Doctoral candidate, Rebecca I. Garvoille (Florida International University), with the guidance of Dr. Laura A. Ogden, will undertake research on the cultural consequences of ecosystem restoration. The focus of her research will be the effects that restoration initiatives may have on local identities, environmental attitudes, and long-term expectations for regions and their management. The research is important because governments and development organizations around the world are increasingly choosing ecosystem restoration as a means to rehabilitate degraded environments.
To address these questions, Garvoille will conduct 12 months of research in the southern Florida Everglades, at two sites affected for several decades by various Everglades restoration plans. Everglades restoration has cost billions of dollars and is affecting local lives and livelihoods in significant ways, which makes it an excellent site for this project. Garvoille will gather data using multiple social science research methods, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and archival research. Participant observation will be conducted at locally significant venues, such as those associated with majority culture outdoorsmen and local indigenous peoples, as well as at public meetings held by state resource management agencies. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with indigenous peoples, outdoorsmen, state officials, and environmental NGO staff. Archival research will complement and contextualize the interview data.
Findings from this research will contribute to theories of the social dimensions and tradeoffs of ecosystem restoration projects. Findings also will help planners better anticipate as well as respond to social and cultural effects of deliberate landscape transformation. Supporting this research also supports the education of a social scientist.
Doctoral candidate, Rebecca I. Garvoille (Florida International University), with the guidance of Dr. Laura A. Ogden, carried out twelve months of field research on the cultural effects of ecosystem restoration initiatives in the Florida Everglades. This research is important because governments and development organizations around the world are increasingly choosing ecosystem restoration as a means to rehabilitate degraded environments. The Florida Everglades is one of the most iconic ecosystem restoration projects. Garvoille’s research yielded several key project findings that enhance the field of cultural anthropology: Ecosystem restoration projects in the Florida Everglades are shaping complex individual and collective identities; Concepts like 'culture,' 'identity' and ‘sense of place’ are important to local stakeholders’ positions and claims in debates over Everglades ecosystem restoration projects; and It is important to understand the human history of, and local peoples’ claims to, the Florida Everglades in order to address contemporary conflicts over ecosystem restoration. Garvoille’s research had the following broader impacts: Contributed to the development of social science theories on the social dimensions and tradeoffs of ecosystem restoration projects. Contributed to the education and training of a woman in the social sciences. Generated findings that will help ecosystem restoration planners and affected communities better anticipate as well as respond to social and cultural effects of deliberate landscape transformation. Contributed to enhancing public understandings of social science by educating the public about the human dimensions of Everglades history and Everglades restoration.
