Our second submodule is from the environmental monitoring group and it shows how communities use participatory methods to engage in important debates with government – and how these methods empower people and provide them with decision-making tools.
In our ‘further readings section’, we also explore the applicability of the tool ‘Emoticons’ in social sciences, as a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology tool used in qualitative research. It aims at collecting additional data on intangibles such as people’s emotions and perceptions about a particular topic. It gives an example of the use of emoticons.
Learning Objectives
- Consider the way in which citizens engage with water concerns in their communities, sharing experiences at the grass roots level
- Consider the meaning of water – how water affects our lives and the relationships that people have with water
- Describe how emoticons can be used as a PAR method to capture complex issues such as people’s emotions and perceptions about a particular topic.
Key Concepts
Citizen activism, grassroots, river of life, co-learning
Introduction
Video presented by the Environmental monitoring group on Water and Climate change.
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
- Why is climate change seen as a social justice concern?
- We need a vision and practical steps. What is your vision?
- Within the context of what you have seen in the video, give some ideas of what you think is a low carbon economy?
- Think of ways that you could work with children and ‘make friends with water’?
Key Readings
Key readings
- Doorn, Neelke. "Water and Justice: Towards an Ethics of Water Governance." Public Reason 5.1 (2013).
- Lutringer, Christine. "Environmental and Social Justice in Solid Waste Management. Interview with Leo Saldanha and Bhargavi Rao, Environment Support Group." International Development Policy| Revue internationale de politique de développement 8.2 (2017).
Further Readings
Further readings
- Padilla-Zea, N., López-Arcos, J., Gonzales Sánchez, J., Gutiérrez Vela, F. & Abad-Arranz, A. (2013). A Method to Evaluate Emotions in Educational Video Games for Children. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 10 (8) 1066-1085.
- Krohn, Franklin B. 2004. “A Generational Approach to Using Emoticons as Nonverbal Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 34 (4). SAGE Publications Inc: 321–28.
- Goldin, J., Botha, J., Koatla, T., Anderson, J., Owen, G. & Lebese, A. (2017). Towards an ethnography of climate change variability: perceptions and coping mechanisms of women and men from Lambani Village, Limpopo Province. Journal of Human Geography. Volume 10. Number 2.
- Owen, G. (2016). Opportunity for Implementing Reclaimed Water for Domestic Applications in South Africa: Institutional Engagement and Public Perceptions, PhD thesis, University of the Western Cape.
Other related International Waters Lessons and Submodules
Next submodule: Visual methods, digital story telling