Johanne Saint-Charles

Network Approach for Analyzing and Promoting Equity in Participatory Ecohealth Research

Effective involvement and equity in participation between men and women and the various community groups are likely to influence the equity in the sharing of the development outcomes of any participatory research project. The CARUSO project, a participatory research based on the ecosystem approach to human health, showed that the inhabitants from Brasília Legal, a small village located on the river banks of the Tapajós river in the Brazilian Amazon, are exposed to mercury through fish consumption; a subsequent participatory intervention based on dietary changes was effective in reducing mercury exposure of the population. In the present study, we focus on equity in participation and analyze the discussion network about mercury and health to measure individual and group involvement in the community. Participation in the discussion network is associated with the awareness of the critical information necessary to allow the individual to change dietary habits toward the preferential consumption of the less contaminated fish species. Our network analysis shows that gender, age, religion, education, subsistence activities, and spatial distribution of the houses are key elements affecting the involvement of the population in discussions about mercury and health. Based on these results, we propose strategies for integrating the research results and the knowledge of the villagers in a new cycle of participatory research in order to address the lack of involvement of some groups and to promote equitable participation and benefit sharing.

Different relationships for coping with ambiguity and uncertainty in organizations

This study seeks to shed light on the relationship between the situation and the activation of specific relationships. We hypothesized that the type of uncertainty present in a situation would prompt people to call upon different relationships based on different types of trust: cognitive trust for expertise and affective trust for friendship. We elaborated vignettes as name generators to test whether the colleagues called upon in different situations were perceived as being more friends or more experts. The perceived level of expertise and friendship were evaluated with Likert-style scales. The results support our theoretical argument to the effect that the “activation” of a relationship is influenced by the type of uncertainty a person is confronted to. Situations of information uncertainty elicit recourse to relationships based on expertise while ambiguous situations call for friendship.

Social communication network analysis of the role of participatory research in the adoption of new fish consumption behaviors

The formulation and communication of fish advisories are highly complex because of the potential conflict between the nutritional and toxicological issues associated with fish consumption. Government and organization-sponsored fish advisories have had limited success in changing behaviors. Participatory approaches may enhance the understanding of complex issues and the adoption of new behaviors. Here we used social network analysis to investigate the adoption of dietary changes within the context of a community participatory research project. In the Brazilian Amazon, many communities are highly exposed to methylmercury from fish consumption. A participatory intervention based on dietary changes aimed at reducing methylmercury exposure while maintaining fish consumption was initiated in 1995. In 2001, we collected data on individual participation in the research, on the discussion network regarding mercury issues and on changes in fish consumption from 96 of the 110 village households. More than half of men and women had adopted new fish consumption behavior to reduce mercury exposure. Adoption was associated with participation in the research project for both women and men, and with a higher number of discussion partners about mercury issues for women. Adoption was likewise associated with the presence of a female communication partner in the personal networks of both men and women. At the household level, men and women who considered their spouse as a discussion partner were more likely to adopt than those who did not. Opinion le]adership was associated with change in fish consumption only for women. We discuss the contribution of community participation and communication networks to overcome the difficulties in generating complex messages that take into account both health benefits and risks of fish consumption. We also discuss the relevance of building preventive health programs based on participatory research approaches and the roles and relations specific to men and women.

The gap between scientists and journalists: the case of mercury science in Québec’s press

This research aimed to better understand the gap between journalists and scientists in the context of the media coverage of an environmental issue in Québec (Canada). Through in-depth interviews with journalists and scientists, we were able to identify different sources of frustration felt by both protagonists, notably the question of the scientists’ revision of the journalists’ text, the journalists’ lack of accuracy, and the problem of different time frames in the media and the scientific worlds. This study also offered insights for bridging the gaps.

Emergence and Robustness of a Community Discussion Network on Mercury Contamination and Health in the Brazilian Amazon

Information exchanges, debates, and negotiations through community social networks are essential to ensure the sustainability of the development process initiated in participatory research. The authors analyze the structural properties and robustness of a discussion network about mercury issues in a community in the Brazilian Amazon involved in a participatory research aimed at reducing exposure to the pollutant. Most of the villagers are connected in a large network and are separated from other individuals by few intermediaries. The structure of the discussion network displays resilience to the random elimination of villagers but shows vulnerability to the removal of one villager who has been a long-term collaborator of the project. Although the network exhibits a structure likely to favor an efficient flow of information, results show that specific actions should be taken to stimulate the emergence of a pool of opinion leaders and increase the redundancy of discussion channels.

Ecohealth and resilience thinking: a dialog from experiences in research and practice

Resilience thinking and ecosystems approaches to health (EAH), or ecohealth, share roots in complexity science, although they have distinct foundations in ecology and population health, respectively. The current articulations of these two approaches are strongly converging, but each approach has its strengths. Resilience thinking has developed theoretical models to the study of social– ecological systems, whereas ecohealth has a vast repertoire of experience in dealing with complex health issues. With the two fields dovetailing, there is ripe opportunity to create a dialog centered on concepts that are more thoroughly developed in one field, which can then serve to advance the other. In this article, we first present an overview of the ecohealth and resilience thinking frameworks before opening a dialog centered on seven themes that have strong potential for cross-pollination between the two approaches: scale interactions, regime shifts, adaptive environmental management, social learning, participation, social and gender equity, and knowledge to action. We conclude with some future research suggestions for those interested in theoretical and practical applications at the intersection of environment and health. In particular, closer collaboration between these two fields can lead to addressing blind spots in the ecosystem services framework, complementary social-network analysis, the application of resilience heuristics to the understanding of health, and the development of a normative dimension in resilience thinking.

Ecohealth as a Field: Looking Forward

This forum paper proposes a reflection on the “field of ecohealth” and on how best to sustain a supportive environment that enables the evolution of diverse partnerships and forms of collaboration in the field. It is based on the results of a preconference workshop held in October 2012, in Kunming, China at the fourth biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health. Attended by 105 persons from 38 countries, this workshop aimed to have a large-group and encompassing discussion about ecohealth as an emerging field, touching on subjects such as actors, processes, structures, standards, and resources. Notes taken were used to conduct a qualitative thematic analysis combined with a semantic network analysis. Commonalities highlighted by these discussions draw a portrait of a field in which human health, complex systems thinking, action, and ecosystem health are considered central issues. The need to reach outside of academia to government and the general public was identified as a shared goal. A disconnect between participants’ main concerns and what they perceived as the main concerns of funding agencies emerged as a primary roadblock for the future.

The role of strong-tie social networks in mediating food security of fish resources by a traditional riverine community in the Brazilian Amazon

Social networks are a significant way through which rural communities that manage resources under common property regimes obtain food resources. Previous research on food security and social network analysis has mostly focused on egocentric network data or proxy variables for social networks to explain how social relations contribute to the different dimensions of food security. Whole-network approaches have the potential to contribute to former studies by revealing how individual social ties aggregate into complex structures that create opportunities or constraints to the sharing and distribution of food resources. We used a whole-network approach to investigate the role of network structure in contributing to the four dimensions of food security: food availability, access, utilization, and stability. For a case study of a riparian community from the Brazilian Amazon that is dependent on fish as a key element of food security, we mapped the community strong-tie network among 97% of the village population over 14 years old (n = 336) by integrating reciprocated friendship and occupational ties, as well as close kinship relationships. We explored how different structural properties of the community network contribute to the understanding of (1) the availability of fish as a community resource, (2) community access to fish as a dietary resource, (3) the utilization of fish for consumption in a way that allows the villagers to maximize nutrition while at the same time minimizing toxic risks associated with mercury exposure, and (4) the stability of the fish resources in local ecosystems as a result of cooperative behaviors and community-based management. The contribution of whole-network approaches to the study of the links between community-based natural resource management and food security were discussed in the context of recent social-ecological changes in the Amazonian region.

Fuelling an Environmental Conflict through Information Diffusion Strategies

When an environmental conflict occurs, the information people have access to play a crucial role in how the conflict develops. Through a case study of an ongoing conflict related to a highly contested wind farm in Québec (Canada), this paper focuses on how the news of the project was announced by the developer and on how it was then diffused by different involved actors. It aims to answer the following questions: who is informed, when are these people informed, and how does it impact the unfolding conflict? Field observation and in-depth interviews with 93 individuals involved in the public hearing process were conducted. An important part of the analysis was made using social network analysis to reconstruct diffusion of the news of the project among the sample over a 5-year period. The main findings showed that the developer made strategic choices regarding information diffusion (confidentiality, exclusion of some actors—especially the citizens, rumors, etc.) that spurred on opposition in the latest stage of development of the project. The populations awareness was slow to grow, mainly because the news of the project was slow to spread in the community.

Connections for Health, Ecosystems and Society leading to Action and Change

The theme of connections has been integral to the field of ecohealth since its inception. At its core, ecohealth is about relationships and systemic interactions between issues, topics and approaches that are too often treated in isolation. As a central theme for EcoHealth 2014, the 5th biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology & Health (IAEH), the emphasis on connections reminds us that we cannot reach our shared goal of ecosystem sustainability, resilience and health— for humans and all species—alone. By focusing on the spaces in between, we are challenged to consider how the meeting of all forms of knowledge can not only increase understanding of complex problems affecting health, ecosystems and society, but also be mobilised to lead to actions to address these issues. Arriving in Montreal in 2014 for an ecohealth gathering prompts reflection on how these confluences and convergences have developed and expanded 10 years since the Montreal EcoHealth Forum in 2003. One indication of this can be gleaned from the range of presenters assembling at the conference. At Ecohealth 2014, the programme not only includes researchers from natural, social and health sciences but also has very explicit inclusion of arts and other forms of practice, as well as representation of private and public sectors, NGOs and community groups. People from over 60 countries, spanning Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, Oceania and the Middle East, will present their work at the conference. Of particular note is the renewal and intergenerational spread, ranging from an increasingly strong presence of emerging scholars and practitioners, to an ongoing engagement with ecohealth pioneers. For those interested in connections, reflecting on developments since the 2003 Montreal EcoHealth Forum is less about defining progress and more about identifying consistent patterns of interactions and challenges that a field like ecohealth continues to face. In 2003, just as with all of the biennial conferences of the IAEH (Madison 2006, Merida 2008, London 2010, Kunming 2012), we assembled because of our need for integrative research, education and practice. The continuing excitement and dynamism of ecohealth arise not so much from any one area of expertise but in the fertile terrain of innovation that occurs when we come together to explore other ways of thinking and acting. That anthropogenic environmental degradation impacts human and animal health is increasingly uncontroversial. Ecohealth scholars are tasked with both collecting and synthesizing information to better understand that core relationship. In addition, however, we face the more difficult task of defining what to do with that knowledge. And so in 2014, we challenge ourselves to revisit and make explicit the important features of our ongoing aspiration towards connections. What can we learn from past connections? What types of conceptual and methodological connections are still needed to address the challenging domain that unites human and animal health, ecosystems and society? Whither the humanities as an integral contribution to ecohealth? EcoHealth2014 was proposed as a conference that will address these questions by contributing to ‘the critical development of the field as well as to an international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral conversation about environment (natural and social) and health’. The motivation to leave the comfort of disciplinary or sectoral domains extends beyond interest in the richness of conversations or a commitment to the advancement of knowledge. Rather, we argue that interest in Authors are members of Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health (CoPEH-Canada). Correspondence to: Johanne Saint-Charles, e-mail: saint-charles.johanne@uqam.ca EcoHealth 11, 279–280, 2014 DOI: 10.1007/s10393-014-0945-8