UCARE Research Presentation

Madison Whitney Author

07/28/2020 Added

23 Plays

Description

Video Presentation on the Impact of Environmental Advocacy Between the Daasanach Community and NGOs

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:02.198]Hello my name is Madison Whitney and I am
[00:00:04.928]a junior studying Environmental Studies
[00:00:06.698]and Global Studies at UNL. This summer I
[00:00:09.960]participated in a UCARE Research Project
[00:00:12.440]to study the impact of environmental
[00:00:14.367]advocacy between the Daasanach community
[00:00:17.140]and NGOs in the region. The Daasanach are
[00:00:21.531]a semi-nomadic community that have become
[00:00:24.320]more sedentary in the past several years.
[00:00:26.850]The area of focus during this project was
[00:00:29.261]the Lake Turkana region of Northern
[00:00:31.323]Kenya, more specifically the area near
[00:00:33.650]Sibiloi National Park. As you can see on
[00:00:36.672]the map, this lake and park are
[00:00:38.570]near the Ethiopian border, which brings
[00:00:40.910]its own political and environmental issues
[00:00:42.850]such as a dam that was built a few years
[00:00:45.211]ago. During my research, I used a coding
[00:00:49.790]method called grounded theory. This
[00:00:52.418]approach emphasizes the experiences of the
[00:00:55.130]interviewee rather than the use of
[00:00:57.741]pre-assigned codes. By using an organic
[00:01:00.700]process of creating codes during the
[00:01:02.898]transcription and analysis of interviews,
[00:01:05.790]I was able to gain a
[00:01:06.834]deeper understanding of the perspective
[00:01:09.241]and significance of the Daasanach member’s
[00:01:11.518]way of life. Using grounded theory
[00:01:13.993]is important when working with a culture
[00:01:16.493]or community different from your own
[00:01:18.842]because it decreases the influence of
[00:01:20.831]bias and assumptions in the coding
[00:01:22.586]process. On the right, you can see
[00:01:25.210]a picture of my notes during the
[00:01:26.700]grounded theory process to get a
[00:01:29.070]better understanding of the fluid
[00:01:30.759]and evolving nature of the coding.
[00:01:35.525]Before I started this process, I set out
[00:01:37.721]to learn more about the Daasanach
[00:01:39.347]community’s interaction with NGOs
[00:01:41.961]and how it has influenced their way of
[00:01:44.171]life in the past 5 to 10 years. I also was
[00:01:48.171]interested in investigating how climate
[00:01:50.326]change has impacted that relationship
[00:01:52.841]by making the Daasanach more or less
[00:01:54.761]reliant on the aid of NGOs.
[00:01:57.257]On the technical side, I
[00:01:59.337]wanted to gain the skills of transcribing
[00:02:01.561]interviews and analyzing codes. This would
[00:02:04.565]be primarily done by learning and applying
[00:02:06.865]my use of grounded theory.
[00:02:09.315]During the process, my main role was to
[00:02:13.606]get familiar with coding by
[00:02:15.384]transcribing interviews collected the past
[00:02:17.914]few years in the Turkana Lake Region.
[00:02:20.824]I used grounded theory to gain a deeper
[00:02:22.874]understanding of the role that NGOs and
[00:02:25.762]climate change have on the Daasanach
[00:02:27.521]community through my use of the coding
[00:02:30.258]software QDA Miner Lite. This image shows
[00:02:34.258]the software I used, showing the codes I
[00:02:36.393]created while analyzing the interviews on
[00:02:38.923]the left and the interviews
[00:02:41.123]I transcribed in the center.
[00:02:43.333]I was able to highlight areas of the
[00:02:45.138]interviews that corresponded with
[00:02:46.917]different codes to help me come to my
[00:02:48.722]conclusions. Before I began coding
[00:02:52.722]the interviews, I expected to find a
[00:02:54.869]strong correlation between the Daasanach
[00:02:57.409]community’s relationship with NGOs
[00:02:59.728]and the change in their lifestyle. I also
[00:03:02.841]expected to find a strong correlation
[00:03:04.933]between the change from nomadic to
[00:03:07.018]sedentary with impacts of climate change
[00:03:09.926]in the region. After coding, however, I
[00:03:14.989]found that these
[00:03:16.126]outcomes were more complex
[00:03:17.406]than I previously thought. While NGOs have
[00:03:20.390]had a level of influence in the area, the
[00:03:23.043]interviewees were more concerned with
[00:03:24.873]the significance of water and land.
[00:03:27.949]How the Daasanach migrated, performed
[00:03:30.081]different pastoral activities, and where
[00:03:32.472]they settled all depended
[00:03:33.889]on the impact and frequency of rain.
[00:03:36.549]For example one of the most frequently
[00:03:39.049]talked about objects was the well in the
[00:03:41.419]area and its significance in the
[00:03:43.353]community. The
[00:03:45.793]relationship between government protected
[00:03:48.033]land such as Sibiloi National Park
[00:03:50.355]and the Daasanach was also an unexpected
[00:03:53.054]outcome. The Daasanch viewed grass in the
[00:03:56.094]park as useful for grazing while park
[00:03:59.078]rangers tried to prevent
[00:04:00.252]this for the sake of conservation.
[00:04:03.172]Wildlife in the park has also fluctuated,
[00:04:06.022]while the reason for this change
[00:04:11.156]differs based on who was interviewed.
[00:04:16.724]Members of the Daasanach commented that
[00:04:18.787]wildlife feared humans, causing them to
[00:04:20.867]move, while those outside the community
[00:04:23.081]blame the population decline on livestock
[00:04:25.441]grazing in the park. After I leave this
[00:04:30.638]project, research with the Daasanach will
[00:04:32.914]continue through the Koobi Fora Field
[00:04:34.900]School in Kenya.
[00:04:36.846]My codes will help in the analysis of
[00:04:38.758]the Daasanach community and their
[00:04:40.402]relationships to internal and external
[00:04:42.842]factors. Personally, this
[00:04:46.842]project helped me gain virtual experience
[00:04:49.465]in being an ethnographer that I will
[00:04:52.434]hopefully apply in the future to an in-
[00:04:54.580]person field research program.
[00:04:57.884]The ability to use coding software
[00:04:59.766]and virtually immerse myself into a new
[00:05:01.800]culture and topics that interest me were
[00:05:04.563]aspects of the project that stood out.
[00:05:06.409]A challenge
[00:05:07.851]I experienced was the time it took to
[00:05:10.397]transcribe interviews. Each thirty minute
[00:05:13.386]interview took around 2 hours
[00:05:14.922]to transcribe plus at least one
[00:05:17.105]more look through to correct any initial
[00:05:18.586]mistakes. While this meticulous process
[00:05:21.721]was slower than I
[00:05:22.558]expected, the entire project
[00:05:25.169]expanded my worldview as a student and
[00:05:27.609]researcher on the connections between
[00:05:29.611]human rights and environmental issues
[00:05:31.585]around the world. I would like to thank
[00:05:35.271]Dr. Christine Haney and Dr. Matthew
[00:05:37.361]Douglass for their knowledge, tools,
[00:05:39.235]and guidance during my UCARE
[00:05:40.985]project this summer. The interviews and
[00:05:43.724]experience from the Daasanach community
[00:05:45.848]that were used throughout my project
[00:05:47.815]were essential to my learning
[00:05:49.891]and I would like to thank all of the
[00:05:51.762]participants, professors, and staff
[00:05:54.291]associated with the Koobi Fora Field
[00:05:56.333]School. Finally, I would like to thank
[00:05:58.924]Justina Clark and the UCARE team at UNL
[00:06:01.652]for their advice throughout the summer.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

UCARE Research Presentation

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments