Academic CentreProject "Competing Discourses of Nature in Latvia and Ecological Solidarity as a Consensus Building Strategy" (NATURED)
Funding organisation: Latvian Council of Science
Project No.: lzp-2020/1-0304
Project implementer: University of Latvia (Faculty of History and Philosophy and Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences)
Project duration: 01.2021–31.12.2023
About the project:
The goal of the project is to analyse the possibility of models of ecological solidarity that are based on the understanding of the value of nature and exist in the situation of nature discourse plurality in Latvia. The diversity of nature discourses can contribute to conflicts between environmental policy makers and local communities or specific interest groups, as well as environmental policy makers themselves. These conflicts are exacerbated when, in the context of national populism, we have to address today's ecological problems, which are global in nature. However, the diversity of discourses does not exclude the possibility of ecological solidarity based on consensus on individual values and possibilities of particular environmental policies.
The project is an interdisciplinary study that belongs to the field of environmental humanities. It aims to combine the theoretical tools of philosophical analysis with the interdisciplinary methods of environmental and social geography. The project analyses the Latvian discourses of nature in general and three cases of competing discourses surrounding three specially protected nature areas: Gauja National Park, Ķemeri National Park and Pape Nature Park. The project aims to describe models of ecological solidarity that involve both the solidarity between local communities and their natural environment, and solidarity among different groups of people who place value on nature but also use different discourses of nature.
The aim of the project is to analyse different nature discourses in Latvia and the possibility of consensus building among users of different nature discourses, as well as to demonstrate that the ecological solidarity provides a foundation for a consensus building strategy even in the situation of discourse plurality.
In order to reach the goal of the project, four interrelated tasks were formulated:
- to describe the theoretical framework for analysing nature discourses and values implied in them;
- to explore the spectrum of competing nature discourses in Latvia;
- to study the value of nature and its competing discourses in the cases of Ķemeri National Park, Gauja National Park and Pape Nature Park;
- to formulate possible strategies for consensus building on the basis of ecological solidarity.