Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the US National Science Foundation Grant
#9605043, Programme in Geography and Regional Science. We are grateful to
Sister Diane Donoghue and Wallace Moore for helping us to organise the focus
group, and to Robert Wilton for his assistance with qualitative analysis software. We
also wish to thank our editors, Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, for their constructive
and thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this chapter.
Notes
1 For further elaboration, see Wolch (1996).
2 In this chapter and in our research more generally, we consider 'cultural background'
to reflect the complex of socially constructed individual and group identities linked to
colour, nativity and non-US heritage that, along with class and gender and other
markers of difference, are used to categorise, legitimise and marginalise people in US
society. Such identities can also form the basis, over time, for some degree of shared
perspective or standpoint, as well as common place-specific historical experience and
material circumstances that we expect to shape attitudes towards animals. For an
elaboration, see Elder
et al.
(1998).
3 No non-humans participated. Whereas we considered the inclusion of a friendly
canine as an 'ice-breaker', we ultimately decided that such a visible presence would
inhibit human respondents from talking about controversial practices—such as dog-
eating!
4 Although these participants might have volunteered due to their interest in or affection
for animals, creating a self-selection bias, the service provider who assisted in
recruitment indicated that our $25 honorarium would be the primary incentive to join
the focus group.
5The terms 'pet' and 'wildlife' should really be placed in 'scare quotes' throughout the
chapter, given that much of the discussion in the focus group swirled around the
question of what exactly is meant by pets and wildlife, and about how humans should
treat them. In what follows, though, we will avoid quote marks for these terms, which
we use repeatedly, to avoid over-complicating the appearance of the text on the page.
6Pa icipan ' names have been changed in order to protect their anonymity.
7
The text was analysed using QSR NUD*IST, a qualitative, non-numerative research
programme designed for textual and narrative analysis.
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Journal of Environmental Education
26(2): 24-35.
