Journal Articles by Benedict Singleton
Sport in Society, 2024
This article investigates the processes of group formation. Utilising a ritual framework, it look... more This article investigates the processes of group formation. Utilising a ritual framework, it looks at how the Sweden Touch (rugby) team formed and bonded together to compete in the 2022 European Championships. Based on autoethnographic data, I focus on the role of rituals in bonding players as a group within Team Sweden and with the wider Touch community, contributing to creation of the space within which matches took place. This space is analysed with Mary Douglas-derived theory of sociocultural viability. Utilising the theory's typology of social solidarities, I track the changing forms of social relations within the groups. I argue that the player-group was initially structured as an individualist network, which morphed into a hierarchical group through the actions of participants. Subsequently, an alternative egalitarian social organisation manifested among players, at times contesting the dominant social orderings. These changes are observable in the ritual activities of the player group.
Environmental Policy and Governance, 2023
Cities are important sites for societal transitions towards sustainability, which is increasingly... more Cities are important sites for societal transitions towards sustainability, which is increasingly recognised around the issue of biodiversity conservation and protection. However, cities are often characterised by the need to develop and grow. Furthermore, efforts to promote sustainable development have been criticised as failing to
Cities, 2023
Parris et al.'s seven lamps (principles) of planning for biodiversity in the city (2018) provides... more Parris et al.'s seven lamps (principles) of planning for biodiversity in the city (2018) provides a framework for achieving two objectives. Firstly, to alter the normative basis on which urban planning is predicated by integrating a concern for nonhuman inhabitants. Secondly, it argues for the greater enrolment of ecologists and the field of ecology within environmental planning. It seeks to encourage a paradigm-shift to reorient society on a more sustainable path by demonstrating that planning for more-than-human cities does not require a conceptual leap, rather it resonates with extant planning concerns. It thus takes a pragmatic approach to radical change. However, I argue that this framework as originally stated insufficiently considers the diversity of society or the field of ecology and entails an anthropocentric worldview. This undermines the lamps framework's radical agenda. I argue that this issue could be ameliorated by developing two further principles, Justice and Contact. Integrating these concerns into the lamps framework will strengthen its ability to contribute to efforts to transition society into a sustainable state.
Ethnobiology Letters, 2023
Many conservation researchers and practitioners argue that knowledges traditionally conceptualize... more Many conservation researchers and practitioners argue that knowledges traditionally conceptualized as nonacademic are useful for guiding environmental decision-making and stewardship. As demonstrated by the articles in this special issue, bringing Indigenous and local knowledges to bear on environmental conservation requires forging new relationships and, de facto, new political arrangements. In this article, we seek to clarify what is at stake in such efforts to change (or maintain) what counts as knowledge by applying rubbish theory to the volume’s case studies. Redrawing the boundaries of what counts as conservation knowledge in engagements between academic researchers and practitioners
trained to “do conservation” according to western science traditions, on the one hand, and Indigenous peoples and local communities who possess knowledge generated in non-academic contexts, on the other, effects demarcations of expertise and so challenges existing social hierarchies. Unsurprisingly, tension emerges about how far such changes should go. By increasing awareness of the relationship between (re)defining knowledge and (re)configuring social and political hierarchies, we hope to make it easier for participants to manage such collaborations.
Ethnobiology Letters, 2023
Many scientists and environmental activists argue that the scale and scope of contemporary conser... more Many scientists and environmental activists argue that the scale and scope of contemporary conservation must- increase dramatically if we are to halt biodiversity declines and sustain a healthy planet. Yet conservation as currently practiced has faced significant critique for its reliance on reductionist science, advocacy of “fortress”-like preservation measures that disproportionately harm marginalized communities, and integration into the global capitalist system that is the root cause of environmental degradation. The contributions to this special issue, developed from a panel at the Anthropology and Conservation conference co-hosted by the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Society of Ethnobiology in October 2021, collectively argue for what we, borrowing from Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies framework, call “doing conservation differently.” By bringing marginalized, hidden, and alternative conservation activities to
light, researchers can contribute, in the spirit of Gibson-Graham’s work, to making these diverse conservations more real and credible as objects of policy and activism. This special issue contributes to inventorying the diverse conservations that already exist, which opens new spaces for ethical intervention and collective action.
Sustainability Science, 2022
In a recent opinion article, sustainability researcher Örjan Bodin claims that a shift leftward i... more In a recent opinion article, sustainability researcher Örjan Bodin claims that a shift leftward in sustainability science has rendered certain topics and research methods taboo, thus inhibiting the field’s ability to contribute to achieving Agenda 2030. In this response, we problematise Bodin’s framing of sustainability science, arguing he has misrepresented the field as “normal” rather than acknowledging its unparadigmatic character. It is precisely the unparadigmatic character of sustainability sciences (plural emphasised) that allows the field to begin addressing the wicked problems of our time. The question is then how to “disagree well” and assure quality in this unparadigmatic field.
Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society, 2022
Teaching Anthropology, 2022
Reflexivity is a hallmark of good ethnography and many consider it a defining characteristic of a... more Reflexivity is a hallmark of good ethnography and many consider it a defining characteristic of anthropology. It is thus surprising that anthropologists have not paid more attention to how we teach students to be reflexive. Many of us learn reflexivity by making mistakes in the field, yet discussions of anthropological faux pas and their potential contributions to reflexive learning are typically limited to informal settings and occluded or heavily curated within our research outputs. In this article we employ analytic tools from the theory of sociocultural viability, in particular the notions of clumsiness, elegance, and uncomfortable knowledge, to contribute to developing a more explicit pedagogy of reflexivity. Since reading ethnographies plays a major role in how we teach anthropology, we argue that anthropologists should do more in their publications to highlight how awkward moments can deepen reflexivity. To advance this agenda, we provide cases of uncomfortable knowledge drawn from our own field experiences, highlighting how the social, emotional and embodied awkwardness of each situation contributed to acquiring reflexive insights. This article is thus a call to initiate prospective researchers earlier into the messy backstage of anthropological research, including by clarifying how the embodied and affective aspects of our interactions offer potential for deepening reflexive knowledge. In the hopes of facilitating the development of our pedagogies of reflexivity, we conclude the text with four recommendations that we feel will encourage reflexive learning from awkward fieldwork encounters.
The Anthropocene Review, 2021
Culture and tradition have long been the domains of social science, particularly social/cultural ... more Culture and tradition have long been the domains of social science, particularly social/cultural anthropology and various forms of heritage studies. However, many environmental scientists whose research addresses environmental management, conservation, and restoration are also interested in traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous and local knowledge, and local environmental knowledge (hereafter TEK), not least because policymakers and international institutions promote the incorporation of TEK in environmental work. In this article, we examine TEK usage in peer-reviewed articles by environmental scientists published in 2020. This snapshot of environmental science scholarship includes both critical discussions of how to incorporate TEK in research and management and efforts to do so for various scholarly and applied purposes. Drawing on anthropological discussions of culture, we identify two related patterns within this literature: a tendency toward essentialism and a tendency to minimize power relationships. We argue that scientists whose work reflects these trends might productively engage with knowledge from the scientific fields that study culture and tradition. We suggest productive complicity as a reflexive mode of partnering, and a set of questions that facilitate natural scientists adopting this approach: What and/or who is this TEK for? Who and what will benefit from this TEK deployment? How is compensation/credit shared? Does this work give back and/or forward to all those involved?
Journal of Political Ecology, 2021
The political ecological study of environmental issues is often concerned with the interactions o... more The political ecological study of environmental issues is often concerned with the interactions of diverse actors, leading to accounts of different, conflicting worldviews. While different epistemological and ontological standpoints are covered, there is consensus that environmental issues are simultaneously social and material, and that worldviews differ. In this article, I argue Michael Thompson's rubbish theory can be usefully employed to compare and contrast environmental perspectives ultimately rooted in conflicting epistemological and ontological understandings of a situation. Rubbish theory describes the categorization of objects into durables, transients and rubbish, and movements between these categories. Rubbish theory focuses on how objects are restricted in their movement and how this reflects the distribution of power and status in society. Two aspects of a society may then be assessed: 1) its value system, and 2) the extent to which different groups may alter that value system. Dynamic changes in these two aspects are then traceable. As an example of extant environmental conflicts rooted in different worldviews, this article focuses on historic and contemporary issues around the consumption of whale meat. Focusing upon whaling and whale-watching, I argue that historic and contemporary conflicts manifest different orderings and that these comprise different epistemological standpoints, which as value systems are comparable within rubbish theory.
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2021
Climate change effects, views and approaches vary based on geographical location, class, gender, ... more Climate change effects, views and approaches vary based on geographical location, class, gender, age and other climate related social factors. It is thus relevant to explore how various government bodies/authorities involved in dealing with climate change represent and act on social difference across diverse societies. This article performs a discourse analysis of climate policy documents from three Swedish government agencies: the Transport Administration, the Energy Agency, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This in order to explore how the different agencies represent social difference: what is made visible; what is obscured; what are the impli-cations? We collected a purposive, collated sample of literature through online searches and personal communications with agency staff. We apply an intersectional approach to the sampled literature. The article finds that while each agency articulates an awareness of social difference, this tends to manifest in broad terms. It argues that this has the effect of obscuring differential climate impacts and effects of climate action, with potential environmental justice implications. Finally, the article concludes by proposing that incorporating intersectional approaches will support more effective, inclusive and equitable climate action, in Sweden and elsewhere.
Fennia. International Journal of Geography, 2020
Migration is a prominent topic in many European societies, spawning numerous initiatives aiming t... more Migration is a prominent topic in many European societies, spawning numerous initiatives aiming to help ‘integrate’ newcomers. One subsection of these initiatives in Nordic countries is ‘Nature-Based Integration’ (NBI). Varied in scope, NBI involve activities where newcomers engage in activities in local natural environments. This article analyses NBI in Örebro County, central Sweden. It utilises the Mary Douglas derived theory of socio-cultural viability (cultural theory) in order to examine the group dynamics and related narratives found within observed activities. Utilising cultural theory’s fourfold typology of social solidarities, the NBI observed were characterised as a combination of egalitarianism and hierarchy, with the other two, individualism and fatalism, considerably less prominent. This has consequences for the relevance of NBI to newcomers’ lives – the initiatives’ ‘success’ as far as participants are concerned will relate to whether NBI compliment or conflict with institutional narratives in the other, much larger, parts of their lives. The collected data suggest that narratives of individualism are arguably not as prominent in NBI as in the lives of newcomers and Swedes using nature. This article thus represents a first step in understanding NBI’s impact in the complex situations newcomers find themselves.
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2020
'Nature-Based Integration' (NBI) has been proposed as a solution to two prominent issues in conte... more 'Nature-Based Integration' (NBI) has been proposed as a solution to two prominent issues in contemporary Nordic societies: increasing separation from nature among 'modern' societies; and the need to 'integrate' groups of diverse newcomers. This article examines NBI activities in € Orebro County, central Sweden, exploring how these practices seek to bring immigrants into a shared Swedish experiential landscape that forms part of the work of ordering Sweden as a community. These activities form part of an ordering project, within which 'Swedes' and 'new-comers' are situated, drawing on extant nationalist orderings. Likewise, it represents part of an effort to enact a sustainable Sweden in an international world. Drawing on research on environmental racism and (in)justice, this article homes in on the norms implicit and explicit to this ordering. It then discusses the implications of this, highlighting (arguably unavoidable) coercive elements. Furthermore, the long history of outdoor lifestyle as a pillar of Swedish nationalism and the embracing of such activities by the Swedish far right highlight that nature may also become a site of conflict as much as conciliation. Finally, the article considers the types of environmental action arising from the NBI orderings and the likelihood of meaningful environmental change.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 2020
This article explores the world-building activities of players of the tabletop game Blood Bowl—a ... more This article explores the world-building activities of players of the tabletop game Blood Bowl—a game that parodies American Football within a fantasy setting. It utilizes a ritual framework to focus on players’ activities relating to the considerable amount of luck inherent to the game. Based on fieldwork and survey data, it interprets players’ rituals and other actions as an effort to enact a particular social space, a “magic circle,” where enjoyable risk-taking and “edgework” take place. This social space is then analyzed within the Mary Douglas-derived theory of sociocultural viability (cultural theory). Using the theory’s typology, Blood Bowl tournaments can be characterized as individualist–hierarchy hybrid institutions. The article contributes by offering cultural theory as a tool for analyzing and comparing risk-taking behavior in diverse social contexts. The worlds built through Blood Bowl play are both analyzable and comparable with those integral to other social institutions, with cultural theory’s social solidarities ubiquitous. The article thus innovates by linking literatures on leisure and gaming with broader social theory.
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2020
Guided interactions with nature form part of integration programmes aimed at immigrant groups in ... more Guided interactions with nature form part of integration programmes aimed at immigrant groups in Nordic societies. Based on data collected on several Swedish Nature-Based Integration (NBI) projects this article examines the rituals nature guides employ on guided walks. It explores how guides enact taskscapes through structured and improvised ritual activity. These taskscapes integrate a moral universe encapsulating nature and society; provide meeting sites for groups of diverse backgrounds; and are a potential base for a wider environmental social movement. I describe moments of apparent integration and conflict over past, present and future usage of nature. Nature guides are prominent in managing tensions and contradictions around integration, a concept containing inherently coercive elements. Guides thus should be aware that their activities may contribute to societal conflicts as well as conciliation. This is of particular relevance with NBI increasingly framed as a potential solution to the ‘problems’ of immigration.
Sustainability, 2018
Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and tec... more Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break with unsustainable norms, habits, practices, and structures, there is a need for learning for transformation, not only adaption. Based on a critical literature review within the field of learning for sustainable development, our approach is a development of the concept of transformative learning, by integrating three additional dimensions—Institutional Structures, Social Practices, and Conflict Perspectives. This approach acknowledges conflicts on macro, meso, and micro levels, as well as structural and cultural constraints. It contends that transformative learning is processual, interactional, long-term, and cumbersome. It takes place within existing institutions and social practices, while also transcending them. The article adopts an interdisciplinary social science perspective that acknowledges the importance of transformative learning in order for communities, organizations, and individuals to be able to deal with global sustainability problems, acknowledging the societal and personal conflicts involved in such transformation.
Marine Policy, 2019
This article discusses the tendency within environmental communication to homogenise diverse situ... more This article discusses the tendency within environmental communication to homogenise diverse situations. Utilising the case of whale conservation it describes how actors on both sides of the whaling debate utilise the ‘super-whale’ – a homogenised discursive construct. The article argues that there are pragmatic advantages to such framing of environmental situations but also costs. In the case of whale conservation, the super-whale maintains focus on whaling rather than other, arguably more pressing, threats to whale species. More generally, utilising such framing tactics arguably prevent the voicing of new narratives about the global social order.
Beroende på de sociala sammanhang man lever och verkar i, exempelvis yrkesroll och gruppgemenskap... more Beroende på de sociala sammanhang man lever och verkar i, exempelvis yrkesroll och gruppgemenskap, har man olika sätt att se på naturen, och fastnar för olika slags argument i debatten. Ett kulturteoretiskt perspektiv gör att man kan förstå de naturrelaterade intressekonflikterna mellan aktörer med olika natursyn.
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2018
The use of lethal research methods on cetaceans has a long and complicated history in cetology (t... more The use of lethal research methods on cetaceans has a long and complicated history in cetology (the scientific study of whales, dolphins and porpoises). In the current era, collecting data through the hunting of whales (sometimes referred to as scientific whaling) remains a source of considerable conflict in various fora, including scientific ones. Based on interviews and documents, this article explores how marine mammal scientists articulate the validity of particular practices and research at both the International Whaling Commission and in professional scientific societies. Drawing on cultural theory, the article explores scientists’ boundary work, describing the purity and pollution of particular whaling practices in different institutional contexts. Respondents on either side of the debate argued for the pure or polluted nature of various positions, often utilising particular idealised values of science: objectivity, honesty and openness regarding how conclusions were drawn. The nature of boundary work performed is then related to the institutional context within which it takes place. This article thus highlights how science’s role in environmental conflicts can be assessed through boundary work that denotes who can legitimately speak for science, on what topics and how science is stage-managed.
Environmental Politics, 2017
Since 1990, Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for common property resource (CPR) institutions hav... more Since 1990, Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for common property resource (CPR) institutions have been highly influential, offering a counter to pessimistic arguments about resource users’ prospects of cooperating tomanage CPRs sustainably. However, the theoretical underpinnings of Ostrom’s theory have been criticised: as unfairly negative towards macro-level interventions; as utilising an overly narrow conceptualisation of rationality; and under appreciative of the role of power. These criticisms are examined using insights drawn from the theory of sociocultural viability (cultural theory, for short), a theory of plural rationality related to context. Utilising the case of Faroese whaling, the research aim is to assess the extent that cultural theory ameliorates criticisms laid at Ostrom’s design principles. It finds that Ostrom’s research trajectory was reaching the limits of methodological individualism’s ability to grasp rational behaviour and suggests the design principles may in effect be integrated with cultural theory.
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Journal Articles by Benedict Singleton
trained to “do conservation” according to western science traditions, on the one hand, and Indigenous peoples and local communities who possess knowledge generated in non-academic contexts, on the other, effects demarcations of expertise and so challenges existing social hierarchies. Unsurprisingly, tension emerges about how far such changes should go. By increasing awareness of the relationship between (re)defining knowledge and (re)configuring social and political hierarchies, we hope to make it easier for participants to manage such collaborations.
light, researchers can contribute, in the spirit of Gibson-Graham’s work, to making these diverse conservations more real and credible as objects of policy and activism. This special issue contributes to inventorying the diverse conservations that already exist, which opens new spaces for ethical intervention and collective action.
trained to “do conservation” according to western science traditions, on the one hand, and Indigenous peoples and local communities who possess knowledge generated in non-academic contexts, on the other, effects demarcations of expertise and so challenges existing social hierarchies. Unsurprisingly, tension emerges about how far such changes should go. By increasing awareness of the relationship between (re)defining knowledge and (re)configuring social and political hierarchies, we hope to make it easier for participants to manage such collaborations.
light, researchers can contribute, in the spirit of Gibson-Graham’s work, to making these diverse conservations more real and credible as objects of policy and activism. This special issue contributes to inventorying the diverse conservations that already exist, which opens new spaces for ethical intervention and collective action.
The evaluation drew upon a range of methods, including surveys and focus groups with carers, case study visits to provider sites, documentary analysis, observation of project meetings and events, and collection of management information.
Key findings
The programme was designed to provide training and support to carers, thereby giving them greater choice and control in different aspects of their lives. The evaluation found that the carers who participated in the programme were very positive about it and benefited in a number of ways, including: greater confidence in their caring roles; learning new skills; improved health and well-being; better knowledge of support services; and improvements affecting those they cared for.
A prescriptive and centrally planned approach to the programme design was taken, focussing on high quality, standardised training, comprising a flexible, modular training programme delivered by trained facilitators, based in local training providers. Ambitious targets were set relating to carer numbers, which individual providers and the programme overall had difficulty meeting. Although target number of carers were not met, the programme succeeded in registering almost 14,000 carers, well over 10,238 of whom attended at least one CwC module, with many of these (59%) being fully trained. These carers were reasonably representative of the wider population of carers, and some success was achieved in meeting targets for some particularly hard-to-reach groups.
There was no specific target cost per carer trained or number of modules attended but lower than expected carer numbers led to a relatively high cost per filled carer place. Initial high delivery costs became more manageable for some providers once they had established the programme, and a revised funding regime had the potential to deliver CwC more cost effectively than the initial model used. The report concludes with eight recommendations arising out of the CwC programme evaluation that were identified for future training and support programmes for carers."
The study highlights CA customers’ wide range of demanding caring roles, (in most cases supporting a son, daughter, parent or spouse with a serious illness or disability). It draws attention to their relatively poor health, to the challenges they face in managing their caring situation, often with limited support, and to their difficulty in combining their caring with paid work. The study, and the recommendations it makes, draws particular attention to the services and support needs of CA customers, their aspirations relating to paid employment, and how the design of CA – including the rules on eligibility for CA and the limit on CA customers’ earnings from paid work – interact with carers’ other benefits and with other services and support carers may receive. The report concludes that a review of CA features relating to these issues is particularly important for the well-being and longer-term financial security of this group, and for their sense of being valued for their role by society at large."
The five papers that together constitute this thesis collectively provide a description of grindadráp from the local scale of the bays where pilot whales are killed to the international forums where whaling as a whole remains an issue at the heart of an on-going, deadlocked conflict. Primarily based on three months’ fieldwork in the Faroe Islands, this thesis combines observation, interviews, media and other literature. The theoretical lenses employed are that of the ‘ontological turn’ and the ‘theory of sociocultural viability’ (cultural theory). The former utilised as a tool for ethnographic practice with the latter used to analyse how different perspectives on reality manifest throughout the whaling conflict.
This thesis demonstrates that grindadráp has changed through time as a result of the interactions between actors with different views on the matter at hand. However, in contrast to the global whaling debate, this interaction has been mostly constructive, with appropriate changes in practice ensuring grindadráp’s continued popularity within the Faroe Islands. Furthermore, its continuation will likely depend on grindadráp’s continued ability to balance different perspectives. This thesis thus echoes environmental sociological calls for improved dialogue in the framing and resolution of environmental disputes, suggesting that cultural theory provides a tool that balances relativism and pragmatism in dealing with complex environmental problems.