Working with Nature in Aotearoa New Zealand: An Ethnography of Coastal Protection (Culture and Social Practice)

Working with Nature in Aotearoa New Zealand: An Ethnography of Coastal Protection (Culture and Social Practice)
by: Friederike Gesing (Author)
Publisher: transcript publishing
Publication Date: 2016/10/18
Language: English
Print Length: 356 pages
ISBN-10: 3837634469
ISBN-13: 9783837634464
Book Description
Working with nature - and not against it - is a global trend in coastal management. This ethnography of coastal protection follows the increasingly popular approach of "soft" protection to the Aotearoa New Zealand coast. Friederike Gesing analyses a political controversy over hard and soft protection measures, and introduces a growing community of practice involved in projects of working with nature. Dune restoration volunteers, coastal management experts, surfer-scientists, and Maori conservationists are engaged in projects ranging from do-it-yourself erosion control, to the reconstruction of native nature, and soft engineering "in concert with natural processes". With soft protection, Gesing argues, we can witness a new sociotechnical imaginary in the making.
About the Author
Working with nature - and not against it - is a global trend in coastal management. This ethnography of coastal protection follows the increasingly popular approach of "soft" protection to the Aotearoa New Zealand coast. Friederike Gesing analyses a political controversy over hard and soft protection measures, and introduces a growing community of practice involved in projects of working with nature. Dune restoration volunteers, coastal management experts, surfer-scientists, and Maori conservationists are engaged in projects ranging from do-it-yourself erosion control, to the reconstruction of native nature, and soft engineering "in concert with natural processes". With soft protection, Gesing argues, we can witness a new sociotechnical imaginary in the making. Read more