Project Narratives: Investigating Participatory Conservation in the Peruvian Andes

This article shares findings from a participatory assessment study of a community-based environmental monitoring project in the Peruvian Andes. The objective of the project was to generate evidence to support sustainable livelihoods through participatory knowledge generation. With the use of narrative framing, the study retrospectively reconstructs the project's trajectory as perceived by the three stakeholder groups: the community, the researchers, and the implementing NGO. This analysis reveals discrepancies between the stakeholder groups both in their view of the course of events and their understanding of the purpose of the intervention. However, while the storylines depict differing project trajectories, they often agree in terms of long-term goals. The study also uncovers some neglected positive externalities that are of considerable significance to local stakeholders. These include community-to-community knowledge transfer, inter-generational knowledge sharing and ecosystem knowledge revival. The article illustrates how assumptions and expectations about participatory projects are encapsulated in narratives of positive change despite the limited level of agreement among stakeholders about what such a change should comprise. It sheds light on development narratives and their power to shape stakeholders’ perceptions in accordance with their beliefs and priorities. This is of special importance for ecosystem governance projects, which are sensitive to normative differences and subject to competing claims.     

The Concept of Truth in the Komi Hunting Stories

Abstract

We analyse the Komi hunters' story-telling as the integrated way of knowledge transmission and communicating vernacular beliefs. We intend to demonstrate that although vernacular beliefs regulating hunting story-telling are widespread in the North, local practices enable us to reveal peculiarities of the tradition in a nuanced way. Our study is based on annual collaborative fieldwork trips to the Komi hunters, which began in 1996. During these years, we have recorded tens of hours of hunting stories and background data for the topic. Analysis of this material is based on the concept of vernacular mimetic mode of representation. We revealed that the Komi narrators communicate hunting skills and magical beliefs in the process of story-telling. The notion of “truth” is an important conceptual device that frames the story-telling practice. We discuss the Komi hunting narratives using an interpretation of vernacular ideology that we label the “aesthetics of confusion”. We will argue that in the vernacular understanding of hunting narratives, the Komi have a seemingly ambivalent and fluid, but at the same time strict, approach to the poetics of story-telling.