tides of change : place meanings in the broughton archipelago
abstract
rural vancouver island is in a state of transition from reliance on traditional
resource based industries such as commercial fisheries and forestry (robinson &
mazzoni, 2003) to a more diversified economy which includes tourism and aquaculture.
long standing patterns of life become threatened in remote coastal communities like
echo bay and the greater broughton archipelago as traditional meanings of “places”
become “unmoored” in an increasingly globalized world (w illiams & mcintyre, 2003).
“place” or “sense of place” are the perceived fusion of social history, community
identity, scenic beauty, family heritage and spiritual values that give meaning to a place
(williams & stewart, 1998). they are also the connection between social experiences
and geographic areas (galliano & loeffler, 1999) such as people and their ties to the
broughton archipelago.
understanding the concepts of “place” can enable natural resource managers to
interpret more clearly the relationships people have to the land (kruger, 2005).
however, inclusion of “place” in the dominantly technical milieu of planning often
poses interesting problems in appropriate and sensitive representation.
in this qualitive study, an interview technique derived from t obias’ (2000) map
biography was employed. by locating places on maps during the interview process, a
map-based interview enabled narrative data to spatially represent sense of place or
landscape meanings and values. when combined with phenomenological interviews that
sought the “essence” of “lived experience” of the broughton archipelago, map-based
interviews provided a perceptive and creative medium for the elicitation of landscape
values and sense of place. voices from these interviews resound with images of
socioeconomic and environmental transformation.
phenomenological literature such life histories, historical fiction and place histories
specific to the broughton archipelago were also employed to provide a historical
perspective of the area in order to ground it in the present. as the greater story of place
meanings in the broughton archipelago unfolds, salmon emerge as a symbol o f the
cultural landscape, ecology and economy of the broughton archipelago. moreover the
salmon surface as a metaphor for traditional rural livelihoods and a way of life but also
for globalization and its processes. such symbols become more important when
threatened and the consequences of the loss of salmon challenge the resiliency of a
complex social ecological system in the broughton archipelago. a call for adaptive
management emphasizes feedback from the environment and the state of the resource
through social and ecological memory over time to develop policy. moreover, social
networks that inform each other from a wide range of local and international governance
create an overall adaptive governance system.
collections
- retrospective theses [1604]