Views and Viewpoints
Political Ecology of Mountain Pastoralism in the Changing Environment of Alpine Slovenia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jaka Repic
I discuss the environmental changes and political ecology of mountain pastoralism in the north-western Slovenian Alps, i.e. how the local population perceives, shapes and appropriates the mountain environment and how they experience, imagine and cope with environmental and social changes, including (de)forestation, climate changes, new wildlife, but also the pressures of tourism. I specifically present the recently revived traditional forms of mountain pastoralism and cheese production and show how they adapt to perceived, imagined and experienced environmental changes.
Temporalities of Environmental Change through Human-animal Relations in Northeastern Iceland
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ana Svetel
Based on long-term ethnographic research, this paper focuses on how environmental changes reflect in and through human-animal relations. To address the width of these relations examples of interactions between people and domesticated (sheep, horses) and wild animals (birds, fish) will be presented. Moreover, the temporal and seasonal dimension will be emphasized as the relations between humans and other species often unfold through specific cyclical rhythms. The rupture of these rhythms and the corresponding shifts in human-animal co-habitation can offer an ethnographically-informed understanding of local perceptions and responses to changing environment.
