Photovoice Evaluated: An Appropriate Visual Methodology for Aboriginal Water Resource Research

Methodologies in human geography are rapidly evolving to include participatory approaches that incorporate other voices and knowledges. Central to these participatory methodologies is the co‐evolution of research objectives, the co‐production of knowledge, joint learning, and capacity building of all those involved. Visual methodologies that use the media of photography are gaining recognition as powerful participatory methods. In this paper, we evaluate whether photovoice is a culturally appropriate and engaging visual methodology, and consider how it can be improved to better facilitate research between non‐Aboriginal researchers and Aboriginal Australians involved in water resource management. We draw from two photovoice projects conducted in partnership with two separate Aboriginal groups in northern Australia. Photovoice methodology in this context was found to be both culturally appropriate and engaging. It facilitated genuine participatory research, empowered participants, and was easily adapted to the field situation. The methodology proved to be a powerful tool that revealed in‐depth information including Aboriginal values, knowledge, concerns, and aspirations for water resource management that may not have been captured through other participatory approaches. Photovoice methodology could be enhanced with a more defined role for the researcher as knowledge broker and as translator and communicator of research outcomes (as deemed appropriate by research participants) to policy makers.     

Australia's Indigenous Carbon Economy: A National Snapshot

Many Indigenous communities in Australia are well situated to provide greenhouse gas abatement and carbon sequestration benefits, but little is known about the factors affecting the capability of Australia's Indigenous organisations to participate in climate change mitigation strategies. This paper provides a ‘snapshot’ summary of certain aspects of Australia's Indigenous organisations' participation in carbon offset schemes. The snapshot provides insight into the degree to which Indigenous organisations are aware of carbon market opportunities in Australia, the level that these Indigenous organisations participate in or engage with carbon‐based economic enterprises, and the key pathways through which Indigenous carbon market opportunities are pursued. Analysis of data collected from a national survey conducted between 2011 and 2012 show that most obstacles to Indigenous participation in carbon offset schemes relate to land tenure arrangements; geographic and biophysical factors; low levels of requisite technical, human and financial resources; and appropriate recognition of Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsibilities. The snapshot also highlights the value of supporting regionally specific capacity‐building strategies to enable Indigenous people to participate in emerging carbon offset activities and the generation of associated ecosystem services. Cultural, socio‐economic or demographic factors that are also likely to influence the ability of many Indigenous communities to participate in carbon market opportunities are identified as important areas for further research.     

Communitas and the commons: The open access movement and the dynamics of restructuration in scholarly publishing

In this article, the author reflects on the open access movement as a social and political phenomenon via the lens of Turner’s work on liminality and communitas. Moving beyond the neo-liberalization frame, which is the primary way that the transformations in open access have been conceptualized to date, she argues that they are better understood as a product of the hybridizing relationship between structure and anti-structure. This perspective allows us to make sense of the open access movement’s seemingly paradoxical qualities, which, the author suggests, point to cultural processes still very much in the subjunctive mood.     

The Responsibility to Protect and the International Criminal Court: counteracting the crisis

The establishment of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) process and the International Criminal Court (ICC) were seen by many to constitute significant progress in the protection of human rights. However, these institutions are now in crisis, due in large part to their failure to prevent or prosecute recent acute human rights abuses in Syria. There have been two responses to this crisis: the first assumes that the crisis is caused by the current structures of international governance, in particular the power of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and calls for radical reform. The second sees possibilities within the current structure and advocates making R2P and the ICC more closely aligned under UNSC control. The article argues that both responses are mistaken and sets out an argument in favour of refocusing on the complementary nature of each institution. The Court's most successful actions have been in exercising the powers afforded by its complementary jurisdiction in situations such as Colombia. Similarly, R2P works more successfully at preventing conflict and changing expectations of acceptable state behaviour than it does at confronting situations in which large‐scale violence has begun. The article argues that the ICC and R2P should focus on ‘positive complementarity’ agendas, with the ICC devoting more resources to assisting states to build legal capacity in order to deter future conflict through stronger domestic criminal systems, and advocates of R2P focusing less on intervention in live conflict situations and more on building within states the capacity and resources to protect their own populations.