Harper, Krista

Job Title

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and School of Public Policy, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Last Name

Harper

First Name

Krista

Discipline

Anthropology

Introduction

I am an applied cultural anthropologist who investigates urban mobilizations, environment, food, and social justice, university libraries, and, most recently, the societal impacts of the renewable energy transition. I use ethnographic and participatory visual and digital research methods, with projects in Hungary, Portugal, and the United States. My latest project, “Elevating Equity Values in the Transition of the Energy System” (ELEVATE, NSF #2020888), investigates how urban residents and other stakeholders understand the transition to renewable energy technologies and decarbonization policies, with a focus on issues of equity and environmental justice in marginalized communities. From 2010-2018, I was the PI (with Jacqueline Urla) of two NSF research and training grants, "Culture and Heritage in European Societies and Spaces" (NSF-OISE #0968575 and IIA-1261172).

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 17

Across the Bridge: Using PhotoVoice to Study Environment and Health in a Romani Community.
(2009-01-01) Harper, Krista
This photo essay is the product of a partnership between Prof. Krista Harper, the Sajó River Association for Environment and Community Development, and community organizer Judit Bari. The project took place in a small city in northeastern Hungary hit hard by factory closings since the collapse of state socialism in 1989. The Roma community, about 20% of the town’s population, has been especially vulnerable. A team of six young people participated as photographers and discussion participants, working closely with Harper and Bari. Other community members joined discussions of the images. The team held a photo exhibition in the neighborhood where the photos were taken, inviting city council members, health care providers, and environmentalists from a city nearby. The team held another exhibition in Budapest. Ministry officials, academic researchers, and activists took part in a formal discussion. Harper and Bari presented the team’s photographs at the United Nations Committee on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights in Geneva.
From Democratization to Globalization to Justice: Political Generations in Hungarian Environmentalism from the 1980s to the 2000s
(2009-01) Harper, Krista
This presentation applies sociologist Nancy Whittier's concept of "political generations" to explore political identities and strategies appearing over time in the Hungarian environmental movement. I discuss the rise of democratic environmentalism in the 1980s, the shift to a more professionalized and globally oriented activist stance in the 1990s, and the emergence of social justice frames associated with the newest cohort of environmental activists of the 2000s.
Great Expectations? The Changing Role of “Europe” in Romani Activism in Hungary
(2006-01) Harper, Krista; Vermeersch, Peter
Contemporary political action for ethnic and national minorities in Europe appears to be increasingly directed towards supra- and transnational structures. This development seems indicative of the growth of a European space for minority activism – a public space that is less state-centered, that allows claims to be framed in terms of European standards and therefore facilitates the emergence of an active European citizenship. In theory, this “Europeanization” of minority politics may offer minority activists additional avenues for raising demands about cultural recognition and economic equalization. This article seeks to identify the possible implications of the Europeanization of minority politics by exploring the case of the Roma (Gypsies), an economically and socially marginalized minority that is increasingly conceptualized as transnational and “European.” Especially in the context of the enlargement of the European Union the Roma have received a lot of attention from European institutions. We focus our analysis on Hungary, a new EU member state with an active Romani movement. While one would expect the Europeanization of minority politics to have positively affected the ways in which Romani activists in Hungary organize and mobilize, our analysis of documentary sources and interviews reveals a more complex picture. We identify an ambiguous understanding of the Europeanization of minority politics among various actors in Hungary and historically shifting ideas about the significance of “Europe” in Romani mobilization.
Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activism and Postsocialist Political Ecology in Hungary
(2006-01) Harper, Krista
"Wild Capitalism" examines environmental issues in the "New Europe" of the twenty-first century. Specifically, it looks at how the meanings of "civil society" and "environment" have changed as environmentalists encounter the political and ecological realities of life after state socialism. Although environmentalism is a global social movement, environmental politics is a grassroots process in which activists creatively translate environmental issues into cultural idioms and political processes.
Environment as Master Narrative: Discourse and Identity in Environmental Conflicts (Special Issue Introduction)
(2001-07) Harper, Krista
Although postmodern philosophers proclaimed the death of the master narrative of enlightenment (Lyotard 1984), the environment has become a quintessentially global narrative. Throughout the world, people are imagining the environment as an object threatened by human action. Environmentalism proposes to organize and mobilize human action in order to protect the endangered environment (Milton 1995). Sociologist Klaus Eder posits that ecology has become a “masterframe,” transforming the field of political debate (Eder 1996). The articles assembled in this special issue investigate the rise of the environment as a master narrative organizing political practices.
New Directions in Participatory Visual Ethnography: Possibilities for Public Anthropology
(2009-12-03) Harper, Krista
New visual technologies are changing the ways that anthropologists do research and opening up new possibilities for participatory approaches appealing to diverse audiences. Participatory digital methodologies include digital storytelling, PhotoVoice, and participatory geographic information systems (GIS), as well as community-based filmmaking, and participatory digital archival research. Over twenty years ago, feminist and postmodern anthropologists led a discipline-wide discussion of the ways that we produce and represent culture through ethnographic fieldwork and writing. Few of these critics, however, challenged the notion of the written text as the central medium of anthropological knowledge. More recently, public anthropology has reinvigorated discussion of the relevance of ethnographic knowledge. In public health and other applied fields, as well as much of contemporary feminist studies, community-based participatory research (CBPR) has gained prominence, and visual anthropologists have begun to embrace participatory approaches. These methodologies produce rich visual and narrative data guided by participant interests and priorities, putting the methods literally in the hands of the participants themselves. They appeal to wide audiences, allowing for access to and production of anthropological knowledge beyond the academy. This presentation gives an overview of public anthropologists' use of new media and discusses the implications of these approaches for scholarly production and advocacy. This downloadable chart, "The Participatory Digital/Visual Research Process," provides a schematic overview of themes discussed in the presentation. This presentation is part of the panel, "Public Anthropology/Public Culture: Image, Voice, and Participation in Public Visual Culture," organized by Sam Beck and Carl Maida and sponsored by the Society for Visual Anthropology.
International Environmental Justice: Building the Natural Assets of the World’s Poor
(2004-01) Harper, Krista; Rajan, S. Ravi
In recent years, vibrant social movements have emerged across the world to fight for environmental justice –- for more equitable access to natural resources and environmental quality, including clean air and water. In seeking to build community rights to natural assets, these initiatives seek to advance simultaneously the goals of environmental protection and poverty reduction. This paper sketches the contours of struggles for environmental justice within and among countries, and illustrates with examples primarily drawn from countries of the global South and the former Soviet bloc. This working paper is also accessible at the folllowing URL: http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/28d064d65f/publication/107/ A newer, revised version of this article appears in the 2007 edited volume, Reclaiming Nature: Environmental Justice and Ecological Restoration, James Boyce, Sunita Narain, and Elizabeth Stanton, eds., pp. 326-48. Chicago: Anthem.
'Wild Capitalism’ and ‘Ecocolonialism’: A Tale of Two Rivers
(2005-01) Harper, Krista
The development and pollution of two rivers, the Danube and Tisza, have been the site and subject of environmental protests and projects in Hungary since the late 1980s. Protests against the damming of the Danube rallied opposition to the state socialist government, drawing on discourses of national sovereignty and international environmentalism. The Tisza suffered a major environmental disaster in 2000, when a globally financed gold mine in Romania spilled thousands of tons of cyanide and other heavy metals into the river, sending a plume of pollution downriver into neighboring countries. In this article, I examine the symbolic ecologies that emerged in the two moments of environmental protest as well as Hungarian activists’ reflections on the changing political ecology of the region in their discourses of “ecocolonialism” (ökógyarmatosítás) and “wild capitalism” (vadkapitaliszmus).
Environmental Justice and Roma Communities in Central and Eastern Europe
(2009-07) Harper, Krista; Steger, Tamara; Filcak, Richard
Environmental injustice and the social exclusion of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has roots in historical patterns of ethnic exclusion and widening socioeconomic inequalities following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to multi-party parliamentary governments in 1989. In this article, we discuss some of the methodological considerations in environmental justice research, engage theoretical perspectives on environmental inequalities and social exclusion, discuss the dynamics of discrimination and environmental protection regarding the Roma in CEE, and summarize two case studies on environmental justice in Slovakia and Hungary. We argue that when some landscapes and social groups are perceived as “beyond the pale” of environmental regulation, public participation, and civil rights, it creates local sites for externalizing environmental harms.
Chernobyl Stories and Anthropological Shock in Hungary
(2001-07) Harper, Krista
The Budapest Chernobyl Day commemoration generated a creative outpouring of stories about parental responsibilities, scientific knowledge, environmental risks, and public participation. I examine the stories and performances elicited by the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1996. In these “Chernobyl stories,” activists criticized scientific and state paternalism while engaging in alternative practices of citizenship. The decade between the catastrophic explosion and its commemoration coincides with the development of the Hungarian environmental movement and the transformation from state socialism. Chernobyl Day 1996 consequently became an opportunity for activists to reflect upon how the meaning of citizenship and public participation had changed in those years as well. First, the Chernobyl explosion drew into question the authority of scientific expertise and Cold War notions of technological progress, provoking the “politicization of knowing” for many activists. Secondly, personal memories of the 1986 disaster reflect how Chernobyl presented everyday life dilemmas that caused many parents and professionals to see themselves as citizens and environmentalists, a process I term the “politicization of caring.” I analyze the political implications of framing the environment as lifeworld, drawing from sociologist Ulrich Beck’s concept of “anthropological shock.”