Niguidula+Update+March+1,+2015

On Thursday I had my first CCP appointment. I met with Coley. The meeting was productive, we began going through the first half of my thesis turned in at the end of last semester sentence by sentence, working through the forward and beginning the abstract. The process made me think more about how I am going to flesh out the remaining 50 or so pages I have to write. The current plan is to use interviews and sources from literature from the social sciences, and perhaps psychology as well, but specifics will need to be thought through. What sections will be added? How will the interviews be analyzed? etc. My thoughts so far is that a few diagrams will be helpful in communicating the complex nature of the relationships I am working with. For example, after my interview with Leslie Surprenant last week, it occurred to me that a flowchart elucidating how invasive species are legislated on and managed (in the State of New York, at least) might be useful. Fortunately, several relevant sources have fallen into my lap thanks to my Sciences of Sustainability class. One is a piece written by Daniel Botkin called "Adjusting Law to Nature's Discordant Harmonies." It's an article written in the 1990s that explored the idea that policy tends to be based on myths about nature. One important one is the myth of balance in nature, which desired natures are likely a manifestation of. This mythical balance makes nature seem eternal and unchanging to humans, despite the fact that it has and continues to change without the help of humans. Botkin also argues that policy is often formed based on what seems plausible, rather than facts, something that is certainly worth more exploration in my own work. I have also been introduced to the work of W. I. Vernadsky, who is credited with forming the concept of the biosphere. He makes clear the interconnectedness of all living things in on the planet, even humans. His work will also be worth digging deeper into.