Person:
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

From Democratization to Globalization to Justice: Political Generations in Hungarian Environmentalism from the 1980s to the 2000s
(2009-01-01) 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.
Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activism and Postsocialist Political Ecology in Hungary
(2006-01-01) 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.
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.
Great Expectations? The Changing Role of “Europe” in Romani Activism in Hungary
(2006-01-01) 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.
Environment as Master Narrative: Discourse and Identity in Environmental Conflicts (Special Issue Introduction)
(2001-07-01) 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.
Lives, Images, Audiences, Intentions: Participatory Visual Anthropology in a Hungarian Romani Neighborhood
(2009-11-01) Harper, Krista
Participatory visual methodologies open up new possibilities for community collaboration in the research process, appeal to diverse audiences, and produce rich visual and narrative data guided by participant interests and priorities. Presenting a recent research collaboration with a grassroots Romani (Gypsy) community organization in northern Hungary, I discuss ethical and epistemological questions raised in participatory visual research. In this project, our team used the PhotoVoice method to generate knowledge and documentation related to environment, health, and the lived experiences of social exclusion. I explore power relationships in the research process as well as historical and contemporary issues of documentary photography of the Roma in Hungary.
International Environmental Justice: Building the Natural Assets of the World’s Poor
(2004-01-01) 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
(2005-01-01) 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).
Citizens or Consumers?: Environmentalism and the Public Sphere in Postsocialist Hungary
(1999) Harper, Krista
Much of the most vital activism of the post-1989 environmental movement in Hungary addresses the development of consumer culture and the expansion of transnational corporations in East-Central Europe. In actions against McDonald's conquest of the urban landscape and the ubiquitous presence of advertisements for transnational corporations, activists contrast cherished notions of decentralization and local control with the emergence of an imperialistic, global consumer culture. These issues came to the forefront of environmental debates while I was living in Hungary from 1995 to 1997, conducting ethnographic research on environmental groups. This paper will present several cases of Hungarian activism against well-known transnationals, examining how issues of the public sphere-public space, public access to information and debate, and public participation-are redefined as "environmental" struggles. I begin with an account of the environmental movement's role in the democratic opposition movement of the 1980s and then launch into discussion of Hungarian environmental activism in the 1990s. In the next section, I introduce the major environmental groups involved in anticorporate activism and discuss Hungarian environmentalists' response to the expansion of McDonald's and Coca Cola's attempts at holiday "goodwill marketing" in Budapest, the capital city. The last section delves into the political implications of environmentalist, anticorporate activism for the public sphere in Hungary, focusing on issues of local control of public space, marketing and public debate, and the political dilemmas of public participation in a consumer society.
The Genius of the Nation versus the Gene-Tech of the Nation: Science, Identity, and GMO Debates in Hungary
(2004-10-01) Harper, Krista
Introduction In the late 1990s, Hungarian politicians, environmentalists, and agricultural lobbyists weighed the pros and cons of allowing genetically modified (GM) food and seeds to enter the Hungarian market. Starting around 1994, a small group of Hungarian environmentalists began researching GM issues. Initially, they feared that as a post-socialist country seeking foreign investment, Hungary would become prey to multinational corporations seeking an ‘emerging market’ with a lax regulatory environment. The terms of the debate were reframed over time, notably following 1998, when a number of European Union member states banned the imports of GM foods and when Hungarian expatriate geneticist Árpád Pusztai was caught in a high-profile media controversy after expressing misgivings about the health risks associated with GM foods. The Hungarian public, previously agnostic on the subject of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), was suddenly engrossed in a debate that came to draw upon two key symbols of contemporary Hungarian national identity: the figure of the scientist and that of the industrious peasant producing wholesome food. With Hungary’s entry to the European Union, concerns about GMOs, food safety, and science and technology policy, have taken on an increasingly high profile in public debates about the European enlargement process.