A Culture of Burning: Social-Ecological Memory, Social Learning and Adaptation in Australian Volunteer Fire Brigades

Dickson-Hoyle, Sarah; Beilin, Ruth; Reid, Karen

doi:10.1080/08941920.2020.1819494

Cited by 7 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…120/NQ-CP on the VMD’s resilient development plan in responding to emerging environmental conditions in the VMD floodplains (Vietnamese Government, 2017 ; Government Prime Minister, 2019 ). From the social memory perspective, this policy shift indicates an institutional capacity to learn from the past and harness strategies to deal with the future (Dickson-Hoyle et al, 2020 ). This approach helps promote the collective forms of environmental stewardship (Bennett et al, 2018 ) to enhance community resilience.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our data suggested that shared memories of experiencing floods led to a shared understanding of how to adapt local livelihoods to new environmental conditions better. This indicates evidence of social learning that emerged from historical experiences in engaging with floods (Dickson-Hoyle et al, 2020). In Thoi Hung, for example, the collective memories of flood challenges between the local government and farmers in their early-day settlements in the commune contributed to an improved understanding of how local farming production activities would be reorganised by harnessing the advantages of floods.…”

Section: Narratives Of Adaptation Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Drozdzewski et al ( 2016 ) claim, it is a powerful force that invokes collectivised experiences, emotions, and an awakening of the senses to deal with change. Social memory creates linkages between the past, present, and future, which shift over time through interwoven processes of social learning, experimentation, experience, and innovation shaped by situated activities or events (Dickson-Hoyle et al, 2020 ; Reid et al, 2018 ). Contextualised in the coupled human-flood systems of the VMD, social memory serves as a thread connecting collective memories of agrarian communities of changing floods to their knowledge, experiences, and emotions – hence provoking affective flood reminiscences that inform differential typologies of adaptation.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Memory in the Mekong’s Changing Floodscapes: Narratives of Agrarian Communities’ Adaptation

et al. 2022

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Rural adaptation encompasses place-based perceptions, behaviors, livelihoods, and traditional ways of life associated with local environments. These perceptions, norms, and practices are disturbed by coupled environment-development externalities. This study employs the Vietnamese Mekong floodplains as an exemplary case to illustrate how floods impact agrarian communities and how they have experienced flood alterations driven by hydropower development and climate change in recent years. Drawing on thematic and narrative analyses of qualitative data (focus group discussions and interviews) collected in three agrarian communities in the Vietnamese Mekong floodplains, sources drawn from various news outlets, and academic materials, we argue that disrupted flood environments in the floodplains have triggered affective flood reminiscences, catalysing shifts to incremental and transformative adaptation to achieve resilience. We build a nuanced understanding of how social memory helps to enhance human–environment relationships in response to highly complex hydrological dynamics in the delta.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Narratives Of Adaptation Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Memory in the Mekong’s Changing Floodscapes: Narratives of Agrarian Communities’ Adaptation

et al. 2022

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“…Many homeowners, for example, prefer education on wildfire and enforcement of regulations over fuel treatments and prescribed burning (Winter and Fried, 2000) that may change the character and amenity value of forests surrounding their home (Brenkert-Smith et al, 2006;McFarlane et al, 2011). Individual and collective identities (Dickson-Hoyle et al, 2021a) and connection to place (McFarlane et al, 2011;Bihari and Ryan, 2012;Beilin and Reid, 2015) also influence preferences and support for proactive management approaches. Indigenous peoples, for example, are more likely to support culturally-informed approaches such as revitalizing Indigenous burning practices (Miller et al, 2010;Xwisten Nation et al, 2018) or developing a community wildfire plan through community deliberation (Christianson et al, 2014), especially given the historical and ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from firerelated decision-making by centralized governments (Nikolakis and Roberts, 2021;Copes-Gerbitz et al, accepted 1 ;Hoffman et al, accepted 2 ).…”

Section: Factors Influencing Proactive Wildfire Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the other end of the spectrum, rural and resource-dependent communities with lower populations tend to have less financial and social capacity (Trainor et al, 2009;Paveglio et al, 2015). Nevertheless, rural or remote communities are often characterized by a strong connection to place and sense of community that support an individuals' engagement in community-level approaches (Dickson-Hoyle et al, 2021a), especially where approaches align with cultural values such as in Indigenous communities (Christianson et al, 2014). Contrasting levels of engagement also reflect the broader reality that wildfire risk is unequally distributed, in part due to the fact that some communities are subject to greater vulnerabilities than others (Collins and Bolin, 2009;Wigtil et al, 2016;Davies et al, 2018;Erni et al, 2021).…”

Section: Factors Influencing Proactive Wildfire Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action

Copes‐Gerbitz

Dickson-Hoyle

Ravensbergen

et al. 2022

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are increasingly threatening lives and livelihoods. These growing impacts have prompted a paradigm shift toward proactive wildfire management that prioritizes prevention and preparedness instead of response. Despite this shift, many communities remain unprepared for wildfires in the WUI due to diverse individual and social-political factors influencing engagement with proactive management approaches. The catastrophic fire seasons of 2017, 2018, and 2021 in British Columbia (BC), Canada, highlighted just how vulnerable communities continue to be and the urgent need to understand the factors limiting engagement to future resilience to wildfire. Our study, conducted prior to the catastrophic fire season in 2017, surveyed 77 community leaders across BC to better understand the factors driving engagement, including risk perception, preferences and support for approaches, and key barriers limiting progress. We demonstrate that wildfire risk is an urgent issue facing communities across BC, but a range of factors drive variable community engagement with proactive wildfire management. First Nations and smaller (≤5,000 residents) communities were less likely to have developed a community wildfire plan, even though First Nations were significantly more concerned than municipalities/regional districts about certain values (such as drinking water and biodiversity) that were at risk from wildfire. In general, proactive approaches that were considered effective were also the most supported. The most highly supported approaches included enforcement of regulations and education, both of which are considered provincial responsibility in BC and are unlikely to alter community values in the WUI. In contrast, approaches involving prescribed burning of the understory had the highest levels of opposition. Despite variability in these individual factors, social-political barriers related to financial and social (time and expertise) capacity primarily limited engagement with proactive wildfire management, including provincial and federal funding programs. However, these barriers are not equally felt across community groups; First Nations identified social capacity (such as expertise on government-sponsored approaches and awareness of funding programs) as significantly more limiting than municipalities/regional districts. Our study illustrates the limitations of implementing a “shared responsibility” of proactive wildfire management in the WUI in BC without targeted supports to address unequal capacity barriers.

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“This community will grow” — little concern for future wildfires in a dry and increasingly hotter Swedish rural community

Eriksson,

Sjöström,

Vermina Plathner

2024

Reg Environ Change

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Increased risk of wildfires is often highlighted in media coverage of climate change in the Nordic countries. How an increased risk is reflected in the concerns and adaptive measures within the most likely affected communities is nevertheless not known. This study investigates concerns and adaptation to wildfires in a rural community in south-eastern Sweden. The comparatively dry study area has a history of frequent but often low-consequence wildfires and is projected to experience Sweden’s largest increase in severe fire weather towards 2100. Through narratives, this study elucidates potential wildfire concerns in this area and motivations behind adaptation measures. The narratives are compared to a physical causal network extracted from the literature on fires and their consequences in the region. Residents foresee an increased wildfire risk but do not consider it a threat to the future well-being of the community. Forest owners and homeowners express low commitment in preventive or adaptive measures. Instead, contrasting the reality of the twentieth century, the fire service is currently considered to be responsible for both preventing and suppressing fires. This attitude is attributed to the lack of severe implications from the generally well-managed fires in the region. Actions for prevention and adaptation seem triggered by media attention or experience from real high-consequence events occurring elsewhere, rather than local wildfire occurrence or climate change projections.

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A Culture of Burning: Social-Ecological Memory, Social Learning and Adaptation in Australian Volunteer Fire Brigades

Cited by 7 publications

References 40 publications

Social Memory in the Mekong’s Changing Floodscapes: Narratives of Agrarian Communities’ Adaptation

Social Memory in the Mekong’s Changing Floodscapes: Narratives of Agrarian Communities’ Adaptation

Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action

“This community will grow” — little concern for future wildfires in a dry and increasingly hotter Swedish rural community

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