Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change
Environmental monitoring and long-term research produce detailed understanding, but its collective effort does not add up to ‘the environment’ and therefore may be difficult to relate to. Local knowledge, by contrast, is multifaceted and relational and therefore can help ground and complement scient...
Published in: | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/31703 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/31703 2023-12-03T10:14:56+01:00 Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change Lennert, Ann Eileen van der Wal, René Zhang, Jasmine Hausner, Vera Helene Ancin Murguzur, Francisco Javier Miles, Martin 2023-11-04 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/31703 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 eng eng Springer Nature Humanities & Social Sciences Communications Lennert, van der Wal, Zhang, Hausner, Ancin Murguzur, Miles. Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. 2023;10 FRIDAID 2192459 doi:10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 2662-9992 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/31703 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2023 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 2023-11-09T00:08:06Z Environmental monitoring and long-term research produce detailed understanding, but its collective effort does not add up to ‘the environment’ and therefore may be difficult to relate to. Local knowledge, by contrast, is multifaceted and relational and therefore can help ground and complement scientific knowledge to reach a more complete and holistic understanding of the environment and changes therein. Today’s societies, however, are increasingly fleeting, with mobility potentially undermining the opportunity to generate rich community knowledge. Here we perform a case study of High Arctic Svalbard, a climate change and environmental science hotspot, using a range of community science methods, including a Maptionnaire survey, focus groups, interviews and cognitive mapping. We show that rich local knowledge on Svalbard could indeed be gathered through community science methods, despite a high level of transience of the local population. These insights complement environmental monitoring and enhance its local relevance. Complex understanding of Svalbard’s ecosystems by the transient local community arose because of strong place attachment, enabling environmental knowledge generation during work and play. We conclude that transience does not necessarily prevent the generation of valuable local knowledge that can enrich and provide connection to scientific understanding of the environment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change Svalbard University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Svalbard Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 10 1 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
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ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
description |
Environmental monitoring and long-term research produce detailed understanding, but its collective effort does not add up to ‘the environment’ and therefore may be difficult to relate to. Local knowledge, by contrast, is multifaceted and relational and therefore can help ground and complement scientific knowledge to reach a more complete and holistic understanding of the environment and changes therein. Today’s societies, however, are increasingly fleeting, with mobility potentially undermining the opportunity to generate rich community knowledge. Here we perform a case study of High Arctic Svalbard, a climate change and environmental science hotspot, using a range of community science methods, including a Maptionnaire survey, focus groups, interviews and cognitive mapping. We show that rich local knowledge on Svalbard could indeed be gathered through community science methods, despite a high level of transience of the local population. These insights complement environmental monitoring and enhance its local relevance. Complex understanding of Svalbard’s ecosystems by the transient local community arose because of strong place attachment, enabling environmental knowledge generation during work and play. We conclude that transience does not necessarily prevent the generation of valuable local knowledge that can enrich and provide connection to scientific understanding of the environment. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lennert, Ann Eileen van der Wal, René Zhang, Jasmine Hausner, Vera Helene Ancin Murguzur, Francisco Javier Miles, Martin |
spellingShingle |
Lennert, Ann Eileen van der Wal, René Zhang, Jasmine Hausner, Vera Helene Ancin Murguzur, Francisco Javier Miles, Martin Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
author_facet |
Lennert, Ann Eileen van der Wal, René Zhang, Jasmine Hausner, Vera Helene Ancin Murguzur, Francisco Javier Miles, Martin |
author_sort |
Lennert, Ann Eileen |
title |
Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
title_short |
Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
title_full |
Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
title_fullStr |
Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
title_sort |
rich local knowledge despite high transience in an arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change |
publisher |
Springer Nature |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/31703 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Svalbard |
op_relation |
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications Lennert, van der Wal, Zhang, Hausner, Ancin Murguzur, Miles. Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. 2023;10 FRIDAID 2192459 doi:10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 2662-9992 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/31703 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02310-9 |
container_title |
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1784261973884534784 |