Seeing a Reservoir and Its Surroundings through the Residentsa?? Eyes in Alentejo Region, Portugal: A Social Representation Perspective

摘要

By conceptualizing a Portuguese reservoir and its surroundings as a social representation, this article empirically describes catchment residentsa?? representations using a word association task as a consultation tool. The three stimulus terms were: a??Reservoir and its surroundings,a?? a??Lake,a?? and a??Catchment.a?? Words associated with each stimulus term were analyzed by a correspondence analysis to identify underlying structures according to word co-occurrence and their associations with sociodemographic characteristics and type of reservoir and its surroundings uses. The three analyses were subsequently compared to integrate and summarize the results. Overall, respondents conceived the study area as a productive water body, a natural area for recreation or leisure, and a social setting for free time with family and friends evocative of emotions/feelings that may have important restorative effects. The article concludes by discussing how the study approach and findings may provide an opportunity to capture the views of lay people and assist subsequent water management.View full textDownload full textKeywordscase study, catchment residents, correspondence analysis, lay representations, public consultation, reservoir and its surroundings, water management, word associationsRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2011.625563