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).

Show all metadata

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 16

Open Access
A Photovoice Participatory Evaluation of a School Gardening Program through the Eyes of Fifth Graders
(2009-01) Sands, Catherine; Harper, Krista; Reed, Lee Ellen; Shar, Maggie
In the springtime, fifth grade students at the Williamsburg Elementary School in rural Western Massachusetts ask to snack on sorrel and chives from the school garden, between planting potatoes and building a shade structure for their outdoor classroom. They are members of the first cohort of the curriculum-integrated program initiated by Fertile Ground, a grassroots organization in western Massachusetts. The children’s delight in the fresh greens they have grown marks a national phenomenon: the farm-to-school movement. With limited resources, parents, teachers, students, administrators, and community activists are developing inroads to better school food and food education, by constructing school teaching gardens, visiting neighboring farms, engaging in classroom cooking projects and community harvest meals, and providing lasting farm and cafeteria procurement connections. This wave of national activism has arisen in response to the alarming diet-based childhood health crisis, and a desire for hands on experiences that connect young people to the land, food, history, their community – and themselves. During Spring 2008, Fertile Ground underwent a participatory evaluation project, in which fifth grade students assessed the value of inquiry-based, hands-on learning in the school garden through the Photovoice method. Photovoice research places cameras in the hands of community members so that they themselves document and discuss their concerns and perspectives (Wang, et al., 1996). The research was designed to gain insight about the students’ knowledge of food, nutrition, and community food systems, having participated in six years of hands-on programming in the school garden. The research also aimed to illuminate the students’ impressions of leadership, fellowship, care for the land and community that have arisen out of Fertile Ground farm-to-school programs. The Photovoice study was designed by Fertile Ground Director Catherine Sands, undergraduate anthropology intern Lee Ellen Reed, and Maggie Shar, Fertile Ground program coordinator and instructor. Professor Krista Harper supported the project with her expertise in research methods and with equipment from her newly established Photovoice Research Lab at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This article outlines the context of school garden learning programs and its relevance today, delineates the methodology of our research, its assets and limitations, and offers an example of youth-driven, participatory Photovoice research and evaluation for farm-to-school programs.
Open Access
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.
Open Access
The Genius of the Nation versus the Gene-Tech of the Nation: Science, Identity, and GMO Debates in Hungary
(2004-10) 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.
Open Access
'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).
Open Access
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.
Open Access
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.
Open Access
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.
Open Access
Lives, Images, Audiences, Intentions: Participatory Visual Anthropology in a Hungarian Romani Neighborhood
(2009-11) 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.
Open Access
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.
Open Access
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.”