Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Creating spaces for negotiation at the environmental management and community development interface in Australia

Auteur : Maclean, Kirsten Marion Eileen

Université de soutenance : Australian National University

Grade : Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2007

Résumé partiel
There are ongoing debates in the contemporary environment and development literature regarding the role of scientific, local and indigenous participation in sustainable development initiatives. The debates have been critical of the supremacy of western scientific knowledge in such initiatives, with some academics asserting that science can be imperialistic, and its application can sometimes lead to social inequity and exclusion. In response, local and Indigenous knowledges have been offered as providing a panacea for all environment and development problems. This thesis argues that in Australia the meta-narrative of ecologically sustainable development is in fact unsustainable because it perpetuates the intra- and intergenerational inequalities that it is supposedly meant to overcome. This is because the metanarrative of ecologically sustainable development separates ways of knowing the world into dichotomies of self/other and universal scientific knowledge versus place-based local knowledge. The thesis argues that equitable and sustainable ecologically sustainable development is dependant upon moving beyond these dichotomies. The research questions what lies between the complex sets of knowledge of best practice environmental management at the local environmental management and community development interface in Australia. An investigation is conducted into the knowledge synergy that is, or indeed is not, occurring between government organisations, non-government organisations, local community groups and individuals involved with two environmental management and community development projects in Australia. One project works across interest groups to protect and enhance threatened species habitat in Victoria. The other project considers what it means to manage fire across different land tenures in the Northern Territory. These case studies act as points of access into the localised know ledge networks surrounding environmental governance and management in Australia. They give life to the thesis critique and relevance to the practical outcomes.

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