 |
 |
PhD position available at the Department of Cultural Geography at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). We have a 4-year fulltime PhD position available starting asap. It concerns an Ubbo-Emmius scholarship (see website, or inquire via email: http://www.rug.nl/prospectiveStudents/scholarships/UbboE/UbboInShort). The topic is briefly outlined below. Although there is a project draft, we would expect a PhD candidate to critically assess this and bring in his or her ideas as well. Should you be interested in this position, please send an email including CV to Bettina van Hoven: [log in to unmask] ----------------- Background In September, 2005, The French Minister of the Environment, Nelly Olin and her Slovenian counterpart, Janez Pobodnik, signed an agreement to transport five Slovenian bears to the Pyrenees to regenerate the very small and vulnerable bear population in that region. In May, 2006, however, there were protests about the presence of Slovenian bears in the vicinity of Bagnères de Bigorre in the French Pyrenees (see, for example, /de Volksrant/, May 17, 2006). Banners carried by the protesters clearly indicated that they saw the bears as alien intruders who did not belong and should be returned to Slovenia. This protest, and the European Union policy supporting the reintroduction of brown bears raises questions about the place of wild nature in developed societies. The proposed project aims to address these questions at different scales. European and national conservation policies will provide a context for the local study. However, a local study will be the primary focus of the research because it is where bear encounters most clearly impact upon the everyday geographies of people. At this scale we are most likely to identify the complex feelings associated with the presence of bears and the implementation of conservation policies. Theoretically, the proposed research builds on themes identified within ‘animal geographies’, which are part of the culture-nature debate, and applies them to a particular political issue. In the following we first sketch the theoretical framework within which we position our study focusing on the conceptualization of nature in culture and the importance of representation and emotion within this. Second, we outline the extent to which the relevance of scale within culture-nature debate has been addressed within large carnivore reintroduction programs.