Article ID: CBB081742583

The Challenge of Oral History to Environmental History (2020)

unapi

Oral history has much to offer environmental history, yet the possibilities and promises of oral history remain underutilised in environmental history and environmental studies more broadly. Through a reflection on work in environmental history and associated disciplines, this paper presents a case for the strength and versatility of oral history as a key source for environmental history, while reflecting on questions of its reliability and scope. We identify three major insights provided by environmental oral history: into environmental knowledge, practices and power. We argue that, rather than being a weakness, the (inter)subjective and experiential dimensions of oral accounts provide a rich source for situating and interrogating environmental practices, meanings, and power relations. Oral history, moreover, provides a counterweight to a reliance on colonial archives and top-down environmental accounts, and can facilitate a renewal - and deepening - of the radical roots of environmental history. Furthermore, as a research practice, oral history is a promising means of expanding the participatory and grassroots engagement of environmental history. By decentring environmental expertise and eroding the boundaries (both fictive and real) of environmental knowledge production, oral environmental histories can provide key interventions in pursuit of a more just, sustainable world.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB081742583/

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Authors & Contributors
Dagg, Joachim
Heidenblad, David Larsson
Leena Rossi
Merchant, Paul
Weimin, Xiong
Luckey, Eric F.
Concepts
History of science, as a discipline
Historical method
Historians of science, modern
Oral history
Historiography
Interviews
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
20th century, early
Places
China
United States
Sweden
Japan
Institutions
Science History Institute (SHI)
Chinese Academy of Sciences
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