the packet mix perfection this place seems to offer.
I end my first venture with a trip back to the mall and leave with some t-shirts designed to make me fit in with the locals. This place just makes me want to conform.

2010 Gerald Young Book Award: tackling wicked problems.

Deb — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:13:03 +0000

At the recent Society for Human Ecology Conference, Tackling Wicked Problems was awarded the 2010 Gerald Young Book Award for ‘the highest standards of scholarly work in the field of human ecology’. As the only contributing author present, Dr Rob Dyball of ANU accepted the award on behalf of the editors Val Brown, John Harris and Jacqueline Russell and fellow contributors. The book represents the discussions and presentations from the forum in 2007.

Book: Tackling Wicked Problems through the Transdisciplinary Imagination

Deb — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:24:50 +0000

A multitude of HEF friends and associates contributed to this volume edited by three of our most venerated attendees Val Brown, John Harris and Jacquie Russell.

"a timely, inspirational and important book" (Ronnie Harding)

Read the Nature review by Harold Segal here

He says “Tackling Wicked Problems is a timely volume that deserves a wide, global readership.”

Congratulations compañeros!

Tackling WickedProblems Flyer

An encounter with Human Ecology in the Philippines

Deb — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:55:32 +0000

Hedda Ransan-Elliott
On November the 26-27th 2010, I attended the 5th National Conference in Human Ecology, ‘Forging sustainable partnerships in Human Ecology’ at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños . As a Human Ecology graduate from ANU (2007), I was very curious to see how Human Ecology was being practiced in the Philippines. I can report that it’s alive and kicking and the students and academics from the College of Human Ecology appear determined to keep developing and promoting the HE approach.

Dr Percy gives a keynote at the National Human Ecology Conference, the Philippines

As I expected from such a gathering, session topics covered a lot of ground (e.g. ‘utilising local knowledge systems in the identification of conservation areas in Sibuyan island, Romblon’, and ‘knowledge and use of folic acid of pregnant women in main rural health units in Batangas city ‘. Although I couldn’t say that all presentations had a clearly stamped HE approach there were definite signs of integrative approaches in others. The keynote speaker, Dr Percy Sajise was one of the pioneers of HE in the Philippines establishing the first HE institute at UP in the 1970s (the first ‘batch’ of human ecologists graduated in 1974). The familiar concepts of ‘transdisciplinarity’ and the challenges of working across disciplines were expounded by Dr Sajise. He also reflected on the college’s first attempts back in the 70s when they initially failed to think together beyond their home disciplines. His practical suggestions for future collaboration included ‘having a good mix of personalities’ (I liked this one but wonder who gets to decide who’s a good fit?), ‘using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ when discussing ideas’ and ‘deciding on authorship up-front’. Sage advice.

HE Framework at UPLB
Although the college has since developed a HE framework to work from, they are self-admittedly, still struggling to confidently champion HE in the academic and broader community.

Conference Participants

While they are still pondering about the role of human ecologists as a nascent discipline, they are continuing to reinvent themselves with one of the final speakers, Maria Mendoza presenting their recent recommendations to overhaul the human ecology curriculum, to better consolidate HE across the different majors (human settlement and planning, social technology and food and nutrition). She spent some time explaining what the framework was all about.

Like the approach at ANU, they are unashamed about the normative aspect of HE. As Maria said, ‘the conspicuousness of the goal of a functional human-ecological system is necessary to drive home the point that the study of human ecology cannot be divorced from current issues and problems impinging upon human ecological systems. This makes the study of human ecology problem- and solution-oriented’. The framework tries to convey the dynamic aspect of human-environment relationships as well as the temporal and spatial variability of its different elements.

HE as a perspective and as a disciplinal endeavor takes as its unit of analysis the systemic nature of human-environment interaction. The implication for Maria is that human ecologists are tasked with; considering the structural nature of a human ecological phenomenon while focusing on the functional and dynamic character of this phenomenon exemplified by the interaction between humans, either as individuals or as social groups, and environmental variables; and identifying, understanding and rethinking of forms of human-environment interaction which provide for the dynamic nature of any human ecological system.

What has been lacking in the program so far she argues, is a set of core courses which clearly reflect the HE approach for all majors in HE. I was surprised when she presented the proposed new program about the high number of core courses dedicated to HE. Here they are:
[

Human Ecology Faculty, UP Los Baños

Proposed New B.S. Human Ecology Program
HUME 1 (Introduction to Human Ecology)
HUME 2 (Man and His Environment)
HUME101 (Human Ecological Perspectives in Development)
HUME 102 (Ecology and Value Systems)
HUME 103 (Social Policies)
HUME 196 (Research Methods in Human Ecology)
HFDS 11 (Principles of Human Development)
HFDS 21 (Family and Society)
HNF 151 (Food and Nutrition Systems)
CERP 31 (Fund of Human Settlements)
CERP 11 (Material and Energy Flows)
CERP 21 (Environmental Health)
SDS 10 (Introduction to Social Development)
SDS 11 (Community Study in Human Welfare)

Where are they now? HE graduate stories
We also heard from Riki Sandalo, the president of the Human Ecology Society in the Philippines about his survey of HE graduates. 76 out of the 2000 total graduates responded. From his results he developed a profile of the ‘typical’ College of Human Ecology alumni:

Hedda and other conference participants

• Female, married, and living in Metro Manila
• Human ecology/nutrition was not her first choice
• Took her less than 3 months to get her first job
• Considers her course relevant to her current job
• Was hired because she was a human ecology or nutrition graduate
• Working either in a private or government sector
• Employed: regular/permanent
• Position: Supervisory (technical/professional)
• Earning at least P20,000 a month ($500 AUD)

I wondered what we would get from such a survey of ANU HE graduates. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was quite similar. Interestingly the reaction from the audience was ‘how do we attract more men to Human Ecology?’ Any ideas, Human Ecologist males reading this?

The conference only went for one and a half days and I was surprised at the small number of presentations from academics. Many of the presenters were from the NGO sector reporting from the field. I think this was partly a reflection of the conference theme of ‘partnerships’. There was a lot of talk around the importance of working together with the private and civil society sectors. But I also got a strong impression that grants for research were thin on the ground for Human Ecologists and that most of the faculty members had their hands full with teaching.

Videoke
As for the social/light side of the conference, Filipinos certainly know how live up a conference dinner. Not even half-way through the main course, the MC had already kick-started the karaoke with a few brave folk dancing. But having heard of the legendary late night revelry at conference dinners in the Philippines, I was slightly disappointed when it was all cut short at 9:30 PM. Still, I was pretty impressed to see senior academics get up and belt their lungs out. Fun times.

Conference Dinner

For more info about Human Ecology in the Philippines visit the website The conference program is up there. I’m not sure if they’re going to put the ppt’s up on the site but you can email me if you are interested in any one in particular.

Fairness and justice in environmental decision-making

Deb — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:52:59 +0000

Catherine Gross will present the results of her PhD at the Fenner School, ANU on Thursday 4 March,1-2pm in the Forestry Lecture Theatre Forestry Building 48 for those of you in Canberra.

If you’re not a local, you can watch a video of her research. Catherine presented her video at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) Millennium Conference: Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought and Environmental Justice (click on the video icon, hers is the third down) held in Georgia last year.

Catherine writes:
Concepts of justice and the distribution of public resources have been an important aspect of social debate for centuries. Finding fair and just allocations of natural resources remains a major preoccupation for national governments and their constituent communities. Where such allocations or decisions are perceived as unjust, underlying social tensions can emerge and result in social conflict. This study examines two such social conflicts: a 2006 NSW government action to cut a water allocation and the Victorian government’s North South Pipeline and Food Bowl Modernisation Project.

This study investigates these conflicts from a justice perspective, concentrating on notions of fairness and justice. Using a transdisciplinary investigative framework the thesis explores these notions through stakeholder perceptions of procedural justice and distributive justice. Procedural justice is concerned with the fairness of elements of the decision-making process and distributive justice with the outcome or decision. The study aims to find out how people perceive fairness and justice within the social context of the decision-making process and how these perceptions contribute to their acceptance of an outcome. The seminar will explore how justice constructs can be used in decision-making processes to increase the acceptance of outcomes and how better outcomes might be achieved.

eco-shopping in the Philippines

Deb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:04:30 +0000

I have just moved to Manila, and went shopping for household basics in the truly enormous Trinoma mall yesterday. I searched in vain for recycled toilet paper, settling at last with one half written in Chinese and Korean script, with a picture of an earth and an explanation of how recycled paper saves trees. Sharing the shelf with this cryptic number was possibly the most outrageous green-washing claim I have ever come across – “the eco-layer 3-ply toilet paper” – the tagline: “nothing but 100% pure plantation pulp will even touch you, but nestled in the middle is our special eco-layer made from recycled paper, so you can have the comfort of the highest quality paper while knowing you are doing your bit for the planet”.

Should I take some comfort from the fact that manufacturers clearly think they need to state their green credentials? Or just be outraged that anyone may actually think that they have made a legitimate environmental claim?

hope helps (or: smiling whilst working in fisheries)

Deb — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:45:51 +0000

It was many years ago now that my Filipino supervisor said to me ‘it’s important they see hope in all of this’.

He was referring to the Filipino artesanal fishers that we were to invite to a workshop on how addressing the fact that it often costs the fishers more to go fishing than to stay at home. Fishing is not very profitable in the now sparsely populated coastal waters of northern Luzon, especially if you’re sticking to the legal handlines and traps rather than the illegal cyanide and dynamite.

Very soon after, another colleague took a photo of the fish we had been served for dinner, with his wedding ring as a reference point. Yes, the fish were increasingly small, and the incomes of the usually poorly educated fishers, even smaller. Words like intractable and insurmountable came far more easily to mind than hope and encouragement.

But Perry’s words have often come back to me, and I think they apply as much to the fishers as it does to the countless development, disaster and research practitioners who are looking to improve the depressing trajectories that confront us every time we string a time series graph together. If we can’t hope, if our clients, participants and patients can’t hope, what will we have left? Philip Prett calls hope – substantial hope – ‘cognitive resolve’, and Braihwaite, Courville and Piper talk about the “bootstrapping that takes place between hope,
empowerment, ideas for change, and action”, writing “hope is the most enduring of these,
lying in wait through cycles of adversity and resistance to change.”

Time to plot out a framework of the enabling role of hope in sustainability.

Special saludo to Ines of Lisbon, who wants to join our community of practice through her work on sustainability and migration. Welcome Ines!

Faux Forum for socio/eco PhD students during the summer break

Deb — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:33:49 +0000

Welcome to the reawakening of the Human Ecology Forum blog!

Following advice from the recently published book ‘Doctorates down under’, a group of PhD students researching the nexus between people and environment are establishing a ‘peer support group’. The group will meet semi-regularly, both through Skype and face-to-face, to discuss their ideas and issues. Interested? contact Deb (deborah dot cleland at gmail dot com). This Friday (15 Jan 2010) we will meet at 10am at Vivaldi’s cafe on the ANU campus.

Participatory modelling for coral reef management

Deb — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:10:37 +0000

Deb Cleland is one of the rocking crew of students who completed Honours in Human Ecology at the Australian National University in 2007. Her innovative honours’ research took advantage of opportunities to work with the Modelling and Decision Support Working Group in the Coral Reef Targeted Research Project to carry out practical research on approaches to sustainable reef management. Deb worked with the MDS-WG to design interactive models and role play games to engage stakeholders in coral reef management and conservation issues. Deb has kindly allowed us to post her honours thesis on “Practice makes perfect? An iterative approach to participatory modelling for coral reef management” on the Human Ecology Forum website.

Deb studied a combined degree in Arts/Science, majoring in Development Studies and Human Ecology/Sustainability Science, after a brief taste of law. She took a series of courses on ecology, climatology, biology and environmental management before getting involved in the coral reef management project by accident after asking to do an introductory computer modelling course through RSPAS (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies).

Deb went on going on to do an independent research project (a semester-long course) with the course coordinator, which led to an opportunity to focus exclusively on it for a year studying Honours. On the topic of finding great research opportunities, Deb says “students are a cheap way for overextended full-time researchers to get things done, so if you hear about an interesting project, it is always worth asking if you can participate in some way.”

For those of you not familiar with the Australian tertiary studies system, Honours is the final year of an undergraduate degree. Studying Honours in some programs may involve coursework, but programs such as Human Ecology are solely research-based theses, similar to Masters research programs, and as such can be a direct pathway to PhD studies.

“Practice makes perfect? An iterative approach to participatory modelling for coral reef management”

ABSTRACT

As human activities continue to devastate coral reefs across the globe, new and innovative approaches are needed to link government, communities and researchers to improve reef management. As these new approaches are developed, it is crucial to explore how effectively they are able to bring together diverse stakeholders to integrate knowledge and build relationships to support sustainable reef management. To this end, this thesis takes the example of companion modelling, a participatory modelling method which is associated with combining computer models and role-play games. Using an iterative methodology, it draws upon companion modelling work previously completed in Mexico to guide the design of a new model and role-play game ‘ReefGame’, which was presented at a one-day stakeholder workshop in the Philippines. This experience demonstrated that the companion modelling approach successfully supported social leaning in a participatory setting, by encouraging reflection and discussion among participants. However, it was not able to usefully build relationships across community, researchers and government. Building effective collaboration between these three sectors will require a long-term commitment to building a local mandate and integrating research into existing management, power and communication structures. This research process revealed two important lessons for implementing companion modelling for improving reef management. Firstly, a comprehensive understanding of local complexities is critical in developing models which can effectively engage local people in dialogue and learning processes. Secondly, and notwithstanding the central role of contextual detail, explicitly extracting structural similarities over differing social and economic contexts to draw out lessons for practice plays an essential role in improving outcomes in the field, both for reefs and the people who depend on them.

ReefGame workshop in the Phillipines

Please contact Deborah for a copy of her thesis. deborah dot cleland at gmail.

Making a difference: book published

Admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:06:22 +0000

One of the Human Ecology Forum regulars, Lorrae van Kerkhoff, has just had a book published, “Making a difference: Science, action and integrated environmental research”.

You can check it out (and buy it!) here:
or for a free preview of the first 20 pages, visit here.

Details: van Kerkhoff, L. ‘Making a difference: Science, action and integrated environmental research’. 2008. Transdisciplinary Studies Series. Hunsinger J, G Bowker et al. (Series eds.) Rotterdam. Sense Publishers.

ISBN 978-90-8790-392-3 hardback
ISBN 978-90-8790-391-6 paperback

Price is US$49 for the paperback.