Torres Ana - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Torres Ana
Conservation Letters, 2016
Biological Conservation
Abstract Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tac... more Abstract Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tackling the issue, are using and diffusing the term biodiversity and related expert knowledge. However, to collectively address the biodiversity crisis, it is important that actors are able to communicate with each other. This is particularly true in the three-part set including science, public institutions, and citizens. In this paper, we explored this mutual understanding with a focus on laypeople: we assessed the understanding of biodiversity in a sample of 1209 French adult citizens and explored the convergences and divergences with institutional and academic definitions. With a classical hypothetical-deductive approach, we first showed an overall congruence between laypeople and institutions: 80% of respondents provided a descriptive definition of plant and animal species as well as their diversity, which are main ideas diffused by institutions. However, based on the high diversity of the collected definitions, with 57% of provided words in definitions mentioned only once, we complemented this study with an inductive approach. We showed a discrepancy in the definitions from lay people and from conservation science (based on evolutionary and dynamic processes). We also highlighted that 18,5% of definitions are not descriptive and are referring to specific actions for biodiversity conservation. We discuss these results in the context of social-ecological transitions, and encourage conservation communities to acknowledge the range of biodiversity definitions used by laypeople, and to form closer relationships with laypeople to anchor conservation research and action with a bottom-up dynamic process of knowledge sharing.
Biological Conservation, 2019
Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tackling the... more Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tackling the issue, are using and diffusing the term biodiversity and related expert knowledge. However, to collectively address the biodiversity crisis, it is important that actors are able to communicate with each other. This is particularly true in the
three-part set including science, public institutions, and citizens. In this paper, we explored this mutual understanding with a focus on laypeople: we assessed the understanding of biodiversity in a sample of 1209 French adult citizens and explored the convergences and divergences with institutional and academic definitions. With a
classical hypothetical-deductive approach, we first showed an overall congruence between laypeople and institutions: 80% of respondents provided a descriptive definition of plant and animal species as well as their diversity, which are main ideas diffused by institutions. However, based on the high diversity of the collected definitions, with 57% of provided words in definitions mentioned only once, we complemented this study with an inductive approach. We showed a discrepancy in the definitions from lay people and from conservation science (based on evolutionary and dynamic processes). We also highlighted that 18,5% of definitions are not descriptive and are referring to specific actions for biodiversity conservation. We discuss these results in the context of social-ecological transitions, and encourage conservation communities to acknowledge the range of biodiversity definitions used by laypeople, and to form closer relationships with laypeople to anchor conservation research and action with a bottom-up dynamic process of knowledge sharing.
Conservation Letters, 2017
Despite decades of awareness about the biodiversity crisis, it remains a wicked problem. Besides... more Despite decades of awareness about the biodiversity crisis, it remains a wicked
problem. Besides preservation and restoration strategies, one approach has focused
on increasing public concern about biodiversity issues by emphasizing
opportunities for people to experience natural environments. In this article,
we endeavor to complicate the understanding of these experiences of nature
(EoN). Because EoN are embedded in social and cultural contexts, transformative
or new EoN are emerging in combination with societal changes in work,
home, and technology. Policies that acknowledge and accept a diversity of culturally
situated EoN, including negative EoN, could help people reconnect with
the complexity and dynamics of biodiversity. A new conceptualization of EoN
that encompasses diverse experiences and reflects the sociocultural context
could help to stimulate a broader transformation in the relationship between
society and nature, one that better integrates the two spheres. Such a transformation
is necessary to more effectively address the biodiversity crisis.
Conservation Letters, 2016
Biological Conservation
Abstract Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tac... more Abstract Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tackling the issue, are using and diffusing the term biodiversity and related expert knowledge. However, to collectively address the biodiversity crisis, it is important that actors are able to communicate with each other. This is particularly true in the three-part set including science, public institutions, and citizens. In this paper, we explored this mutual understanding with a focus on laypeople: we assessed the understanding of biodiversity in a sample of 1209 French adult citizens and explored the convergences and divergences with institutional and academic definitions. With a classical hypothetical-deductive approach, we first showed an overall congruence between laypeople and institutions: 80% of respondents provided a descriptive definition of plant and animal species as well as their diversity, which are main ideas diffused by institutions. However, based on the high diversity of the collected definitions, with 57% of provided words in definitions mentioned only once, we complemented this study with an inductive approach. We showed a discrepancy in the definitions from lay people and from conservation science (based on evolutionary and dynamic processes). We also highlighted that 18,5% of definitions are not descriptive and are referring to specific actions for biodiversity conservation. We discuss these results in the context of social-ecological transitions, and encourage conservation communities to acknowledge the range of biodiversity definitions used by laypeople, and to form closer relationships with laypeople to anchor conservation research and action with a bottom-up dynamic process of knowledge sharing.
Biological Conservation, 2019
Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tackling the... more Biodiversity is undergoing a major crisis. Institutions, while launching initiatives tackling the issue, are using and diffusing the term biodiversity and related expert knowledge. However, to collectively address the biodiversity crisis, it is important that actors are able to communicate with each other. This is particularly true in the
three-part set including science, public institutions, and citizens. In this paper, we explored this mutual understanding with a focus on laypeople: we assessed the understanding of biodiversity in a sample of 1209 French adult citizens and explored the convergences and divergences with institutional and academic definitions. With a
classical hypothetical-deductive approach, we first showed an overall congruence between laypeople and institutions: 80% of respondents provided a descriptive definition of plant and animal species as well as their diversity, which are main ideas diffused by institutions. However, based on the high diversity of the collected definitions, with 57% of provided words in definitions mentioned only once, we complemented this study with an inductive approach. We showed a discrepancy in the definitions from lay people and from conservation science (based on evolutionary and dynamic processes). We also highlighted that 18,5% of definitions are not descriptive and are referring to specific actions for biodiversity conservation. We discuss these results in the context of social-ecological transitions, and encourage conservation communities to acknowledge the range of biodiversity definitions used by laypeople, and to form closer relationships with laypeople to anchor conservation research and action with a bottom-up dynamic process of knowledge sharing.
Conservation Letters, 2017
Despite decades of awareness about the biodiversity crisis, it remains a wicked problem. Besides... more Despite decades of awareness about the biodiversity crisis, it remains a wicked
problem. Besides preservation and restoration strategies, one approach has focused
on increasing public concern about biodiversity issues by emphasizing
opportunities for people to experience natural environments. In this article,
we endeavor to complicate the understanding of these experiences of nature
(EoN). Because EoN are embedded in social and cultural contexts, transformative
or new EoN are emerging in combination with societal changes in work,
home, and technology. Policies that acknowledge and accept a diversity of culturally
situated EoN, including negative EoN, could help people reconnect with
the complexity and dynamics of biodiversity. A new conceptualization of EoN
that encompasses diverse experiences and reflects the sociocultural context
could help to stimulate a broader transformation in the relationship between
society and nature, one that better integrates the two spheres. Such a transformation
is necessary to more effectively address the biodiversity crisis.