Stewardship Wiki

Literature Review

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:21:39 Z

I need to work out some technical bits on how to translate BibTex files into HTML so everything displays properly here.

[1] W. Berry. Home Economics: Fourteen Essays. North Point Press, San Francisco, 1987.
[2] W. Berry and N. Wirzba. The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry. Counterpoint, Washington, D.C., 2002.
[3] J. N. Black. The Dominion of Man: The Search for Ecological Responsibility. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1970.
[4] E. P. Eckholm. The Dispossessed of the Earth: land reform and sustainable development, volume 30. Worldwatch Institute, 1979.
[5] H. George. The Land Question, and Related Writings: Viewpoint and conterviewpoint on the need for land reform. R. Schalkenbach Foundation, New York, 1982.
[6] D. Green. To Colonize Eden: land and Jeffersonian democracy. Gordon and Cremonesi, 1977.
[7] J. McCarthy. Scotland: the land and its uses. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1994.
[8] D. N. McVean and J. D. Lockie. Ecology and Land Use in Upland Scotland. University Press, Edinburgh, 1969.

HomePage

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:38:56 Z

We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good for even us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behaviour toward the world—to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and everything in it. —Wendell Berry

This is what I hope will eventually become a resource for all things pertaining to Stewardship (whether that be stewardship of land, resources, society, or individuals). However, at the moment and till at least September 2008, it is more a public notebook of dissertation research. I am pursuing a MSc in Human Ecology through the Centre for Human Ecology at Strathclyde University. My research focuses on the concept and definition of the word “stewardship”.

Over the incoming months, as I research the topic, I will post various clippings and components here (mainly for the benefit of my collaborators and supervisors but also for anyone who might have interest in the concept). After the dissertation is submitted, I hope to use this data as the base for a more comprehensive wiki where resources are readily found and stewardship publicly discussed (for the moment, unlike most wikis, this one is closed and only edited by me).

If you’ve found this page because you have a personal or academic interest in stewardship, please contact me via e-mail jason[dot]nicholas@strath[dot]ac[dot]uk (replace the [dot] with actual dots). Also, though I’ll post most content relating to dissertation work here, I will also write about the process on my weblog (the wiki will consist mostly of academic content; the weblog entries will be my reflections on the process).

Contents
Proposal for the Dissertation
Literature Review
Links and Resources?

On content and copyright: Some of the material posted here will be copyrighted by the authors or publishers, so please do note references provided and follow academic standards for using the text. Most of what I write will be under creative commons licence unless otherwise noted. I may mention many authors in passing; however, I hope to write synopsis entries on them when practicable.

References

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:51:11 Z

I have not performed an extensive literature review at this time; I have scanned full-text web libraries and found what looks to be a goodly amount of material pertaining to the subject. I’ve read The Dominion of Man (Black, John Edinburgh University Press 1970) as a starting point for my research. Of course, most books on the environment touch on the subject so I expect to draw from a wide range of sources.

I am greatly influenced by the writings of Wendell Berry on this topic and expect to refer to him extensively (as well as the other “New Agrarian” authors). I hope to make some study of the stewardship of intimate spaces (I’m going to have to come up with a solid definition of “intimate spaces” but am generally meaning the small-scale natural surroundings one experiences daily); for this I will reference authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Derrick Jensen.

Resources

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:50:08 Z

I’m speaking with folk at the Centre for Stewardship in Fife concerning their need to refine a definition of stewardship and promote a model for the future. I have e-mailed and met with Ninian Stewart and Mike Small at the CfS and have an ongoing dialogue on what their needs are for research and what will be practical for me to undertake. They are very articulate and I think will be a great boon to my academic work (they will hold me accountable and make me a “steward of my words”). I also hope to pull commentary from the Centre For Human Ecology community as I would imagine many of them will have something to say on the topic. If possible, though this may be somewhat problematic, I would also like to speak with landlords in the UK to examine their thought on the evolving nature of estates management.

However, though I have to consider my time limits and scope of my research, I want to take care not to preach to the converted. I do want to explore how this concept is understood popularly; I’ll need to refer to what is happening in “the everyday world”.

Provisional Work Schedule

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:48:59 Z

I will need to discuss in more detail the schedule with the Centre for Stewardship but, very roughly, I plan to begin literature review shortly. I will be in the States the first half of June and hope to do some reading then. I will begin conducting interviews as soon as possible (perhaps the latter half of June). I would, ideally, have a draft of the dissertation by early August so I can see what needs to be added or revised.

Methodology

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:47:46 Z

At this time, I am presuming that most of my methodology will be based on literature research and some interviews. I am exploring the history of a concept and its current understanding among a group of people concerned with it (though, of course, part of my implicit argument is that everyone should be concerned with stewardship; I will attempt to explore the concept with those who define themselves as stewards as well as those who might assume they have no connexion with the term).

I plan to remain in Glasgow for the duration of my research with field trips as necessary. I am assuming I will become involved with the summer events held at the Centre for Stewardship (the Big Tent Festival, training, etc.).

Review of Literature

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:47:10 Z

My initial search for literature (on full-text electronic libraries) yields a huge array of resources; there are thousands of “weighty” books and articles on the topic. The literature review could potentially encompass all of written history as the topic has been relevant since the dawn of agriculture and the beginning of commerce and writing. However, as I have but 15,000 words to work with, I will need to focus narrowly for a manageable amount of research. As I will be working with a specific organisation in a particular place, it seems likely that my research will focus on the recent (past several hundred years, perhaps) of this place and the relation people have to it.

Justification

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:46:42 Z

I believe this is the central concept of environmental and social awareness. Without a clear understanding of our personal and civic responsibility to a given place, other considerations are somewhat moot. If I do not have a concept of how I can personally care for a place or hold others accountable, a broad range of social and environmental ills may befall it. I am also particularly interested on how religious belief informs environmental care. (What does belief call for an individual to accomplish concerning stewardship or what licence might it apparently give for the misuse of a place?)

Research Questions

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:46:08 Z

Is the concept of stewardship applicable for home, community, and the larger world or are there separate terms that would more appropriately describe each?
How might concept, as applies to land, translate to an individual’s understanding of stewardship for all things (and, by extension, care of self)?
How was the word “stewardship” understood by landholders, tenants, and city dwellers (in the Scottish context) in the past? (I will have to define a timeframe here but will examine what significant dates might make sense for a cut-off point; e.g. if a specific law was passed on a certain date that changed the way land was held and cared for, etc.)

Objectives

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:28:12 Z

The concept of stewardship has direct bearing on the way people care for (or neglect) the place they are in; depending on who is given stewardship and how people consider their responsibilities as stewards, a place can either flourish for all living things that depend on it or fall into disrepair. To make a broad generalisation, as people become less connected to a sense of place, stewardship of a particular place becomes less important. Though this might be a question to prove or disprove via research; I think it generally safe to assume that most people have little specific impetus for stewardship. Though the term is bandied about at all levels concerning the environment, I sense that most people have a poorly defined concept of stewardship at the median level (e.g. they may be good stewards of a household and have a fairly defined idea of the macro-environmental issues at hand; however, they may not fully grasp the issues surrounding their local water table, forest, or wildlife). I would propose that, without an understanding of this median level of stewardship, people cannot fully address the micro- and macro-environmental issues (whether the people in question are considered stewards themselves or are holding to account those who have been appointed as such).

The Centre for Stewardship in Falkland, Fife is working on a model of Stewardship (from the personal to large estate management) through its various training and awareness programs. I hope to supplement their work with a useful dissertation piece; we will work in collaboration on the research and I plan to be accountable to them through the process. When the research and writing is finished, the CfS has requested I present my findings in some manner of public forum and/or produce a version that is easily readable and accessible by their constituents. I also hope to rework the dissertation into a publishable article for a general audience (though, as the target audience of the dissertation is already broad, I hope to make it accessible from the outset). I hope to find, through research and writing of the dissertation, a sensible place to publish the material. (One option I am considering is using the material gathered for the foundations of an online forum or wiki where others could contribute their own thoughts and research on stewardship. The dissertation could then become the genesis of a larger collaborative work on the topic.)

Aims

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:27:04 Z

My primary aim is to produce a piece that will encourage individuals to consider his or her “responsibility to place”. I hope my reader will evaluate his or her “location”; in what domain does he or she exist and how does one positively contribute to or detract from this place?

There is an underlying question of individual power here; my assumption is that many people feel little responsibility to place because they are disconnected and disempowered. I would like to explore how, through the concept of stewardship, one might be brought back to both a connexion to place and implicit responsibility for its well-being (and, by extension, one’s own).

Scope

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:26:19 Z

This dissertation shall examine the history and current understanding of the word stewardship as it relates to land “under human care”. The primary consideration shall be who appoints stewards and to what end is their mandate for stewardship (e.g. are stewards appointed communally or self-selected from people who are concerned for the land under stewardship? Do we have a choice to become stewards or are we all, of necessity, stewards at some level?)

The secondary considerations are: What are the responsibilities of humans in relation to the land? Who are the benefactors of stewardship? What historical baggage does this word carry (specifically in Scotland)? How has the Christian concept of “dominion” shaped our current understanding of stewardship? How does one’s belief system inform the activity of stewardship? How does this play itself out in a multicultural, multi-faith society? How is the concept of stewardship evolving in the twenty-first century? With whom are we stewards (e.g. with only fellow humans or are we, in some way, co-stewards with the environment itself [ref. Gaia Theory])?

The topic is vast and will need careful paring for the limitations of this dissertation; it will only tangentially examine the secondary considerations listed above (though each of them could probably become a book-length work). I propose to mainly examine one’s personal obligation for stewardship and how that relates to a community.

Abstract

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:25:25 Z

The subject of land stewardship (and the broader topic of “environmental stewardship”) is a primary social and environmental issue. This dissertation explores the historical understanding of the word “stewardship” in the context of land management in Scotland. Further, the work examines the implications of the word and concept in the twenty-first century regarding individual and collective responsibility.

Proposal for the Dissertation

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:24:49 Z

We violated nature and, therefore, if nature is going to be set to rights we would begin by setting it to rights in our own domain. —Sir Roy Strong

Working title:
Defining Stewardship: Human Accountability and the Care of Place

The proposal is divided into sections; though my intent at the outset is to clearly define the scope and purpose of my research, it will no doubt evolve as the work progresses:
Abstract
Scope
Aims
Objectives
Research Questions
Justification
Review of Literature
Methodology
Provisional Work Schedule
Resources
References

JasonNicholas

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:16:04 Z

I am a storyteller speaking through writing, photography, and video (though my university degree is cinema production—so I welcome any opportunity to haul out the big stuff). I have international cross-cultural experience (no embarrassing client relations in Asia; a proven record of avoiding international incidents). I’ve worked everywhere from the interior of aircraft hangers to live orchestral performances to freezing exposed mountain passes to surgical suites in the Congo to the hyperghetto (not all in the same day). I’m rather quiet and have not once shouted at a client (neither do clients usually shout at me). My favourite poet is Edwin Arlington Robinson; my favourite author is debatable. I’m not excited by trendy techniques but by simple tools used well (I favour “old style” mechanical film cameras, though I’ve used everything from “top of the food chain” digital to pocket point and shoot). My first word as a child was “light” (really).

For the past several years I’ve made my living by producing short documentary and promotional pieces for non-profits and educational institutions. I’m now migrating away from that slightly and working more with words and ideas (however, I’m still open to picking up a camera).

From October 2006 till late Summer 2007 I was in the Czech Republic acting as European Communications Coordinator for BuildaBridge International; BI is non-profit based in Philadelphia that uses the arts to enrich the lives of people in the world’s most difficult situations.

While I still maintain connexions with BuildaBridge, I am now in Glasgow to pursue an MSc in Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde.

If you are interested in obtaining my services or would like to explore a partnership with either of the above organizations, please contact me at nicholas[dot]media@mac[dot]com (replace the [dot] with an actual dot).

To read more specifics on my work abroad and to support BuildaBridge, see this post

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:
Japan, Cuba, The Czech Republic, Spain, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Albania, The Netherlands, Germany, The Democratic Republic of the Congo

SERVICES:

Media and Concept Consultation
Writing and Content Development
Location Photography and Videography
Video Editing
Documentary Production