120
5
There is reason to point to a paradox in the exclusion of women as local participants in conservation processes. Local participation is a factor that conservation authorities tend to bring in to generate local support of and give legitimacy to
a proposed form of nature protection. Excluding women from local participation
may make it difficult for governments to attain such goals.
Establishing the Causes of Gender-Specific Power
How can we establish the reasons behind male dominance in decision-making concerning environmental management? In the following, we demonstrate a possible
method, that we used in the case from Norway of the lack of gender equality in the
implementation of the National Park Plan. We asked how it was possible for the
Norwegian government to carry out such a significant process without gender
equity. We found it particularly puzzling that this took place in a country so often
portrayed as a leader in gender equality (Svarstad et al. 2009).
To provide satisfactory answers, we built on theories of gender and political
participation, and we applied an appropriate research approach motivated by
Blaikie and Brookfield’s chains of explanation and Dorothy Smith’s institutional
ethnography.
As mentioned in 7 Chaps. 1 and 2, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) suggested
that causes of environmental degradation can be studied by first focusing on the
immediate environmental managers at the local level. The aim would be to understand the motivations of these managers and why they use land and resources in
particular ways. This step may also include a natural science-based study of the
environmental impact of the use of the land. Thereafter, the study moves upward
to successively higher levels and identifies causes that contribute to explaining the
actions of the local natural resource managers.
Dorothy Smith (2005) has devised a similar approach. She is a feminist sociologist concerned with studying the causes of challenges and problems encountered
by women in their everyday lives. Smith’s institutional ethnography takes its starting point from what she calls people’s ‘work knowledge’ associated with these challenges and problems. She examines such work knowledge and social relationships
through interviews on gradually higher levels. With knowledge compiled from all
involved levels, the researcher can piece together insight into how the whole structure influences the daily lives of the women that the study began with.
Like Blaikie and Brookfield, we studied questions of power in the management
of nature in the Norwegian case described here, although the scope in this particular study was delimited to gendered power. Like Smith, we were interested in the
significance of gender as such, although the case study concentrated on political
representation. The establishment of new conservation areas involved politics
closely associated with the elements of daily work and leisure activities of rural
populations. The approaches of Blaikie and Brookfield and Smith both transgress
geographical scales through empirical studies of causal relationships by starting at
the most local level and thereafter moving via national levels to the global level.
Chapter 5 · Gender and Power: Feminist Political Ecologies
5
There is reason to point to a paradox in the exclusion of women as local participants in conservation processes. Local participation is a factor that conservation authorities tend to bring in to generate local support of and give legitimacy to
a proposed form of nature protection. Excluding women from local participation
may make it difficult for governments to attain such goals.
Establishing the Causes of Gender-Specific Power
How can we establish the reasons behind male dominance in decision-making concerning environmental management? In the following, we demonstrate a possible
method, that we used in the case from Norway of the lack of gender equality in the
implementation of the National Park Plan. We asked how it was possible for the
Norwegian government to carry out such a significant process without gender
equity. We found it particularly puzzling that this took place in a country so often
portrayed as a leader in gender equality (Svarstad et al. 2009).
To provide satisfactory answers, we built on theories of gender and political
participation, and we applied an appropriate research approach motivated by
Blaikie and Brookfield’s chains of explanation and Dorothy Smith’s institutional
ethnography.
As mentioned in 7 Chaps. 1 and 2, Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) suggested
that causes of environmental degradation can be studied by first focusing on the
immediate environmental managers at the local level. The aim would be to understand the motivations of these managers and why they use land and resources in
particular ways. This step may also include a natural science-based study of the
environmental impact of the use of the land. Thereafter, the study moves upward
to successively higher levels and identifies causes that contribute to explaining the
actions of the local natural resource managers.
Dorothy Smith (2005) has devised a similar approach. She is a feminist sociologist concerned with studying the causes of challenges and problems encountered
by women in their everyday lives. Smith’s institutional ethnography takes its starting point from what she calls people’s ‘work knowledge’ associated with these challenges and problems. She examines such work knowledge and social relationships
through interviews on gradually higher levels. With knowledge compiled from all
involved levels, the researcher can piece together insight into how the whole structure influences the daily lives of the women that the study began with.
Like Blaikie and Brookfield, we studied questions of power in the management
of nature in the Norwegian case described here, although the scope in this particular study was delimited to gendered power. Like Smith, we were interested in the
significance of gender as such, although the case study concentrated on political
representation. The establishment of new conservation areas involved politics
closely associated with the elements of daily work and leisure activities of rural
populations. The approaches of Blaikie and Brookfield and Smith both transgress
geographical scales through empirical studies of causal relationships by starting at
the most local level and thereafter moving via national levels to the global level.
Chapter 5 · Gender and Power: Feminist Political Ecologies