Re‐casting experience and risk along rocky coasts: A relational analysis using qualitative GIS

Abstract

This study invites readers to experience risk on Australia’s hazardous rocky coasts with the rock fishing community. In the paper, we offer an understanding of risk that is relational, a process that emerges within human–environment interactions in a dynamic coastal space that is constantly changing. Exploring the in situ and ongoing sensory attunement of the fishers, we contend, expands upon the quantitative understandings that tend to be deployed by risk managers, offering an innovative approach to conceptualising risk. In identifying how fishers perceive and experience a rocky coastal location in Sydney, Australia, we track rock fishers’ movements using global positioning systems (GPS), undertake participant observation, and draw on video footage, semi‐structured interviews and participatory sketch maps. In doing so, fishers’ perceptions of socio‐environmental stimuli were spatially represented in a GIS, with sketch mapping being the proxy and/or the window into perception–environment relations that produce risk. We contend that the findings show that experienced fishers are more capable of anticipating and reacting to hazardous situations “safely” because they are more attuned to how changing coastal conditions affect risk. This study draws attention to the spatial and temporal phenomena that drive risk perceptions as well as the implications for future perception‐oriented research that adopt a relational understanding.

Epidemiology of unintentional fatal drowning among migrants in Australia

“…These findings are not new. Rock fishing is a popular activity for migrants, particularly among those from Asian countries, in Australia and New Zealand 16,40-42 . Recent coronial inquests in Australia recommended mandatory lifejacket wearing when rock fishing to prevent drowning deaths 43 .…”

“…A long‐term education campaign in New Zealand was successful in increasing lifejacket wear among culturally diverse rock fishers over a decade, 42 indicating that adopting safety behaviours takes time, especially when focusing on people from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, research suggests that rock fishing safety interventions need to be multi‐faceted and involve the rock‐fishing community 40-42 …”

“…Rock fishing is a popular activity for migrants, particularly among those from Asian countries, in Australia and New Zealand. 16,[40][41][42] Recent coronial inquests in Australia recommended mandatory lifejacket wearing when rock fishing to prevent drowning deaths. 43 Subsequently, the NSW Government introduced through legislation the compulsory wearing of lifejackets when rock fishing from December 2016.…”

“…Furthermore, research suggests that rock fishing safety interventions need to be multi-faceted and involve the rock-fishing community. [40][41][42] Swimming was the leading activity being undertaken prior to drowning for both migrants and Australian-born people. The WHO promotes swimming and survival skills as a protective factor for drowning for all ages.…”

Relationship‐building between climate scientists and publics as an alternative to information transfer

“…Perhaps the only consistency across the climate change discourse is recognition that current approaches are not having the impact that climate experts believe is needed (IPCC, ). Given the failure of existing educative efforts (Wolf & Moser, ), there is need to extend consideration to include how experts' contribute to the making of allegedly inactive publics (Cornes & Cook, ; Cornes, Cook, Satizábal, & Melo Zurita, in press; Kamstra, Cook, Edensor, & Kennedy, ), which requires including experts and their boundary making as part of publics' (non)responsiveness (Beck & Mahony, ; Waterton, ). As Brian Wynne has argued

“until a social agent, collective or individual [i.e., climate expert], is able to place their own ‘self’ into the frame of questioning in interaction with others, it will not be in a position to genuinely hear those others, because it is instead determinedly if inadvertently imposing its own projections of the imagined other into the inauthentic ‘listening’ relationship” (Wynne, , p. 219).

As part of an expert‐inclusive review, there is need to explore the values that experts hold but are reticent to admit or negotiate (Davies, ; O'Brien, ; Oreskes, ).…”