Page 1 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 1 of 388 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
Subset |
HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF URBAN BIODIVERSITY: ANIMALORIENTED
ORGANIZATIONS AS INFLUENCES ON HUMANAVIAN
RELATIONS
by
Mona Seymour
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(GEOGRAPHY)
August 2010
Copyright 2010 Mona Seymour
Object Description
| Title | Human dimensions of urban biodiversity: animal-oriented organizations as influences on human-avian relations |
| Author | Seymour, Mona |
| Author email | monaseym@usc.edu; monaseymour@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Geography |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2010-06-24 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-07-13 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Wolch, Jennifer |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Sloane, David Longcore, Travis |
| Abstract | Local animal-oriented organizations are an understudied urban sector, though research indicates that these groups play important roles in shaping how the urban public perceives wildlife and environmental issues and in nurturing wildlife-oriented practices. The lifestyle and political decisions that members of the public make can have considerable ramifications for biodiversity in and outside of urban regions. As deleterious human impacts on the environment continue and as urban populations become increasingly dissociated from the knowledge of what a healthy, functioning ecosystem looks like, it becomes increasingly important to comprehend how these organizations operate and who they reach. This dissertation focuses on organizations devoted to birds, a taxon around which much conservation concern, environmental education, and rehabilitation efforts exist due to the widespread presence of birds in urban areas. It inquires how these organizations relate to the urban public and what the implications of these relations are for urban nature-society relations.; The dissertation approaches these general questions through a set of specific objectives. Much of the project focuses on Los Angeles County. The first objective examines newspaper coverage of bird-related issues in order both to comprehend contemporary human-avian relations in the county and the nature of attitudes toward birds. Findings suggest that conservation issues and recreational pursuits involving birds have high salience to Los Angeles, and that these interests are strongly oriented toward native birdlife. The dissertation then turns to bird-oriented organizations operating in the county to inquire about the degree to which these groups engage populations not traditionally involved in the mainstream environmental and animal protection movements, finding that the degree to which these groups have approached non-traditional populations is variable. Groups tend to locate their programs in white, higher-income areas, and tend to interface with lower-income populations and populations of color incidentally, if at all. The following objective, however, focuses on one of the organizations with an explicit interest in approaching a low-income Latino community. It examines this group as a model for dovetailing mainstream environmental and environmental justice objectives, concluding that the organization’s project may be seen as a model of “just sustainability,” although the group has experienced challenges with credibility and visibility in the community. Finally, the dissertation turns to a bird-oriented advocacy group in the New York City metropolitan area to examine its work in integrating a nonnative bird population into the urban landscape and state law. The chapter has particular interest in how the advocates’ campaign engaged with the bird’s nonnative origins in its rhetoric, finding that they were sometimes downplayed, sometimes used to curry sympathy, and sometimes used to fashion the exotic birds as a desirable addition to the urban landscape.; Broadly, the dissertation suggests the uneven relations with the urban public demonstrated by L.A. bird-oriented groups reproduce nature-society relations in the city by failing to reach communities with less exposure to biodiverse environments and perhaps less interest in wildlife conservation; and that the tendency of some of the organizations to draw on or cultivate place attachment and place-based identity may serve to draw animals into a place-based moral community. |
| Keyword | animal geography; birds; Los Angeles; environmental movement; non-profits |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | New York City |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California; New York |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3189 |
| Rights | Seymour, Mona |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Seymour-3862 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume32/etd-Seymour-3862.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF URBAN BIODIVERSITY: ANIMALORIENTED ORGANIZATIONS AS INFLUENCES ON HUMANAVIAN RELATIONS by Mona Seymour A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (GEOGRAPHY) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Mona Seymour |
Comments
Post a Comment for Page 1
