Place, Stories, and Consequences

Heritage Narratives and the Control of Erosion on Lake County, California, Vineyards

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20413639
AutoresAlison Hope Alkon (0000-0002-8913-2776, University of California, Davis, autor de correspondencia)
Año2004
Volumen17
Número2
Páginas145-169
Fecha de publicación2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOrganization & Environment (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1086-0266 • E-ISSN: 1552-7417
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1086026604264881
OpenAlexW2103728241
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas26
Referencias citadas22

Faced with a visible and controversial instance of erosion on vineyards, the Lake County, California, Board of Supervisors founded an unusual organization—the Erosion Protection Education Commission (EPEC)—to offer nonbinding advice to grape growers concerning relevant agro-management practices. This study uses in-depth interviews, fieldwork, and secondary sources to contextualize EPEC within the county’s stories about place—within its heritage narratives. The dominant heritage narrative (depicting Lake County’s character as agriculturalist, cooperative and harmonious, and antiregulatory) is shown to be a major factor shaping and justifying the creation and operation of EPEC. Despite the existence of counternarratives, the dominant heritage narrative prefigured the emergence of EPEC and helped reinforce EPEC as the county’s way of handling the growth of grape growing in the region and the resulting erosion problem. This article argues for greater attention to the role of community narratives about place in understanding how decisions are made on environmental and land-use issues

Art · Commission · Environmental ethics · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · History · Law · Soil erosion and sediment transport