In Conversation with: Alicia Donnellan Barraclough
In this interview, Alicia Donnellan Barraclough tells us about her research with young people connected to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, the importance of including young people in decision-making bodies and how biology has informed her understanding of intergenerational justice.
Alicia Donnellan Barraclough is a researcher at the University of Bergen and UNESCO Chair for sustainable heritage and environmental management. She works at the intersections between the natural and social sciences to understand transformations to a more sustainable future for people and planet. She has worked closely with grassroots organizations and intergovernmental instructions like UNESCO and was up to very recently a focal point for youth concerns of UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme.
JM: Hi Alicia! Can you please tell us more about your current research?
ADB: I mainly do research on social-ecological systems which is like a mixture of ecology and social science. I do a lot of research on environmental management and governance, looking at conservation projects, and how people participate in conservation management, and sustainability projects, more widely.
In one of my projects, I worked very closely with the UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The biosphere reserves are places designated to practice and implementation of sustainable development. Both in terms of conservation, social sustainability, and education across towns and villages within the reserves. Today there are over 700 reserves globally. I work across all of them, including those in Norway.
My research includes working with networks of young people associated with this program. When I first started working on this, I got invited to a gathering of young people who live in these areas, and I became very interested in how they saw themselves and their role in these places. So, through my research projects, I have been trying to understand their visions of how they wanted to be included, and what they saw as the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives, and these natural areas. I really like to have this kind of young stakeholder component in my work because I feel like it’s a group that has a lot of interesting things to say but is often forgotten. Young people can be quite critical, and it is important to hear that since conservation programs can often be quite conservative.
(Read more in the paper “Voices of young biosphere stewards on the strengths, weaknesses, and ways forward for 74 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves across 83 countries”).
JM: What is your best advice for professionals who might want to include youth in planning and governance processes?
ADB: A main thing that came out of my research, and that I recommend, is to include young people in advisory and decision-making boards. If you are part of a planning or conservation initiative, or the like, where you have a board, or other body — let young people be part of that. Young people who are active and engaged want to be part of the important conversations.
Another piece of advice is to find and engage young people who are already active. There are always active young people in an area. People who are already making change and have the capacity to mobilize others. Of course, it’s also important to find ways to include young people who are not already active, but it may not always be the best place to start.
And lastly, explore creative and fun ways of engaging young people. It can be activities and workshops but also using social media and other platforms that young people are using. Plan these activities well and include young people in the planning. Arrange gatherings and workshops in cool places, offer a nice experience that these young people would not necessarily get to have otherwise. This has worked well to engage people in networks I have been involved in.
JM: Where do you see the greatest need for change?
ADB: I think it’s impossible to engage all young people, but I keep coming back to the same thing: it’s important to offer the possibility for young people who are interested and engaged to have a meaningful effect on decisions.
There needs to be a broader and more active effort to engage young people. And there needs to be a bit more creativity in how young people are engaged. This goes back to the exploration of creative and fun ways of engagement, for example events and festivals. Also, many cool tools are available nowadays with great potential for involving people in planning, such as participatory mapping and virtual or online tools which allow young people to give input into planning decisions.
It is also worth remembering that there are different levels of participation. There is a more superficial kind of participation, which includes being informed about things and being able to provide some input and your opinion about things. Then, there’s access to and influence on decision-making. That includes taking part in the different groups and boards that are making decisions. I think it’s important to remember to cover all different levels, but this doesn’t always happen.
JM: How do you understand the concept of intergenerational justice?
ADB: When I was thinking about this question, what kept coming up for me was that all the decisions we make now have an immediate effect but also have a delayed effect. Right? I have a background in biology and there’s this thing biologists always say about how species aren’t adapted to the living conditions of today, they are adapted to the living conditions as they were in the past, at the time when the adaptation was happening. And I see intergenerational justice like that but inversed. This in the sense that I’m making decisions today which will affect a future that I probably won’t live in. But someone else will live in that future. And so, for me, intergenerational justice is about giving power to young people and remembering that everything that is decided now will affect these young people in the future, so much more than it will affect us. Intergenerational justice is about accountability and responsibility towards a reality that we do not really have an understanding of. The decisions we make today might need to be adjusted to that circumstance.
In Conversation With is an interview series in which we host researchers, practitioners, activists, and others who are engaged in hands-on initiatives, projects, and similar actions in their local environments. We would like to give space to emerging topics and hear more from those directly engaged in initiatives seeking to make our urban areas safer, more inclusive, and sustainable.
The interviews are moderated by our project communication officer Johanna Männikkö.
