Paper short abstract:

This paper will debate how care can be a factor of sustainability. Based in field work done in Portugal we will analyze how informal practices sometimes support national economies, how people engage simultaneously in formal and informal systems of care and how these strategies are so effective in producing an effective way to overcome crisis situations.

Paper long abstract:

Portugal is undergoing a socio economic crisis (with increasing rates of unemployment, low family income, a significant immigrant population, and a growing aged population) that increases pressures on a range of social services. Faced with the failing capability of state care systems to continue to provide support, as well as funding cuts imposed by the international economic crisis, people (re)turn to informal ways to address the problem.

This 'state of emergency' also stimulates creativity and innovation, not only at the economic but also in social and moral realms which are easily overlooked by economic studies of crisis situations. Bearing in mind the danger of presenting an overly harmonious view of social care systems this paper debate how informal practices sometimes support national economies, how people engage simultaneously in formal and informal systems of care and how these strategies are so effective in producing an effective way to face crisis situations. Care thus becomes a factor of economic sustainability (helping to overcome precarious situations); a factor of social sustainability (providing to people in need); and also of emotional sustainability (well being).

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the sudden outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in South-East Bulgaria (area of Strandja Mountain) starting in late 2010 and early months of 2011, and the different ways the local population and officials coped with the outbreak.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in the area of Strandja Mountain, SE Bulgaria in early 2011. Bulgarian local authorities, following the central administration, have implemented the measures provided for in the EU Council Directive 2003/85 of September 29th 2003 on community measures for the control of the disease. According to EU legislation, animals susceptible to the outbreak and any species they came into contact with were to be culled and buried, even though most of them were completely healthy according to the understanding of the breeders. Since then, a process of slaughtering domestic animals was carried out according to the regulations, but it was emotionally painful for the villagers, creating long-lasting consequences. During expanded field work in three villages of Strandja, which were differently impacted by the disease (based upon the center-periphery theory), observations were made on the villagers' reaction to these extreme

measures. By presenting and researching the disaster in its local specificities the paper reveals how daily lives intersect with dramatic events, and how collective interests can cause deep individual trauma. The prevailing perception of the people concerned is that slaughter was supported by a minority of official representatives, who sought to advance rather the "interests of the particular political moment" (country's accession into EU short before), different from those of the population affected.

Paper short abstract:

Anthropology and the social sciences provide a humanistic framework for understanding the complex dynamics of disasters. The inclusive character of the philosophy of resilience allows scientists the opportunity to enhance the coping capacity and livelihoods of communities experiencing disaster related hardships.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropology and the social sciences provide a humanistic framework for understanding the complex dynamics of natural, technological, and social disasters. Phenomenology is an approach that examines lived experience, focusing on humanity's ordinary everyday engagement with the world. Phenomenologists seek to uncover the essence of a "place" by letting the landscape reveal itself, listening to all of the values and beliefs that are embedded in its symbolism. Our connection to place transforms the natural environment, making human perception, underlying values and attitudes toward place, essential components of a more holistic anthropological knowledge. Offering a novel way of conceptualizing disasters and their effects, the inclusive character of the philosophy of resilience allows scientists the opportunity to enhance the coping capacity and livelihoods of communities experiencing disaster related hardships. Community resilience is a process dependent on the collective behavior of residents who become social agents for redevelopment in the face of adversity. The landscape can reveal its stories, or text, in a way that lets one participate in the reality of the disaster area. The needs of each environment vary according to their degree of vulnerability, which can only be accessed through a careful evaluation of the underlying meanings that its inhabitants have assigned it. The resilience and sustainability of each environment must be judged according to its own unique nature symbolized by the values, perception, and attitudes inherent in the cultural milieu of the population interacting with it on an everyday basis.

Paper short abstract:

As the access to natural resources and strategies of securing livelihood have received diversification within the post-Soviet transformation-processes, new challenges for local ecosystems have been arising. A common perception of sustainability among ALL stakeholders is seen as a key in facing this.

Paper long abstract:

Following a holistic approach the interdisciplinary project "Biodiversity and sustainable management of mountain grassland in the Javakheti Highland, South Caucasus, Georgia" is focusing on the interrelation of local land-use practice with the sensitive biodiversity of alpine steppe-ecosystems of the region, aiming on to be both: strongly application related and scientifically sound, principle-orientated.

The project and its region are highly diverse: ecologically in terms of species richness and endemism, socio-economically with Georgian, Armenian and Azeri population, but also internally in terms of the researchers constellation coming from different academic and ethnic backgrounds. As the access to natural resources and the strategies of securing livelihood have received diversification within the transformation-processes of the former Soviet republics, new challenges for the local ecosystems have been arising.

Transforming these challenges into sustainable action, a common perception of "sustainability" among all stakeholders (local land-users, national and international NGO´s, politicians and scientists) is seen as central concern and as key for the success of the project as well as processes of socio-ecological alteration in general.

What is the role of Anthropology in developing a common sense on "sustainability"? And what is the responsibility of applied Anthropology within an interdisciplinary project which is aimed to lead to participatory processes of transforming knowledge into action?

It is urgently needed to discuss applicable concepts of sustainability within the conflicting priorities of cultural and natural scientific approaches. Suitable theories and methods involving all stakeholders (internal and external) will be depicted by an project internal Anthropologist and an Ecologist.

Paper short abstract:

Anthropology can clarify and expand the concept of "sustainability" by offering insights into social dynamics and other forces. This report will use examples from applied research in Bangladesh relating to introduction of new water and sanitation technologies. Some successes and some failures will be analyzed.

Paper long abstract:

The reasons why development programs do or do not continue and thrive are complex, depending on the inter-play of social, political, cultural, and economic factors. Anthropology can clarify and expand the concept of "sustainability" by offering insights into the dynamics of this inter-play. This report will use examples from applied research projects in Bangladesh relating to introduction of new water and sanitation technologies. Some successes and some failures will be analyzed to demonstrate the relevance of anthropology to the sustainability concept.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how sustainability, as a global idea, is interpreted, practiced, and experienced within a local framework, and explores how it is mediated through the relationship between state-led urban planning, community activism, and the everyday practice of place-making.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the major themes emerging from my ethnographic research into urban sustainability. Taking a comparative approach, it is contextualized around two projects to promote sustainability through the creation of green space in Belfast and New York City.

Existing within an informal partnership, community groups in East Belfast and the South Bronx have been eager to frame their projects as parallel and shared experiences by emphasizing their neighbourhoods' similarities: both have similar status as low income and socially marginalized areas; both projects are focused on the revitalization of neglected rivers, and both have adopted similar rhetorics of participatory development.

These projects are also examples of the tendency to think of urban sustainability as a spatial practice; the deployment of nature as a design principle in urban planning combines an ecological understanding of green urban infrastructure with a belief in the potency of green spaces as a force for civic transformation and economic recovery. However, in both neighbourhoods, local ambivalence to these projects is expressed in the question of what is to be sustained, and for whom.

Drawing on these ethnographic examples, this paper addresses the contribution that anthropology might make to the important question of urban sustainability. It examines how sustainability, as a global idea, is interpreted, practiced, and experienced within a local framework, and explores how it is mediated through the relationship between state-led urban planning, community activism, and the everyday practice of place-making.

Paper short abstract:

This paper uses visual methods to explore the resurgence of urban agriculture in the modern European city. UA offers the potential for sustainability not just in terms of food production but also in terms of fomenting community solidarity and creating a new ‘space of potential’ in the public realm

Paper long abstract:

Urban agriculture (UA) is a complex set of practices. Farmers working in and serving the urban and peri-urban area, allotment plot holders, community garden volunteers, people selling their produce through farmers markets in the city or schools 'grow it yourself projects' are all engaging in a form of urban agriculture. Indeed, it may be best to conceptualise urban agriculture in terms of a continuum extending from urbanites engagement with agriculture on the one hand, to the place of agriculture in what we think of as urban or peri-urban space, on the other. In recent years, there has been an upsurge in UA across Europe linked to consumer concerns about food quality, traceability and sustainability; increased environmental awareness, and the impact on many urbanites of economic austerity programmes. Drawing on a Europe-wide investigation of UA this paper will employ a visual methodology to elucidate the myriad ways in which UA has become embedded in the contemporary European cityscape. The visual images signal the possibilities offered by UA not only in terms of generating sustainable food production practices, but also in terms of sustaining communities.

Paper short abstract:

I examine creative approaches to environmental sustainability by addressing behavioral change through community arts and collective bread-making as a unique therapy already tested in 12 countries and growing through the BREAD Movement

Paper long abstract:

I examine creative approaches to environmental sustainability by addressing behavioral change through community arts and collective bread-making as a unique therapy already tested in 12 countries and growing through the BREAD Movement.I will present observations and concepts on the anthropology of development rooted in my experience weaving the International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C), which is currently the global network of national networks of community cultural centers, among which a particular kind are the BRead Houses Cultural Centers, www.breadhousesnetwork.org, which are now linked in the BREAD Movement: Bridging Resources for Ecological and Art-based Development, employing community arts for environmental health education. I analyze some of the best practices and methodologies through the lense of anthropology of development, food anthropology, and economic anthropology. Finally, I examine some of the most recent developments in the field coming out of the Culture Futures Arts Conference part of the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen and the First Summer School on Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation (ASSiST, www.assist2010.ning.com) that I3C and Cultura 21 organized in Bulgaria with participants from Brazil to Indonesia and 20 countries from 5 continents in August 2010 to develop innovative approaches on integrating art and ecology in community development and in the rising field of action research in anthropology.

Paper long abstract:

If "documents are the paradigmatic artifacts of modern knowledge practices" (Riles 2006), then "plans may be considered those kinds of documents that both act on that knowledge and seek to predict what will be knowledge in the future."(Abram & Weszkalnys 2011). In this context the study of urban planning, and in particular spatial planning and the multiple policies, narratives and investments about sustainability and sustainable places, are central to analyses and understanding of the city. It is notable then how few anthropologists have focused specifically on analyzing spatial aspects of sustainable urban planning and the immaterial processes that are bound up with it.

Cities are not neutral physical spaces. They articulate ideas, aspirations and contradictions about the social use of space, particularly who and what space is for. Yet Abram & Weszkalnys note that anthropological studies reveal how planning rarely takes account of actual people in their 'radical variety.'

In this paper I will explore why there is a pressing need for an anthropological critique of the idea of sustainability in urban development. While a social dimension to sustainability is now widely accepted as important (alongside environmental and economic dimensions) it is not clearly defined or well integrated into the policy or practice of urban planning and development and remains largely neglected in mainstream sustainability debates (Manzi 2010).

It is here that applied anthropologists in particular, have much to contribute to thinking about how the idea of sustainability is translated from academic concept to professional practice of urban planning.