The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorDaya, Sharien_ZA
dc.contributor.authorCresswell, Naomi Jayneen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2018-05-03T14:16:22Z
dc.date.available2018-05-03T14:16:22Z
dc.date.issued2016en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation explores the values of nature through the personal narratives of landowners in the Overberg area of Western Cape, South Africa. In the past, scholarly literature has imagined nature as separated from the human world. Historically, mainstream conservation methods have followed ideals of nature in forming environmental management policies and practices, aiming to create and maintain an isolated nature. This ideal of nature has largely ignored the roles of humans within the environment. A range of new fields of studies around identity, business and politics explore new ways of imagining nature, focusing on the human within nature and the nature within the human. Using these alternative imaginings, this research uncovers a variety of ways 'humanness' and nature are deeply embedded within each other. This research challenges the ideal of a pristine otherness whilst both supporting and filling in the gaps of contemporary alternative literature. The personal narratives of 34 landowners were gathered during 10 weeks of fieldwork. These stories offered an alternative portrayal of the relationship between humans, nature and conservation. Landownership was more than business as usual; land embodied deep and meaningful emotions, experiences and discourses of daily human life. Landscapes embodied personal emotions of owners through shaping their identities, spirituality, belonging and family histories. Dynamics of politics manifested in different forms such as fear, mistrust, corruption and exclusion throughout landowner's experiences and attitudes. These political factors, emotions and economic dynamics play a role in shaping landowners' attitudes, resistances and participation both towards conservation as well as nature, in turn influencing the way they organise themselves in relation to conservation bodies such as government run programmes as well as NGOs. It also affects how they organise, negotiate and manage themselves and their land. Conservation management of land should take into account these deeply complex, multidimensional and integrated complexities entrenched within daily narratives of landownership.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationCresswell, N. J. (2016). <i>The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27921en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationCresswell, Naomi Jayne. <i>"The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27921en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationCresswell, N. 2016. The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Cresswell, Naomi Jayne AB - This dissertation explores the values of nature through the personal narratives of landowners in the Overberg area of Western Cape, South Africa. In the past, scholarly literature has imagined nature as separated from the human world. Historically, mainstream conservation methods have followed ideals of nature in forming environmental management policies and practices, aiming to create and maintain an isolated nature. This ideal of nature has largely ignored the roles of humans within the environment. A range of new fields of studies around identity, business and politics explore new ways of imagining nature, focusing on the human within nature and the nature within the human. Using these alternative imaginings, this research uncovers a variety of ways 'humanness' and nature are deeply embedded within each other. This research challenges the ideal of a pristine otherness whilst both supporting and filling in the gaps of contemporary alternative literature. The personal narratives of 34 landowners were gathered during 10 weeks of fieldwork. These stories offered an alternative portrayal of the relationship between humans, nature and conservation. Landownership was more than business as usual; land embodied deep and meaningful emotions, experiences and discourses of daily human life. Landscapes embodied personal emotions of owners through shaping their identities, spirituality, belonging and family histories. Dynamics of politics manifested in different forms such as fear, mistrust, corruption and exclusion throughout landowner's experiences and attitudes. These political factors, emotions and economic dynamics play a role in shaping landowners' attitudes, resistances and participation both towards conservation as well as nature, in turn influencing the way they organise themselves in relation to conservation bodies such as government run programmes as well as NGOs. It also affects how they organise, negotiate and manage themselves and their land. Conservation management of land should take into account these deeply complex, multidimensional and integrated complexities entrenched within daily narratives of landownership. DA - 2016 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 T1 - The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa TI - The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27921 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/27921
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationCresswell NJ. The values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africa. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, 2016 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27921en_ZA
dc.language.isoENGen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Environmental and Geographical Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnvironmental and Geographical Sciencesen_ZA
dc.titleThe values of nature: personal narratives of conservation in South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMSocScen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
thesis_hum_2016_cresswell_naomi_jayne.pdf
Size:
2.43 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Masters