Testing the water, challenging the narratives of sustainable development: student volunteer research promoting public health in rural Panama in the shadow of an "eco-playground"

Abstract

This article describes challenges faced by a team of interns and students working for a not-for-profit sister company of a private U.S.-based land development company planning to build a "sustainable city" in the Panamanian forest. Testing the contaminated water of a nearby village, the team demonstrated that residents have been living with water-related illness. Despite the indifference and conflicting aims of the parent company, potentially impactful social capital connections were made. The author reflects on these efforts within the critique of student "voluntourism." He also explores the role of social media in the production of narratives of sustainable development within the context of a poorly regulated land market. Keywords: water access and water-related illness; sustainable development; medical anthropology; public health; tourism; voluntourism; social capital; social media narratives RésuméCet article décrit les défis rencontrés par une équipe de stagiaires et d'étudiants qui travaillent pour une entreprise à but non lucratif liée à une société privée de développement immobilier basée aux États-Unis, qui prévoit de construire une «ville durable» dans la forêt panaméenne. L'équipe a testé des échantillons d'eau dans un village voisin, constatant qu'elle était contaminée et que les résidents vivaient avec des maladies liées à l'eau. Malgré l'indifférence et la position conflictuelle de l'entreprise, des connexions sociales importantes ont été établies, ce qui a permis de constituer du «social capital». L'auteur se penche sur cet exemple de «volontourisme» par d'étudiants. Il explore le rôle des médias sociaux dans la production de récits de développement durable, dans le contexte d'un systéme foncier mal régulé. Mots-clés: accès à l'eau et maladies liées à l'eau; le développement durable; anthropologie médicale; santé publique; tourisme; le volontourisme; capital social; récits de médias sociaux ResumenEste artículo describe los desafíos de un equipo de estudiantes y pasantes trabajando para una ONG afiliada a una compañia particular estadounidense que está planeando construir una comunidad sustentable en un bosque de Panamá. Al hacer investigaciones del agua local, el equipo demuestra que los habitantes de un pueblo han estado viviendo con enfermedades que vienen de agua contaminada. El equipo logra crear "capital social" conexiones positívas a pesar de la indiferencia de la compañia particular. El autor reflexiona sobre estos esfuerzos dentro del contexto del fenómeno de estudiantes extranjeros que se presentan como "voluntarios turistas." También se explora el papel de los medios sociales en la producción de narrativas de desarrollo sostenible dentro del contexto de un mercado de tierras poco regulado. Palabras claves: acceso al agua y enfermedades relacionadas con el agua; desarrollo sostenible; antropología

Mapping the Landscape of Sustainability in Social Media: A Bibliometric Analysis and Research Trends

“…A study by Akoh and Lekhanya, [64] aiming to better understand the impact of networking challenges on social entrepreneurs and their contribution to long-term development concluded that networking issues continue to be a barrier to the value generation of social entrepreneurs. Alexander, [65] studied the difficulties encountered by a group of interns and students working for a non-profit sister firm of a private US-based property development company planning to establish a "sustainable city" in the Panamanian jungle. They explored the difficulties of the rural Panamanian people with contaminated drinking water and illnesses caused by it.…”

Sustainable development frictions: lifestyle migration on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico

“…Topdown typically describes a neoliberal capitalist model of sustainability imposed from the outside. A common example is ecotourism focused on a convergence of environmental sustainability and economic sustainable development (Alexander 2018;Hill, Byrne and Pegas 2016). Even with an appreciation for environmental preservation, sustainable development as exemplified by corporate ecotourism models is still development based in "a top-down, ethnocentric, and technocratic approach, which treated people and cultures as abstract concepts" (Escobar 1995: 44).…”

Representing environment and development – tracing links between drivers, representations and power dynamics in cocoa sustainability and beyond

“…However, stakeholders' underlying interpretations of the priorities that should govern sustainability diverge considerably, meaning that the term's polysemic nature entails tensions in practice. Public representations of congruence or commensurability between diverse interpretations of what sustainability is or should be entail considerable risks, explaining the need to analyze mediated narrative filters (Alexander 2018). This article posits that public representations of harmony between different stakeholders' understandings of 'sustainability' distract from and even perpetuate underlying inequalities and power asymmetries between global North and South, which matters given actors' resulting unequal ability to influence decision-making (Elgert 2012).…”