Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Water in the landscape is and has been an integral part of life in the Netherlands. Its management goes back to the year 800 when people started to build dikes to protect themselves and the country from the water. Since then, water management policies have been evolving into technological constructions, thereby creating an identity for the Dutch people as masters over water. However, the current trend shows that policies are moving towards nature-inclusive measures and views on nature are changing towards stewardship instead of mastery.

This study uncovers relationships of people to water in the landscape in the Netherlands and explores how people relate to this change in policies and views on nature. The relationships are constituted by social and ecological factors that were studied by listening to stories and walking through the landscape where these stories were located. Collecting and combining similar stories led to the identification of six narratives reflecting human-water relationships that were analyzed using cultural narrative analysis.

The Dutch identity of mastery over nature is still present in stories that people tell. It is connected to the question of responsibility of the water management. Participants saw a role for the State to protect citizens from floods and other water disasters. Individual experiences were mainly related to light, happy memories with the water that was close by. The stories showed also a high level of reflection from participants during the interviews. The social-ecological approach was beneficial for understanding the stories and their context better, as well as enhancing reflexivity of the researcher.

The narratives show how human-water relationships are closely related to concepts of agency and collectivity, where collective memory of water disasters contributes to the idea of the Dutch as both victims and heroes that conquer the water. Stewardship of water is limited to drinking water and water scarcity, but citizen science research provides examples of how community-based natural resource management can enhance the stewardship of nature. Applying this in the Netherlands could help increase awareness of and care for water in the landscape.