Women's participation in disaster recovery after the 2005 Kashmir, Pakistan earthquake.

This study sought to learn how women participated in the recovery process after the Kashmir earthquake of October 2005 in Union Council Langarpura, Azad Kashmir state of Pakistan. Focus-group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and participant observations were conducted with a total of 48 participants. The results revealed that women played various important roles in the reproductive, productive, and community spheres, encompassing, inter alia, normal household responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, and caring for cattle, and non-traditional tasks such as rebuilding the home. In addition, they participated in income-generating activities such as carrying construction materials and water for daily wages, dairy farming, and working in fields and in the education and health sectors. Community endeavours, meanwhile, consisted of search and rescue, caring for the injured, collective cooking and food sharing, and supervising the reconstruction of public structures, including schools, roads, and water supply facilities, and establishing a sewing centre to provide vocational training to local women.

Rethinking the maps: A case study of knowledge incorporation in Canadian wildfire risk management and planning.

As the natural fire regimes of Canada's Boreal forests have been transformed by dynamic social, economic, ecological and political drivers, wildfires have become a locus of increasingly complex land management decisions. But while, in Canada and elsewhere, social researchers have examined communities at risk of experiencing wildfire, the agencies and practitioners responsible for wildfire management have thus far been underrepresented in empirical inquiry. This article presents a case study of wildfire management in northern Alberta, examining how different forms of knowledge and experiences were incorporated into the creation of a new plan to support decision-making. Findings from interviews and a workshop confirm that 'science' in such applied contexts is not a pure entity. Instead, the objects represented internally and externally as 'scientific' have necessarily been shaped by the values and priorities of the individuals and institutions that have constructed them. Further, this case study revealed social factors that support the maintenance of institutional status quos, such as the commitment to total wildfire suppression policy, despite broad agreement amongst participants about superior alternatives. These findings support the need for further research on wildfire management agencies, and suggest that progress in wildfire management may be limited by mismatched expectations of 'good' policy between stakeholder groups and by practitioners' conceptions of their own institutional identity.

Community-company relations in gold mining in Ghana.

As a result of Structural Adjustment Programme from the 1980s, many developing countries have experienced an increase in resource extraction activities by international and transnational corporations. The work reported here examines the perceived impacts of gold mining at the community level in the Wassa West District of Ghana, Africa and discusses those perceived impacts in the context of globalization processes and growing multinational corporate interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Interview data compared community members' perceptions with those of company representatives in three communities. The results indicate that communities held companies responsible for a series of economic, social, and environmental changes. While recognizing some of the benefits brought by the mines, communities felt that the companies did not live up to their responsibility to support local development. Companies responded by denying, dismissing concerns, or shifting blame. Findings from this work show that lack of engagement and action by government agencies at all levels resulted in companies acting in a surrogate governmental capacity. In such situations, managing expectations is key to community-company relations.

Applying local knowledge: the contribution of oral history to wetland rehabilitation at Kanyapella Basin, Australia.

Local knowledge of the history and ecology of wetland ecosystems can be a valuable resource in wetland rehabilitation projects. This is especially the case when other historical ecological information is unavailable. As well as providing a source of historical information, time spent acquiring local knowledge can enhance public participation in environmental management and facilitate early conflict resolution between stakeholders and the community. This paper investigates the use of oral history as a tool to collate a history of the flooding, ecology and management of Kanyapella Basin, a 2581 ha wetland on the floodplain of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers, Australia. Interviews were held with nine local residents and 11 natural resource managers. Oral history proved an effective way to obtain information about changes in the frequency and distribution of flood events over the last 60 years. Observations of rare and threatened fauna, and comments regarding the success of past management were also recorded. Results from the oral history have been used to direct ecological research and develop alternative management options at Kanyapella Basin. In addition to its use in gathering ecological information, oral history also proved effective in enabling the values and concerns of local community and stakeholders to be articulated, increasing managers' understanding of the social context of the particular locality, which is fundamental to sound environmental decision-making.