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2. Collaboration Relations in Climate Information Production and Dissemination to Subsistence Farmers in Namibia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- New, Mark (author) and Ofoegbu, Chidiebere (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-09-28
- Published:
- International: Springer Link
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 202 Document Number: D12098
- Journal Title:
- Environmental Management
- Journal Title Details:
- (2021) 67
- Notes:
- 14 Pgs., Although climate information can aid farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change, its accessibility and adoption by subsistence farmers hinge on the collaboration between farmers and climate information providers. This paper examines collaborations among actors in the process of climate information production and dissemination in the Namibian agricultural sector. The aim is to investigate the extent to which subsistence farmers are integrated into the collaboration process and the impact of the collaboration on the nature and accessibility of disseminated information. Key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey were used for data collection. Using network analysis, we estimated the networks’ density, clustering coefficient, and degree centrality. The study found that both the climate information production and dissemination networks have a high overall clustering coefficient (78% and 77%, respectively) suggesting a high rate of collaboration among the actors in the networks. However, the frequency of interactions between the actors in both the information production and dissemination networks and subsistence farmers remains very low. Nearly all surveyed farmers reported that they meet with information providers only once in a year. The effect of this poor interaction is reflected in the poor occurrence of feedback learning, which is needed to optimize channels of information dissemination to subsistence farmers and enhance the robustness of disseminated information. We recommend innovative communication means via mobile phone, promotion of peer-to-peer learning, flexible collaboration relations with more space for feedback from the users of climate information, and more attention to long-term forecasts and their implications for adaptive actions.
3. Towards a dialogue of sustainable agriculture and end-times theology in the United States: insights from the historical ecology of nineteenth century millennial communes
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Fisher, Chelsea (author) and Department of Anthropology, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, USA
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-07-09
- Published:
- Springer Netherlands
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 151 Document Number: D10126
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- 35(4) : 791–807
- Notes:
- 17 pages., Print ISSN: 0889-048X Online ISSN: 1572-8366, Via online journal., Almost one-third of all U.S. Americans believe that Jesus Christ will return to Earth in the next 40 years, thereby signaling the end of the world. The prevalence of this end-times theology has meant that sustainability initiatives are often met with indifference, resistance, or even hostility from a significant portion of the American population. One of the ways that the scientific community can respond to this is by making scientific discourse, particularly as related to sustainability, more palatable to end-times believers. In this paper, I apply a historical–ecological framework, which emphasizes the interdisciplinary study of landscapes to understand long-term human–environment interactions, to three millennial religious groups that formed communes in nineteenth century America. The Shakers, Inspirationalists, and Mormons all blended deep beliefs in end-times theology with agricultural practices that were arguably more sustainable than those in use in the mainstream, and their ability to reconcile eschatology with sustainability provides us with potential lessons. By examining the history, doctrines, and agroecology of these nineteenth century communes, I propose communication strategies based in autonomy, institutional support, multigenerational narratives, and anthropocentricism as potential pathways for a more productive dialogue between advocates of sustainability initiatives and end-times believers in the modern United States.