Discursive Telecouplings

Persson, Joel; Mertz, Ole

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11105-2_17

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…On the market side, this includes how price signals and production conditions are established by external traders and local middle-men (Friis & Nielsen, 2017) and the multilevel processes through which commodity markets materialise (Hauer & Nielsen, 2020). On the conservation side, PA interventions are manifestations of interactions in multiple arenas that lead to a particular design based on the discursive practices of distant actors and donor preferences (Boillat et al, 2018;Persson & Mertz, 2019). The livelihoods of PA residents are increasingly embedded in local and regional political economies, where the challenges of sustainable land-use cannot be rectified by ICD-type interventions as these often remain marginal to the livelihood aspirations of local residents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area

et al. 2021

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Despite the popularity of integrated conservation and development approaches to protected area management, adjacent communities increasingly face livelihood dilemmas. Yet understanding of how market processes and conservation enforcement interact to influence livelihood responses remains limited. Targeting eight villages in Nam Et-Phou Louey (NEPL) National Park in northern Lao PDR, we draw on survey data with 255 households, 93 semi-structured interviews, and meso-level data on village conditions to examine how residents navigate associated livelihood dilemmas. A cluster analysis reveals five livelihood types with divergent capacities to engage in market development and cope with enforcement pressures. We show how market linkages, historical conservation interventions, and local access conditions shape livelihoods and differences between villages. Our approach yields a nuanced picture of how global conservation efforts result in an uneven distribution of costs and benefits at local scales. Conservation measures must account for highly divergent capacities to cope with access loss and diversify livelihoods.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area

et al. 2021

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“…Though global environmentalism is often misconstrued as a monolithic, unidirectional process, anthropological research has shown that related flows are multidirectional and that interactions occur through contested processes involving a broad range of actors working towards multiple finalities (Lowe 2006;Vivanco 2006;West 2006). Transnational conservation can be distinguished from national environmental governance by State entities as the former involves actor networks that proactively link to global discourses and institutional mechanisms established via bilateral and multilateral processes (Brosius and Hitchner 2010;Heyman 2009;Persson and Mertz 2019). Fostering networks across national boundaries, scales and sectors has become part and parcel of the organisational practice of conservation (Bottema and Bush 2012;Holmes 2011Holmes , 2012MacDonald 2010b;Tedesco 2015), involving what Hathaway (2013) calls "transnational work" in building connections through social practices and a growing reliance on information communication technology to access informational flows and manage relationships at a distance (Wahlén, 2013).…”

Section: Social Connections In Transnational Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterning Conservation Flows

Zaehringer¹,

Persson²,

Qin³

2022

Conservation and Society

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Conservation Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are crucial actors in global conservation governance. They shape resource flows, establish cross-sector and cross-scale networks, and influence conservation discourses and practices. While research on conservation NGOs is growing, less attention has been paid to how conservation NGOs structure their networks. In this article, we interrogate the interpersonal social relationships that underpin the organisational dynamics of conservation NGOs engaged in transnational activities. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with conservation professionals at NGOs based in Cambridge (UK), Bangkok (Thailand), and Vientiane (Lao PDR), we sketch two parallel and interacting dimensions: (a) the bureaucratic and institutional infrastructures that condition conservation flows and actor interactions; and (b) the interpersonal social relationships that pattern conservation flows between distant places and actors. We illustrate how such relationships are important for managing activities, responding to unexpected and unforeseen events, capitalising on funding opportunities by quickly mobilising an existing network, integrating new actors into project activities, enhancing cross-sector dialogues to mainstream biodiversity conservation, and accessing and influencing funders. Social relationships serve a crucial function due to the uncertain conditions in which conservation NGOs operate. Our results point to an important dimension of exclusion in transnational conservation networks.

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“…Discourses can therefore enable or obstruct policy action (Hajer, 1995;Karlsson et al, 2017). Discourses can also generate mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, partly by structuring information flows and facilitating participation that favor certain interests over others (Persson and Mertz, 2019), and in many cases it is the interests of the most powerful and best-resourced, which are favored (Adger et al, 2001). In this regard, we hypothesize that stakeholders along Ghana's cocoa value chain are influenced by certain global discourses, which shapes how they interpret the social-ecological phenomena of climate change, deforestation, and low cocoa production-and the implications for the national economy and local livelihoods.…”

Section: Discourses and Their Interpretations Into Policy And Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondly, CSC, and its precursor CSA, are global concepts-formulated and popularized by global institutions such as the FAO (2010) and the World Bank. And thirdly, the global discourses underlying CSC-as knowledge flows-are partly interpreted and adapted to local policies and practices (Persson and Mertz, 2019). In this paper, we examine the last two points of telecoupling by examining how environment-development meta-discourses-discourses that emerged from countless studies of environmental and development policies over the past two decades (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand, 2006;Di Gregorio et al, 2017)-around the global concept of CSA are re-interpreted and re-imagined within Ghanaian CSC policy and practice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-Smart Cocoa in Ghana: How Ecological Modernisation Discourse Risks Side-Lining Cocoa Smallholders

Nasser

Maguire‐Rajpaul

Dumenu

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aims to transform and reorient farming systems to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, boost adaptive capacity, and improve productivity while supporting incomes and, ostensibly, food security. In Ghana-the world's second biggest cocoa producer-the cocoa sector is challenged by increasing global cocoa demand, climate change impacts, as well as mounting consumer pressure over cocoa's deforestation. Climate-smart cocoa (CSC) has emerged to address these challenges as well as to improve smallholder incomes. As with CSA more widely, there are concerns that CSC discourses will override the interests of cocoa smallholders, and lead to inequitable outcomes. To better understand if and how the implementation of CSC in Ghana can meet its lofty ambitions, we examine (1) the dominant CSC discourses as perceived by stakeholders, and their reflection in policy and practice, and (2) subsequent implications for cocoa smallholders through an equity lens. Through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in Ghana's cocoa sector, we find overwhelming consensus for an ecological modernisation discourse with the promise of a "triple win" narrative that simultaneously stops deforestation, supports climate mitigation and adaptation, and increases smallholder livelihoods. Moreover, we find that implementing CSC on the ground has generally converged around "sustainable intensification" and private-sectorled partnerships that aspire to generate a "win-win" for environment and productivity objectives, but potentially at the expense of delivering equitable outcomes that serve smallholders' interests. We find that the success of CSC and the overly-simplistic sustainable intensification narrative is constrained by the lack of clear tree tenure rights, complexities around optimal shade trees levels, potential rebound effects regarding deforestation, and the risks of agrochemical-dependence. More positively, local governance mechanisms such as Ghana's Community Resource Management Area Nasser et al. Climate-Smart Cocoa Discourses in Ghana Mechanisms (CREMAs) may give cocoa smallholders a stronger voice to shape policy. However, we caution that the discursive power of dominant private sector actors may risk side-lining equity which could prove detrimental to the long-term wellbeing of Ghana's ∼800,000 cocoa smallholders.

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Discursive Telecouplings

Cited by 6 publications

References 60 publications

Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area

Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area

Patterning Conservation Flows

Climate-Smart Cocoa in Ghana: How Ecological Modernisation Discourse Risks Side-Lining Cocoa Smallholders

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