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Anthropology and Environment Society
Oral Presentation Session
Amanda Concha-Holmes
Courtesy Assistant Professor
University of Florida
Through reviewing the historical and cultural legacy of citrus in Florida, this presentation highlights social stratifications of specific historical figures allowing the unpacking of critical legislative moments within their historical contexts to better demarcate Florida’s current development paradigm policies and practices. Along with the impact of frost on the citrus industry, we hope to highlight how different ideological systems become entrenched with political practices that have palpable consequences on the ecological, economic and social landscapes of north central Florida, a place we call our home. Interactive, evolving processes of social-environmental relations are what Amanda Concha-Holmes calls humaNature (2015). The N in humaNature signals the inseparability of humans from natures and natures from humans and situates their relationships within an intersectional framework. These human-environmental relationships that revolve around ideology have been fundamental to Florida’s historical and contemporary landscape (ecological, political, economic and social). Thus, to guide future decisions on development policy, this presentation examines disaster within a political ecology perspective highlighting an intersectional lens to better situate how humans are differently affected and differently affect humaNature systems. This theoretical framework means that first human and ecological systems must be understood as intimately intertwined, and second that humans must be understood not as a homogenous whole but as heterogenous and shifting populations of dynamic individuals, groups and networks who are affected very differently by social structures and ecological hazards depending on their situated contexts. In other words, gender, race, age, region, class and other social stratifications must be included in the analysis.