by Lieselot Vroom, Masters Student, Radboud Universiteit
Klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie
“Being outdoors, to walk and [to find] beautiful plants and butterflies and birds which apparently have found a place that is still intact. To experience that, I would find it a sin if that will shrink and impoverish even more”
The quote above came from a Dutch birder I spoke to, and expresses what EnviroCitizen is all about: ornithological citizen science is not just about collecting data, but a way for birders to be connected to nature and cherish birds. The EnviroCitizen project has recently started its second phase: studying current birding activities using ethnographic methods. In the past months, I have helped the Dutch team explore these methods and the theory of environmental citizenship as part of my Research Master Social and Cultural Science. I carried out an explorative research project involving online interviews with Dutch birders.
One of the key foci of EnviroCitizen is the concept of environmental citizenship. Therefore, one of the first challenges I had to tackle was the term environmental citizenship. This term, first used by Andrew Dobson[1], points our attention towards both certain anticipated attitudes and behaviour. For example, environmental citizens are expected to perform pro-environmental behaviour not only out of self-interest, but also out of an interest for the common good. Furthermore, they should be are aware of the impact of their private behaviour and therefore change their lifestyle in favour of the environment. As it is difficult to talk about such a theoretical concept as citizenship, it is important to translate it into terms suited for a conversation. Therefore, I had to make these broad notions more concrete and figure out how I could talk about this with the birders participating in my research.
This is why we arrived at the notion of care. Care can be expressed in two ways: to care about and to care for[2]. The attitudes of environmental citizenship can be translated into ‘care about’. A birder can care about their own interests, but also about the wellbeing of birds, their local landscape and the global environment. The actions this birder takes on the basis of these concerns are in turn translated into ‘care for’. This resulted into interview questions such as: ‘Do you see differences in the wellbeing of birds?’ ‘Do these differences result into a care for these birds?’ and ‘Do you undertake certain actions because of this care?’
These questions resulted in diverse stories, from which several interesting topics jumped out. First of all, birders explained that seeing differences in the wellbeing of birds is very difficult for an individual birder. However, they all confirmed that they are concerned about birds, mainly cultivated by reading articles on bird populations and protection. Some birders proved to possess bird knowledge comparable with ornithological experts. For example, the birder who took the photo above could tell extensive stories about every bird of prey species that occurs in the Netherlands. For almost all birders their concern is in turn connected to care about nature in a broad sense. For example, they are concerned about nature policies that try to manage wild nature too much. Furthermore, these birders act on their concerns as well. This care for nature is expressed in diverse ways, from eating less meat to giving workshops at primary schools. Furthermore, the birding groups are often times mentioned as a way to care for birds, for instance by influencing policies together. All in all, the birders in my research showed both a care about and a care for nature beyond birds alone.
The concept of care proved to be a useful manner of working with the concept of environmental citizenship, one that resonated well with birders. When discussing care about birds, the conversation almost always flowed naturally into the topic of care about nature in a broad sense. Furthermore, the birders I interviewed felt at ease to discuss the link between birding and care, even when asked about their own pro-environmental behaviour. Therefore, I recommend the concept of care to be used by everyone who wants to start a conversation about environmental citizenship, from researchers to policy makers to journalists. I would suggest asking about care also when talking to your fellow birders.
[1] Dobson, A. 2003. Citizenship and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press.
[2] Buch, E.D. 2015. “Anthropology of Aging and Care.” Annual Review of Anthropology 44:277-293.
