Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers
Conflicts over managing large carnivores have been prominent in Sweden in recent decades. The most significant controversies are related to wolves, but the bear, lynx, and wolverine are also included. While the state and environmental organizations make efforts to guarantee a viable population of th...
Published in: | Frontiers in Conservation Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 https://doaj.org/article/d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 2023-05-15T18:44:15+02:00 Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers Simon Larsson Susanna Olivia Larsson Juliana Bennett Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist 2022-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 https://doaj.org/article/d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769/full https://doaj.org/toc/2673-611X 2673-611X doi:10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 https://doaj.org/article/d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 Frontiers in Conservation Science, Vol 3 (2022) wildlife governance moral economy legitimacy conflict farmers General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 2022-12-30T21:28:10Z Conflicts over managing large carnivores have been prominent in Sweden in recent decades. The most significant controversies are related to wolves, but the bear, lynx, and wolverine are also included. While the state and environmental organizations make efforts to guarantee a viable population of the large protected carnivores, farmers generally have a negative attitude towards large carnivores and a low level of trust in wildlife governance. Based on 22 in-depth interviews, 37 telephone questionnaires with Swedish farmers, and an analysis of 111 applications for protective hunting, this paper aims to demonstrate how these farmers’ perspectives on large carnivores can be explained by moral (sense of right and wrong) and moral economy (a system of obligations related to values and relations intervening with political views and financial decisions). The paper argues that farming, in addition to being an economic activity, is integrated with values, heritage, and relations to other human beings and animals. Farmers understand these values to be threatened by large carnivores, especially by wolves. The paper contextualizes negative sentiments, conflicts, protests, and also illegal hunting of large carnivores in relation to a sense of morals, sense of fairness, meanings, traditions, and mechanisms of daily life. We argue that this perspective provides a lens through which to interpret the conflict between farmers on the one side and the state and animal rights activists on the other. Such interpretation has consequences for understanding the legitimacy of government, shifting the focus from the processes of political governance (predominant in liberal political philosophy) to legitimacy tied to collective notions of social goods. Article in Journal/Newspaper wolverine Lynx Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Frontiers in Conservation Science 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
wildlife governance moral economy legitimacy conflict farmers General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
spellingShingle |
wildlife governance moral economy legitimacy conflict farmers General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Simon Larsson Susanna Olivia Larsson Juliana Bennett Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers |
topic_facet |
wildlife governance moral economy legitimacy conflict farmers General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
description |
Conflicts over managing large carnivores have been prominent in Sweden in recent decades. The most significant controversies are related to wolves, but the bear, lynx, and wolverine are also included. While the state and environmental organizations make efforts to guarantee a viable population of the large protected carnivores, farmers generally have a negative attitude towards large carnivores and a low level of trust in wildlife governance. Based on 22 in-depth interviews, 37 telephone questionnaires with Swedish farmers, and an analysis of 111 applications for protective hunting, this paper aims to demonstrate how these farmers’ perspectives on large carnivores can be explained by moral (sense of right and wrong) and moral economy (a system of obligations related to values and relations intervening with political views and financial decisions). The paper argues that farming, in addition to being an economic activity, is integrated with values, heritage, and relations to other human beings and animals. Farmers understand these values to be threatened by large carnivores, especially by wolves. The paper contextualizes negative sentiments, conflicts, protests, and also illegal hunting of large carnivores in relation to a sense of morals, sense of fairness, meanings, traditions, and mechanisms of daily life. We argue that this perspective provides a lens through which to interpret the conflict between farmers on the one side and the state and animal rights activists on the other. Such interpretation has consequences for understanding the legitimacy of government, shifting the focus from the processes of political governance (predominant in liberal political philosophy) to legitimacy tied to collective notions of social goods. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Simon Larsson Susanna Olivia Larsson Juliana Bennett Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist |
author_facet |
Simon Larsson Susanna Olivia Larsson Juliana Bennett Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist |
author_sort |
Simon Larsson |
title |
Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers |
title_short |
Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers |
title_full |
Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers |
title_fullStr |
Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers |
title_sort |
contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of swedish farmers |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 https://doaj.org/article/d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 |
genre |
wolverine Lynx |
genre_facet |
wolverine Lynx |
op_source |
Frontiers in Conservation Science, Vol 3 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769/full https://doaj.org/toc/2673-611X 2673-611X doi:10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 https://doaj.org/article/d16aed2e0c8540d695dc30e886cbcfb8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.1014769 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Conservation Science |
container_volume |
3 |
_version_ |
1766234898840944640 |