CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Avramoski, Oliver |
|---|---|
| Title | Construction of place-based identities across scales: implications for ecosystem management |
| Summary | This dissertation examines the construction of place-based identity at individual and collective levels in the Lake Prespa watershed, shared among Macedonia, Albania and Greece. The research strategy combines ethnography with grounded theory in an iterative mode of data gathering and analysis. The study is based on data collected using ethnographic unstructured in-depth interviews, participant observation, critical reading of popular books on Prespa written by Prespiots, documents and newspaper reports on various events and issues concerning Prespa. Because place situates the perspective from which people assign meaning to their biophysical and the social environment, they may adopt different positions on an environmental issue in the watershed, depending on the importance of a particular place-based identity. This research demonstrated that meanings ascribed to the biophysical environment are part and parcel of the construction of place-based identities at multiple spatial levels such as the home, village, region, and beyond. The family and the home constitute the core of meanings which individuals assign to elements and processes operating in the biophysical and the social environment at a variety of geographical scales. At larger geographical scales the experience of place is more likely to be mediated by pre-established constructs of place rather than by direct experience. The biophysical environment is involved in the tensions between the dominant constructs of Prespa’s identity: an ethnic place, a tourist center, and a place of man and nature. The implication of the findings of this research is that the proponents of ecosystem-based management in Prespa need to expand their analysis beyond mere technical problems and scientific concerns with ecosystem services provisioning and provide for the extended and authentic participation of stakeholders in order to develop policies that take place-based meanings into account. |
| Supervisor | Antypas, Alexios |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/ephavo01.pdf |
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