Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research for Planning Climate Change Adaptation Responses: The Example of Santiago de Chile

Abstract

This article gives insights into an inter- and transdisciplinary research approach designed to enhance the planning of climate change adaptation responses at urban-regional level. What makes interdisciplinary approaches to adaptation action unique is its ability to unravel the complexity of climate change and the interwoven processes it entails. It is the planning aspect here that makes stakeholder involvement crucial. Hence in contemporary climate change research the science-policy interface takes centre stage, generating response capacity and exchanging ‘usable’ information with decision-makers within the framework of a transdisciplinary approach. Climate action plans and climate adaptation strategies, for example, have the potential to unite sectors and levels of decision-making around an integrated planning approach. This article discusses the challenges and constraints of the inter- and transdisciplinary research approach developed for a Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile (MRS).     

Houses,Objects, and the Politics of Inheritance in Josep Maria de Sagarra's Vida privada

Josep Maria de Sagarra's novel Vida privada (1932) portrays an upper-class Catalan family, the Lloberolas, as unable to adapt to the new economic and political situation taking place in the city of Barcelona at the end of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship and at the beginning of the Second Republic in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Through a close reading of this family's houses, furniture, and personal belongings, I argue that material elements in this novel are central to the narrator's ethical critique and moral judgment of Barcelona's elite. The Lloberolas treat humans as objects and objects as humans, and I contend that, in an ironic emulation, the narrator also objectifies the Lloberolas and equates them with their objects. This comparison elucidates the family's superficiality and corrupted morals. Objects are also essential in destabilizing public and private boundaries because they often transcend the private domain and expose—to the readers and to the other inhabitants of Barcelona—the protagonists’ personality. Moreover, in Vida privada, houses, furniture, and surnames are understood as an inheritance that transfers very specific ideals of social status from parents to children. By presenting this material heritage with the exemplifying case of the Lloberola family, Sagarra offers a sharp critique of the Catalan upper classes and their superficial values. Their necessity to cling to an inherited world centered on material possessions finally results in their loss of power and evidences their economic and moral decline.     

A few bubbles more: The myntling register revisited

To conclude the debate between E.D. Jones and M.D. Bailey about the historical significance of the Myntling Register, we now print Dr Jones' reply to Dr Bailey's criticisms, in which he defends the use to which he has put the text.     

Moving from research ON,to research WITH and FOR Indigenous communities: A critical reflection on community‐based participatory research

Research projects conducted on Indigenous communities have largely been developed within a dominant Western research paradigm that values the researcher as knowledge holder and the community members as passive subjects. The consequences of such research have been marginalizing for Indigenous people globally, leading to calls for the decolonization of research through the development of Indigenous research paradigms. Based on a reflexive analysis of a five‐year partnership focused on developing capacity for tourism development in Lake Helen First Nation (Red Rock Indian Band), we offer a way of understanding the connection between Indigenous research paradigms and the western construct of community‐based participatory research as a philosophical and methodological approach to geography. Our analysis shows that researchers should continue to move away from methods that perpetuate the traditional ways of working ON Indigenous communities to methods that allow us to work WITH and FOR them, based on an ethic that respects and values the community as a full partner in the co‐creation of the research question and process, and shares in the acquisition, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge. Our reflection also shows that when research is conducted on a community, the main beneficiary is the researcher, when conducted with, both parties receive benefit, while research for the community may result in benefits mainly for the community. We further contend that any research conducted within a community, regardless of its purpose and methodology, should follow the general principles of Indigenous paradigms, and respect the community by engaging in active communication with them, seeking their permission not only to conduct and publish the research but also with respect to giving results of the research back in ways that adhere to community protocols and practices.     

“I spent the first year drinking tea”: Exploring Canadian university researchers’ perspectives on community‐based participatory research involving Indigenous peoples

Community‐based participatory research (CBPR) is generally understood as a process by which decision‐making power and ownership are shared between the researcher and the community involved, bi‐directional research capacity and co‐learning are promoted, and new knowledge is co‐created and disseminated in a manner that is mutually beneficial for those involved. Within the field of Canadian geography we are seeing emerging interest in using CBPR as a way of conducting meaningful and relevant research with Indigenous communities. However, individual interpretations of CBPR's tenets and the ways in which CBPR is operationalized are, in fact, highly variable. In this article we report the findings of an exploratory qualitative case study involving semi‐structured, open‐ended interviews with Canadian university‐based geographers and social scientists in related disciplines who engage in CBPR to explore the relationship between their conceptual understanding of CBPR and their applied research. Our findings reveal some of the tensions for university‐based researchers concerning CBPR in theory and practice.     

Burial containers – A hidden aspect of mortuary practices: Archaeothanatology at Ban Non Wat,Thailand

Research on mortuary practices has attracted a wide following for the role it can play in determination of individual social identity and population social structure. One aspect of mortuary practices that is rarely addressed, except where physical remnants are recovered, is the form of burial containers. Archaeothanatology is a taphonomically based methodology applied to infer the form of such containers when no material evidence remains. This paper shows how the archaeothanatological approach can be applied post hoc, with 133 adult burials from the prehistoric site of Ban Non Wat analyzed. Temporal changes in container form were expected as subsistence, technology, and social organization transformed over 1850 years. The deceased were predominantly loosely wrapped in non-durable material or placed in wide coffins, although individuals were buried in other contexts, with a peak in variety towards the end of the Bronze Age and early Iron Age. In combination with evidence from other sites in the area, our results identify a reduction in the variety of container forms used within sites in the mid to late Iron Age. We have shown the value of archaeothanatology as a contributor to research on mortuary practices, in particular having shown that it may be usefully applied post-excavation.     

Correspondencia privada e historia pública: las relaciones intelectuales de Pedro de Castro,Antonio de Herrera y el Inca Garcilaso

Este artículo analiza la correspondencia de Pedro de Castro y Quiñones con Francisco de Castro y Antonio de Herrera sobre las versiones históricas referentes a los hechos de su padre Cristóbal Vaca de Castro frente al gobierno del Perú. Demuestra que, con el propósito de modificar los términos de la crónica de Agustín de Zárate, Pedro de Castro supervisó directamente el texto de las Décadas de Herrera y, a través del jesuita Francisco de Castro, la versión sobre Vaca de Castro que aparece en la segunda parte de los Comentarios reales. La diferente relación del arzobispo con Herrera y Garcilaso —directa en el primer caso y mediata en el segundo— refleja la dispar autoridad de estos dos historiadores. A pesar de que esta intervención de Pedro de Castro se esconde a los ojos del lector, deja una huella tangible en la coincidencia de Herrera y Garcilaso en la escritura de la biografía del gobernador Vaca de Castro frente a la discrepancia de estos mismos cronistas en otros asuntos indianos. El estudio concluye mostrando la articulación que las historias de las Indias tenían en relación con numerosos problemas históricos, teológicos y políticos que se ventilaban entonces.     

Estimating the Number of Combatants during the Mixtón War in the Peñol de Nochistlán

Abstract

The objective of this article is to determine the number of combatants in the Mixtón War (1541–42), one of the most important military confrontations of the early years of the vice-royalty in Western Mexico, by analysing the Peñol de Nochistlán. To this end, information provided by historians has been compared with the population estimates established from the density of settlements known from archaeological evidence in order to define the area occupied by the armies involved in the conflict. This exercise resulted in a shifting array of spaces that could have been used by the combatants during confrontations. However, it will enable more intense archaeological prospecting in the area around the site of El Tuiche — the place identified as the Peñol of Nochistlán — revealing new evidence of the events that occurred on this battlefield.