Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Naming, Framing, and Blaming: Exploring Ways of Knowing in the Deceptively Simple Question “What is Water Quality?”

  • Published:
Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Water quality is a persistent problem despite decades of regulation. Theory suggests that more successful outcomes may occur if the assumption of a shared definition of the problem is questioned. This study explores whether different definitions may arise out of diverse ways of knowing and the implications including this diversity may have for policymaking. Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this research documents the perspectives of experiential knowledge in a fishing community in North Carolina, academic knowledge in the scientific community, and political knowledge in the management community. Results show that beginning with definition, these perspectives differ in framing water quality issues, laying responsibility, and delineating potential solutions. Those who can communicate between knowledge groups emerged as a particularly important, yet shrinking, group in establishing trust. Efforts to solve water quality issues in the future would benefit by incorporating these perspectives and fostering boundary-spanning for a more comprehensive view of water quality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, W. M., et al. (2003). Managing tragedies: understanding conflict over common pool resources. Science 302(5652): 1915–1916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ainsworth, C. H., Pitcher, T. J., and Rotinsulu, C. (2008). Evidence of fishery depletions and shifting cognitive baselines in Eastern Indonesia. Biological Conservation 141(3): 848–859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderies, J. M., Janssen, M. A., and Ostrom, E. (2004). A framework to analyze the robustness of social-ecological systems from an institutional perspective. Ecology And Society 9(1).

  • Bales J.D. et al. (2003). OFR 04-1025: North Carolina District Science Plan, Available at: http://nc.water.usgs.gov/reports/ofr041025/report.html.

  • Berkes, F. (2009). Evolution of co-management: role of knowledge generation, bridging organizations and social learning. Journal of environmental management 90(5): 1692–1702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borowski, I., and Hare, M. (2006). Exploring the gap between water managers and researchers: difficulties of model-based tools to support practical water management. Water Resources Management 21(7): 1049–1074.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, V.A., Harris, J.A., and Russell, J.Y. (2010). Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination, Earthscan.

  • Buizer, M., Arts, B., and Kok, K. (2011). Governance, Scale and the Environment: The Importance of Recognizing Knowledge Claims in Transdisciplinary Arenas. Ecology And Society

  • Bunch, M. J., et al. (2011). Promoting Health and Well-Being by Managing for Social—Ecological Resilience : the Potential of Integrating Ecohealth and Water Resources. Ecology And Society 16(1).

  • Burkholder, J. M., et al. (1992). New “Phantom” Dinoflagellate is the Causative Agent of Major Estuarine Fish Kills. Nature 358(6385): 407–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, L. M., and Meletis, Z. A. (2011). Agreement on water and a watered-down agreement: The political ecology of contested coastal development in Down East, North Carolina. Journal of Rural Studies 27(3): 308–321. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.06.002.

  • Charmaz, K., Denzin, N.K., and Lincoln, Y.S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks.

  • Clement, F. (2009). Analysing Decentralised Natural Resource Governance: Proposition for a “Politicised” Institutional Analysis and Development Framework. Policy Sciences 43(2): 129–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, H. M., and Evans, R. (2002). The Third Wave of Science Studies: Studies of Expertise and Experience. Social Studies of Science 32(2): 235–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Courtemanch, D. L., Davies, S. P., and Laverty, E. B. (1989). Incorporation of Biological Information in Water Quality Planning. Environmental Management 13(1): 35–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairhead, J., and Leach, M. (2003). Science, society and power: environmental knowledge and policy in West Africa and the Caribbean. Cambridge Univ Pr.

  • Fischer, F. (2002). Citizens, Experts, and the Environment: The Politics of Local Knowledge. Planning Theory & Practice 3(2): 249–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth, T. (2003). Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science, Psychology Press.

  • Fortmann, L., and Ballard, H. (2009). Sciences, Knowledges, and the Practice of Forestry. European Journal of Forest Research, pp. 1–11.

  • Gardner, H., and Hatch, T. (1989). Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Educational Researcher, 18(8): 4–10. doi:10.3102/0013189X018008004.

  • Garrity-blake, B.J., and Nash, B. (2007). An Inventory of North Carolina Fish Houses.

  • Gerhardinger, L. C., Godoy, E. a. S., and Jones, P. J. S. (2009). Local ecological knowledge and the management of marine protected areas in Brazil. Ocean & Coastal Management 52(3–4): 154–165. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2008.12.007.

  • Graham, M. H., and Dayton, P. K. (2002). ON THE EVOLUTION OF ECOLOGICAL IDEAS : Paradigms and the Scientific Process. Ecology 83(6): 1481–1489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hinton, D. (1998). CALFED Phase II Interim Report: Watershed Management.

  • Hotchkiss, A. K., et al. (2008). Fifteen Years After “Wingspread”–Environmental Endocrine Disrupters and Human and Wildlife Health: Where we are Today and Where we Need to go. Toxicological Sciences: An Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology 105(2): 235–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huntington, H. P. (2000). Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: Methods and applications. Ecological Applications 10(5): 1270–1274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, T. R. (2010). Cooperative Research and Knowledge Flow in the Marine Commons. International Journal of the Commons 4(1): 251–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, T. R. (2011). Fishermen, Scientists, and Boundary Spanners: Cooperative Research in the U.S. Illex Squid Fishery. Society & Natural Resources 24(3): 242–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kearney, J., et al. (2007). The Role of Participatory Governance and Community-Based Management in Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management in Canada. Coastal Management 35(1): 79–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, A. A., and Cavallaro, L. (2008). Assessing the US Clean Water Act 303(d) Listing Process for Determining Impairment of a Waterbody. Journal of Environmental Management 86(4): 699–711.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreuter, M. W., De Rosa, C., Howze, E. H., and Baldwin, G. T. (2004). Understanding wicked problems: a key to advancing environmental health promotion. Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education 31(4): 441–54. doi:10.1177/1090198104265597.

  • McCormick, S. (2007). Democratizing Science Movements: A New Framework for Mobilization and Contestation. Social Studies of Science 37(4): 609–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, T. (2005). Appendix B1: Coastal Habitat Protection Plan Meeting Data Analysis.

  • Mirabilio, S., 2005. Utilization of Cultural Models and Collaborative Learning to Advance Management of the North Carolina Blue Crab Fishery., (NRLI 04 Practicum Report), p.18.

  • Nadasdy, P. (1999). The Politics of TEK: Power and the“Integration” of Knowledge. Arctic Anthropology 1–18.

  • Neis, B., et al. (1999). Fisheries Assessment: What can be Learned from Interviewing Resource Users? Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56(10): 1949–1963.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osborne, L. L., and Kovacic, D. A. (1993). Riparian vegetated buffer strips in water-quality restoration and stream management. Freshwater Biology 29(2): 243–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osterblom, H., et al. (2010). Adapting to regional enforcement: fishing down the governance index. PloS one 5(9): e12832.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pahl-Wostl, C. (2006). Transitions towards adaptive management of water facing climate and global change. Water Resources Management 21(1): 49–62. doi:10.1007/s11269-006-9040-4.

  • Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods (p. 598). SAGE. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=FjBw2oi8El4C&pgis=1.

  • Rathwell, K. J., and Peterson, G. D. (2012). Connecting Social Networks with Ecosystem Services for Watershed Governance: a Social-Ecological Network Perspective Highlights the Critical Role of Bridging Organizations. Ecology and Society 17(2): 24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raymond, C. M., Fazey, I., Reed, M. S., Stringer, L. C., Robinson, G. M., and Evely, A. C. (2010). Integrating local and scientific knowledge for environmental management. Journal of environmental management 91(8): 1766–77. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.03.023.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, W. V. (2004). Bridging the science-policy divide. PLoS biology 2(2): E27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ringquist, E. J. (1995). Political Control and Policy Impact of Water Quality in EPA’ s Office. American Journal of Political Science1 39(2): 336–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, P. (2006). The Politics of Barstool Biology: Environmental Knowledge and Power in Greater Northern Yellowstone. Geoforum 37(2): 185–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, C. J., and Wallington, T. J. (2012). Boundary Work: Engaging Knowledge Systems in Co-management of Feral Animals on Indigenous Lands. Ecology and Society 17(2).

  • Roux, D.J., et al. (2006). Bridging the Science—Management Divide: Moving from Unidirectional Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Interfacing and Sharing 11(1).

  • Ruhl, L., et al. (2010). Environmental Impacts of the Coal Ash Spill in Kingston, Tennessee: An 18-Month Survey. Environmental science & technology 44(24): 9272–9278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schumann, S. (2011). Navigating the Knowledge Interface: Fishers and Biologists Under Co-Management in Chile. Society & Natural Resources 24(11): 1174–1188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Street, M.W. et al. (2005). Coastal Habitat Protection Plan.

  • Swyngedouw, E. (2004). Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of Power. Oxford University Press, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torkar, G., and McGregor, S. L. T. (2012). Reframing the conception of nature conservation management by transdisciplinary methodology: From stakeholders to stakesharers. Journal for Nature Conservation 20(2): 65–71. doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2011.10.002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, P. (1995). Fisher Scientists: The Reconstruction of Scientific Discourse. Human Organization 54(4): 429–436.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, B. (1992). Chapter 19: Water Quality in the South. In Southern Forest Resource Assessment: Summary Report. pp. 455–479

  • West, S., and Garrity-Blake, B. (2003). Fish House Opera. Mystic Seaport, Mystic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D. C. (2003). Examining the Two Cultures Theory of Fisheries Knowledge: The Case of the Northwest Atlantic Bluefish. Society & Natural Resources 16(6): 491–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the Ramus Fund and the Social Science and Humanities Summer Fellowship for funding. This study would not have been possible without numerous respondents donating their time, especially those who allowed me to shadow them.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California Ocean Science Trust, Oakland, CA, USA

    Amy Freitag

Authors
  1. Amy Freitag
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy Freitag.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Freitag, A. Naming, Framing, and Blaming: Exploring Ways of Knowing in the Deceptively Simple Question “What is Water Quality?”. Hum Ecol 42, 325–337 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9649-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9649-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation