Graduation Year
2015
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Paul Faulstich
Reader 2
Roberto Pedace
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
In recent years, as globalization has taken a toll on North Americans’ “sense of place,” there has been a swelling interest in the identification of bioregions: spaces delineated by their natural borders and shaped by the cultures that arise within them. Bioregionalism, the movement that arose from this scalar shift, emphasizes the “reinhabitation” of bioregions through a deep understanding and attachment between residents and their watershed and habitat. This thesis argues for a shift to bioregional-scale environmental governance in the Cascadian bioregion (the Pacific Northwest) via an interstate compact. Using the Great Lakes bioregion as a comparable case study, this thesis goes on to examine the effects of neoliberalization on two resulting cross-border institutions, the Great Lakes Commission and the Council of the Great Lakes Region. It ultimately concludes that a shared ecological identity is imperative for preserving the ethos of bioregionalism in future policymaking, rather than just the scale. In an effort to create a tangible path towards the shaping of this identity, a communications framework is presented. Based on lessons from the Great Lakes case studies, this framework utilizes “condensation symbols” and the “triple appeals principle” as possible tools for Cascadian activists to leverage moving forward.
Recommended Citation
Freed, Molly D., "A Call for Bioregional Governance in Cascadia: Shaping an Ecological Identity in the Land of Falling Waters" (2015). Scripps Senior Theses. 608.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/608
