| This dissertation addresses the interplay of power, communication and ecology in resource management, and how to cross the boundaries created therefrom. Political ecology is the overarching perspective, informing geography as the study of human-nature power relations. My central theme is that power and knowledge are inevitably bound, with implications for the communication of ecological knowledge and the identities of communicators.; Political ecology is rooted in critical theory's preoccupation with understanding social life and furthering human emancipation. Its ultimate concern is with the marginalizing and privileging of knowledge. This is relevant to resource management oriented toward participation through communication to achieve equitable and sustainable outcomes. However, we lack frameworks for the critical analysis of how power and communication affect participation. A critical communication ethic uniting critical theory, political ecology, political economy, resource management and communication methodologies and methods from urban communicative planning and participatory (rural) appraisal guides such analysis.; The integration of these disparate elements leads to my two main research contributions. The first is my conceptual framework of the political ecology of communication; this addresses general societal concerns about marginality and power, and specific analytical problems in resource management, especially the need for concurrent social analysis in project process, design, and implementation. The second is my critical communicative methodology for resource management research and practice. The research context is a sustainable community fish farming project in a poor coastal village in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia that got mired by bad faith, misunderstanding, poor communication, and loss of trust. It also wasted natural resources in the form of a 10-hectare half-finished stream fish pond in mangrove forest.; Using ethnographic methods, I traced a story of communication amnesia and exclusion, communication discontinuity, cultures of affection and harmony that mask non-cooperation, mental helplessness, and pragmatic coping. Findings reveal multi-scale, embedded communication ecologies that create hierarchical and gendered communication flows and patterns, shaped by official structures such as government and agencies, informal structures such as education, wealth, and the economy, and communication environments with their dimensions in information technologies, communication formats and social activities. Communication ecologies allow the powerful to shape outcomes in resource management and the adoption of different types of knowledge. However, the weak are capable of strategic action and manipulation to create safe communication spaces. Individual and collective communication identities wield power to both enable and sabotage equitable outcomes.; My research seeks to counter power imbalances that sabotage outcomes. This is the purpose behind my general recommendations for proactive resource management, and my specific recommendations for regenerative action at the failed fish pond. The recommendations address resource management procedures, communicative designs, and the identification of communication identities who can act as social animators to help marginal groups realize their potential to help themselves, and to rewrite their stories. Identity is crucial because it conveys legitimate interests and legitimate knowledge. The messenger is integral to the message. |
