Search

Search Results

• 1. [Article] Migrant Remittances, Population Ageing and Intergenerational Family Obligations in Sri Lanka

  As Sri Lanka’s population ages, its migrant women face a difficult choice: should they work abroad to remit money to provision their families, or should they stay at home to look after elderly kin? Although ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Migrant Remittances, Population Ageing and Intergenerational Family Obligations in Sri Lanka Author: Gamburd, Michele Ruth Year: 2015 As Sri Lanka’s population ages, its migrant women face a difficult choice: should they work abroad to remit money to provision their families, or should they stay at home to look after elderly kin? Although numerous studies have explored migration’s effects on children, fewer works focus on issues of elder care. This essay presents contextualizing information on transnational migration from Sri Lanka and the rapid ageing that is transforming the country’s population structure from a pyramid with many youth and few elders into a column. Using qualitative ethnographic data gathered from a labour-sending village in southern Sri Lanka, this anthropological essay considers social priorities around remittances and intergenerational family obligations for care work. Villagers make decisions about allocating able-bodied family members’ labour based on key concepts of filial duty, combined with an analysis of a family’s financial and social resources and the vulnerabilities of its members based on their gender and age. Critiquing assumptions about elders’ lack of economic activity, the essay notes their key role in facilitating labour migration. The data reveal the importance of gender roles, educational achievements, and generational shifts in evaluating emerging practices. In the future, intergenerational family obligations to mutual care will persist despite population aging. But as extended families shrink and care work grows more demanding, choices between elder care and migrant remittances will become more challenging. Title: Migrant Remittances, Population Ageing and Intergenerational Family Obligations in Sri Lanka Author: Gamburd, Michele Ruth Year: 2015 As Sri Lanka’s population ages, its migrant women face a difficult choice: should they work abroad to remit money to provision their families, or should they stay at home to look after elderly kin? Although numerous studies have explored migration’s effects on children, fewer works focus on issues of elder care. This essay presents contextualizing information on transnational migration from Sri Lanka and the rapid ageing that is transforming the country’s population structure from a pyramid with many youth and few elders into a column. Using qualitative ethnographic data gathered from a labour-sending village in southern Sri Lanka, this anthropological essay considers social priorities around remittances and intergenerational family obligations for care work. Villagers make decisions about allocating able-bodied family members’ labour based on key concepts of filial duty, combined with an analysis of a family’s financial and social resources and the vulnerabilities of its members based on their gender and age. Critiquing assumptions about elders’ lack of economic activity, the essay notes their key role in facilitating labour migration. The data reveal the importance of gender roles, educational achievements, and generational shifts in evaluating emerging practices. In the future, intergenerational family obligations to mutual care will persist despite population aging. But as extended families shrink and care work grows more demanding, choices between elder care and migrant remittances will become more challenging. Close

• 2. [Article] The Making of Seaside’s “Indian Place”: Contested and Enduring Native Spaces on the Nineteenth Century Oregon Coast

  During the mid nineteenth century, non-Native settlement and activities disrupted and changed historic Chinook and Clatsop communities at the mouth of the Columbia River. Indian Place in what would be ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: The Making of Seaside’s “Indian Place”: Contested and Enduring Native Spaces on the Nineteenth Century Oregon Coast Author: Deur, Douglas Year: 2016 During the mid nineteenth century, non-Native settlement and activities disrupted and changed historic Chinook and Clatsop communities at the mouth of the Columbia River. Indian Place in what would be Seaside, Oregon, became home to a number of displaced peoples and an enclave where “the living gathered with the remains of the dead,” for “modest protection from the apocalyptic changes that so radically disrupted tribal lands, lives, and worldviews.” Douglas Deur documents tribal migration to the Indian Place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and calls attention to many of its significant early residents. Transitional communities such as Indian Place, Deur attests, “defined the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Native experience in northwestern Oregon and beyond.” While the Indian Place no longer exists, it remains an “important [conduit] for tribal cultural knowledge, values, and practices that endure today.” Title: The Making of Seaside’s “Indian Place”: Contested and Enduring Native Spaces on the Nineteenth Century Oregon Coast Author: Deur, Douglas Year: 2016 During the mid nineteenth century, non-Native settlement and activities disrupted and changed historic Chinook and Clatsop communities at the mouth of the Columbia River. Indian Place in what would be Seaside, Oregon, became home to a number of displaced peoples and an enclave where “the living gathered with the remains of the dead,” for “modest protection from the apocalyptic changes that so radically disrupted tribal lands, lives, and worldviews.” Douglas Deur documents tribal migration to the Indian Place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and calls attention to many of its significant early residents. Transitional communities such as Indian Place, Deur attests, “defined the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Native experience in northwestern Oregon and beyond.” While the Indian Place no longer exists, it remains an “important [conduit] for tribal cultural knowledge, values, and practices that endure today.” Close

• 3. [Article] A Minority Within a Minority: A Kurdish Refugee in Portland, Oregon

  This paper is a narrative approach to the experience of Kurdish refugees in Portland, Oregon, focusing specifically on the experiences of Nihad Abdul Rahman, a 40 year old Kurdish refugee born and raised ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: A Minority Within a Minority: A Kurdish Refugee in Portland, Oregon Author: Thomas, Seth Year: 2015 This paper is a narrative approach to the experience of Kurdish refugees in Portland, Oregon, focusing specifically on the experiences of Nihad Abdul Rahman, a 40 year old Kurdish refugee born and raised in Baghdad. Nihad arrived in Portland on January 18th, 2015, five years after beginning his refugee application process with the International Organization of Migration (personal communication, February 23, 2015). The qualitative nature of this paper is expressed through the indefinite article of the title: “A Kurdish Refugee.” Nihad receives refugee assistance from Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSN), a non-Profit NGO in Portland, Oregon that is one of the four local agencies contracted by the U.S. government to work with refugee populations. This paper uses theories of cross-cultural adaptation, ethnic group strength, and intercultural dialogue to contextualize the efforts of LCSN to combine services for the two distinct ethnic groups. The article concludes there is a great deal of potential within the Cultural Exchanges hosted by LCSN to make use of all three theories for more effective intercultural communication to the benefit of all attendees. Title: A Minority Within a Minority: A Kurdish Refugee in Portland, Oregon Author: Thomas, Seth Year: 2015 This paper is a narrative approach to the experience of Kurdish refugees in Portland, Oregon, focusing specifically on the experiences of Nihad Abdul Rahman, a 40 year old Kurdish refugee born and raised in Baghdad. Nihad arrived in Portland on January 18th, 2015, five years after beginning his refugee application process with the International Organization of Migration (personal communication, February 23, 2015). The qualitative nature of this paper is expressed through the indefinite article of the title: “A Kurdish Refugee.” Nihad receives refugee assistance from Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSN), a non-Profit NGO in Portland, Oregon that is one of the four local agencies contracted by the U.S. government to work with refugee populations. This paper uses theories of cross-cultural adaptation, ethnic group strength, and intercultural dialogue to contextualize the efforts of LCSN to combine services for the two distinct ethnic groups. The article concludes there is a great deal of potential within the Cultural Exchanges hosted by LCSN to make use of all three theories for more effective intercultural communication to the benefit of all attendees. Close

• 4. [Article] Stewarding Our Mountains: A Program Evaluation of Place-Based Service Learning on the Appalachian Trail

  Appalachians’ relationships with the environment alter over time due to political, economic, and ecological factors. These changing relationships, for instance rural agrarian livelihoods shifting to urban ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Stewarding Our Mountains: A Program Evaluation of Place-Based Service Learning on the Appalachian Trail Author: Harvey, Bonnie Jean Year: 2016 Appalachians’ relationships with the environment alter over time due to political, economic, and ecological factors. These changing relationships, for instance rural agrarian livelihoods shifting to urban contexts, can influence how an individual perceives personal responsibility in regional environmental stewardship, such as caring for and preserving local ecology. Observing that recent shifts resulted in less perceived youth stewardship for the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) created the Trail to Every Classroom (TTEC) program in 2006. The TTEC program attempts to foster stewardship through the practice of place-based service learning - a diversification of education where youth learn through community integrated lessons and local service projects. To date, the ATC had not completed an evaluation of their ability to engender stewardship in its participants. I interned with the ATC for ten weeks and conducted a utilization-focused program evaluation, framing my research questions within the ATC’s Theory of Change model and their organizational goal of creating AT stewardship in TTEC teachers, students, and trail partners. For my analysis I utilized a political ecology theoretical lens to place individuals within their political, economic, and ecological contexts which influence human-environment relationships and potentially individual levels of stewardship. My fieldwork utilized the following techniques: participant observation in TTEC communities (11 total); focus groups with TTEC teachers trained in 2015 (n=16), ATC staff (n=2), TTEC teacher alumni (n=3), and TTEC trail partners from local trail clubs (n=3); surveys from TTEC teachers trained in 2015 (n= 38); semi-structured/structured interviews with alumni TTEC teachers (n=28) and TTEC students (n=124); and TTEC trail partner surveys with local trail clubs and park employees (n=11). Based on the results, I argue that AT stewardship has yet to occur in research participants for three primary reasons: (1) TTEC participants face political, economic, and ecological barriers against accessing public lands and engaging in active, physical outdoor recreation; (2) TTEC participant communities are experiencing socio-economic transitions due to changing industries and migration patterns altering regional land values and human-environment relationships; and (3) the ATC employs an ecocentric (environmental sustainability) model for change while the communities operate within an anthrocentric (human development) model. This project serves as a program evaluation for TTEC’s ongoing organizational development and as a case study example of place-based service learning and environmental stewardship within changing Appalachian communities. Title: Stewarding Our Mountains: A Program Evaluation of Place-Based Service Learning on the Appalachian Trail Author: Harvey, Bonnie Jean Year: 2016 Appalachians’ relationships with the environment alter over time due to political, economic, and ecological factors. These changing relationships, for instance rural agrarian livelihoods shifting to urban contexts, can influence how an individual perceives personal responsibility in regional environmental stewardship, such as caring for and preserving local ecology. Observing that recent shifts resulted in less perceived youth stewardship for the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) created the Trail to Every Classroom (TTEC) program in 2006. The TTEC program attempts to foster stewardship through the practice of place-based service learning - a diversification of education where youth learn through community integrated lessons and local service projects. To date, the ATC had not completed an evaluation of their ability to engender stewardship in its participants. I interned with the ATC for ten weeks and conducted a utilization-focused program evaluation, framing my research questions within the ATC’s Theory of Change model and their organizational goal of creating AT stewardship in TTEC teachers, students, and trail partners. For my analysis I utilized a political ecology theoretical lens to place individuals within their political, economic, and ecological contexts which influence human-environment relationships and potentially individual levels of stewardship. My fieldwork utilized the following techniques: participant observation in TTEC communities (11 total); focus groups with TTEC teachers trained in 2015 (n=16), ATC staff (n=2), TTEC teacher alumni (n=3), and TTEC trail partners from local trail clubs (n=3); surveys from TTEC teachers trained in 2015 (n= 38); semi-structured/structured interviews with alumni TTEC teachers (n=28) and TTEC students (n=124); and TTEC trail partner surveys with local trail clubs and park employees (n=11). Based on the results, I argue that AT stewardship has yet to occur in research participants for three primary reasons: (1) TTEC participants face political, economic, and ecological barriers against accessing public lands and engaging in active, physical outdoor recreation; (2) TTEC participant communities are experiencing socio-economic transitions due to changing industries and migration patterns altering regional land values and human-environment relationships; and (3) the ATC employs an ecocentric (environmental sustainability) model for change while the communities operate within an anthrocentric (human development) model. This project serves as a program evaluation for TTEC’s ongoing organizational development and as a case study example of place-based service learning and environmental stewardship within changing Appalachian communities. Close