Social Impact Assessment and the Anthropology of the Future in Canada's Tar Sands

Westman, Clinton N.

doi:10.17730/humo.72.2.e0m6426502384675

Cited by 42 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…This paper considers both the social and environmental impacts because, especially in an Indigenous context, they are highly integrated (Slootweg et al 2001;Vanclay 2002). Careful consideration is given to the cultural and socio-political aspects that can play a role in project development, such as native cosmological concepts and inter-ethnic relations (Westman 2013). These aspects are important to better comprehend the efficacy of the mitigation measures and to provide a fuller understanding of social impacts, especially when traditional communities are involved.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Without proper consideration of the local cultural context, even well-intentioned mitigation measures can ultimately create unintended impacts (Vanclay 2002;. In current practice around the world, most SIAs that consider impacts on Indigenous people are usually 'ethnographically thin, ' thus limiting their capacity to properly promote culturally adequate and effective mitigation measures (Westman 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The importance of cultural aspects in impact assessment and project development: reflections from a case study of a hydroelectric dam in Brazil

Oliveira

Vanclay

Langdon

et al. 2016

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

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Failure to consider the cultural and social factors of projects can lead to situations where mitigation does not effectively address the impacts they were intended to alleviate, and can even create other impacts. We critically analyse the processes of designing and implementing a social and environmental compensation program for the Lajeado Hydroelectric Dam in the Amazon region of central-northern Brazil. This mitigation program caused a wide range of social and environmental impacts on the Xerente Indigenous people, such as intra-group conflict, and changes in agricultural practices and food regime. Based on qualitative fieldwork and an extensive document analysis, we present a contextualization of the region, the project, the Xerente people, and their cosmological understandings. We consider the perspectives of a broad range of stakeholders about the compensation program and its outcomes, and demonstrate how traditional cultural practices and values played a role in the unfolding of the program. Better comprehension of sociocultural aspects through the use of ethnography, ongoing consultation, and meaningful community participation in the planning and implementation of mitigation measures are recommended.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of cultural aspects in impact assessment and project development: reflections from a case study of a hydroelectric dam in Brazil

Oliveira

Vanclay

Langdon

et al. 2016

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

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“…According to anthropologist Clinton Westman, the future envisioned by many Indigenous residents of northern Alberta (the ability to keep living on and with the land) and the future envisioned by the oil industry (Canada as energy superpower) are not compatible. With impact assessment structures and permitting processes valorizing energy extraction and economic profit, Westman observes, the tar sands' trajectory of environmental degradation and social injustice is poised to continue [66].…”

Section: The Most Destructive Project On Earthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous ExtrACTIVISM in Boreal Canada: Colonial Legacies, Contemporary Struggles and Sovereign Futures

Willow

2016

Humanities

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This article approaches contemporary extractivism as an environmentally and socially destructive extension of an enduring colonial societal structure. Manifested in massive hydroelectric developments, clearcut logging, mining, and unconventional oil and gas production, extractivism removes natural resources from their points of origin and dislocates the emplaced benefits they provide. Because externally imposed resource extraction threatens Indigenous peoples' land-based self-determination, industrial sites often become contested, politicized landscapes. Consequently, I also illuminate the struggles of those who strive to turn dreams for sovereign futures into reality through extrACTIVIST resistance to extractivist schemes. Presenting four case synopses-from across Canada's boreal forest and spanning a broad range of extractive undertakings-that highlight both sides of the extractivism/ACTIVISM formulation, this article exposes the political roots of resource-related conflicts and contributes to an emerging comparative political ecology of settler colonialism. While extractivism's environmental effects are immediate and arresting, these physical transformations have significant cultural consequences that are underlain by profound political inequities. I ultimately suggest that because extractivism is colonial in its causal logic, effective opposition cannot emerge from environmentalism alone, but will instead arise from movements that pose systemic challenges to conjoined processes of social, economic, and environmental injustice.

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“…Articulating indigenous traditional use areas, demarcating sacred sites, and highlighting areas and practices being affected by current and planned extractive industries (such as roe poaching, pipeline construction, gas fields, mines, extraction of offshore oil reserves), are ways of focusing political conversations on accommodating indigenous peoples rights and interests. Although some authors (Nasr and Scott 2010;Westman 2013) have wryly observed that these mapping projects can fall short of communicating a larger picture of indigenous social objectives, our hope is that the Kamchatka Digital Atlas Project will be Bringing Indigenous Kamchatka to Google Earth a tool for improving the quality of life for local indigenous communities by guaranteeing the inclusion and rights of indigenous peoples in these processes, and that it can offer important data to be incorporated in safeguarding the environment.…”

Section: The Indigenous-kamchatka Digital Atlas Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Indigenous Kamchatka to Google Earth: Collaborative Digital Mapping with the Itelmen Peoples

Thom

Colombi²,

Degai

2016

Sibirica

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Indigenous peoples in the Russian Far East are engaged in vibrant cultural and linguistic resurgence and revitalization through their community and regional organizations. Through the activities of one of these organizations, a computer-aided cultural mapping project was initiated in collaboration with indigenous villages along the Kamchatka Peninsula, working with youth and elders to map out the histories of special cultural places. The project utilized innovative participatory methodologies using Google Earth and related Google mapping tools, which are freely accessible and desired for use in the communities, providing an accessible, low-cost, easyto-use computer application for detailed digital cultural mapping. This article elaborates on the use of these technologies to empower a community-based collaborative research project and reflects on critical issues in aligning community, corporate, and scholarly objectives in successful projects.of Culture in Kovran, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography, we set about a project to train community members to use freely available, easy-to-use software (Google Earth) to create a digital atlas of indigenous language place names and accounts by the community of culturally significant places. While representatives of several indigenous communities in Kamchatka have participated in the training, the fieldwork has so far been mainly centered in Kovran, an Itelmen fishing community on the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula where the subsistence economy is vital for the community, and where many families are significantly involved (Koester 2012;Murashko 1997).Like many indigenous peoples worldwide (Bryan and Wood 2015;Chapin et al. 2005;Eades 2015), Itelmen peoples have several goals in setting about to collaborate on a digital atlas with Indigenous-language place names and cultural sites detailed in text, video, and photos. One objective is to engage school-aged youth in conversations with elders about indigenous language, tradition, and cultural heritage. In turn, goals of documenting and celebrating indigenous cultural heritage knowledge for use in village schools and throughout the broader public benefits all Kamchatka residents, and most especially Kamchatka youth who are engaged in the contemporary resurgence of indigenous cultures.Through documenting and making accessible indigenous peoples language, history, and places of significant cultural identity, the project seeks to benefit youth, elders, and local educators/specialists in Kamchatka. The atlas materials highlight and celebrate indigenous language materials and history, they also have contextual information in Russian and English of interest to researchers and others more broadly. The digital atlas also has potential as an instrument for public policy that uniquely positions communities to communicate key values associated with particular locales in the spirit of cross-cultural collaboration.

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Social Impact Assessment and the Anthropology of the Future in Canada's Tar Sands

Cited by 42 publications

References 4 publications

The importance of cultural aspects in impact assessment and project development: reflections from a case study of a hydroelectric dam in Brazil

The importance of cultural aspects in impact assessment and project development: reflections from a case study of a hydroelectric dam in Brazil

Indigenous ExtrACTIVISM in Boreal Canada: Colonial Legacies, Contemporary Struggles and Sovereign Futures

Bringing Indigenous Kamchatka to Google Earth: Collaborative Digital Mapping with the Itelmen Peoples

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