@phdthesis{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Knowing Water Worlds: A Postphenomenological Approach to Socioenvironmental Imaginaries in Costa Rica}, pages = {235}, abstract = {In a context of increasing liberalization and privatization of the energy sector in Costa Rica, a wave of applications for private concessions to build run-of-the-river dams has swept over the country during the last decade. These hydroelectric projects have caused concern among residents adjacent to the targeted rivers to the extent that a socioenvironmental conflict has erupted in several communities in the southern Pacific side of the country, which I refer to as "water worlds". I use the term "water worlds" both to transcend the limits of a human-focused notion of community, and to refer to the mutually sustaining confluence of relations between the materiality of water, human and non-human living beings, knowledge claims and practices (acts-of-knowing) and their corresponding socioenvironmental imaginaries in particular territories and river water areas. This dissertation focuses on the acts-of-knowing and the underlying socioenvironmental imaginaries of these "water worlds". My empirical study seeks a postphemenological ethnographic approach, and draws theoretical connections between Cornelius Castoriadis and Science \& Technology Studies. Using advocacy research, it was conducted in 34 fieldwork sites, involved 14 unstructured interviews and dozens of conversations with community participants, and drew on numerous documents and visual resources. My analysis shows how:  The Environmental Impact Study (EIS) report of the San Rafael River over-simplifies the knowledge capacities of neighbor communities and environmental groups. The EIS report does not fully take into account knowledge about biophysical dynamics that members of the communities are able to co-create using alternative acts-of-knowing, such as: (i) giving attention to historical perspectives, (ii) embodying practices, and (iii) creating community coalitions in response to perceived knowledge deficits.  Local communities co-create imaginaries of water worlds associated with ways of living and the maintenance of community relations, upon which rivers have significant influence. This notion of imaginaries as a life force of connectivity challenges the underlying (modern) assumptions and treatments of rivers, as expressed in the EIS report. That is, it defies the imaginary of rivers as quantifiable, determinable, divisible, and isolated from the human and non-human communities.  Multispecies encounters in daily situations represent an important element in understanding acts-of-knowing articulated by the local communities in the "water worlds" of this dissertation. Drawing from Cornelius Castoriadis' perspective of living beings, I offer alternative imaginaries of the role of non-human animals in Costa Rica that are more intimate and affective than what I understand as mechanical and passive notions of non-human animals in the multiple spaces that they share together with humans. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a deeper (and politically significant) understanding of acts-of-knowing in a particular conflict over (more than) water. In doing so, it contributes to existing work on sociotechnical and environmental imaginaries in Science \& Technology Studies and political ecology by adopting a postphenomenological perspective, which aims to transcend taken-for-granted assumptions about acts-of-knowing under the sustainable development approach in Costa Rica.}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Degree of Participation in Science Shops}, series = {5th Living Knowledge conference 2012 on Re-imagining research relationships: co-creating knowledge in a democratic society: proceedings \& handbook}, journal = {5th Living Knowledge conference 2012 on Re-imagining research relationships: co-creating knowledge in a democratic society: proceedings \& handbook}, editor = {Steinhaus, Norbert and Shields, Michaela}, publisher = {International Science Shop}, address = {Bonn, Germany}, pages = {95 -- 98}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Contested Socio-Environmental Imaginaries of Water and Rivers in Times of Hydropower Expansion in Costa Rica}, series = {Water Alternatives}, volume = {16}, journal = {Water Alternatives}, number = {2}, issn = {1965-0175}, pages = {730 -- 749}, abstract = {A wave of applications for private concessions to build run-of-the-river dams swept Costa Rica during the 2010s. These hydroelectric project plans caused concern among residents adjacent to the targeted rivers to the extent that a water conflict erupted in several communities of the southern Pacific side of the country. In this article, I use a multi-sited ethnographic approach, including a visual analysis, to explore the resistance of local people to these plans. My focus is on the contestation over the assumptions about water that are present in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of a hydroelectric project plan. By showing the underlying socioenvironmental imaginaries that underpin the conflict over dam development, my article reveals ontological differences between institutionalised and non-institutionalised ways of knowing (and relating to) water. Reflecting on what I consider to be ontological disjunctions, I conclude that some of the technical aspects of the EIA report - such as the here-employed notion of environmental flow, which is estimated using only a hydrological approach - have constituted a technical orthodoxy, or dogma, that requires a rethinking of the institutionally dominant assumptions about the understanding and being of water and rivers in southern Costa Rica.}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Un flujo de nuevos caudales: retirada de presas en Espa{\~n}a, Alemania y Ucrania}, series = {Mirando a los r{\´i}os desde el mar. Viejos y nuevos debates para una transici{\´o}n h{\´i}drica justa}, journal = {Mirando a los r{\´i}os desde el mar. Viejos y nuevos debates para una transici{\´o}n h{\´i}drica justa}, publisher = {Editum. Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia}, address = {Murcia, Spain}, isbn = {978-84-09-39675-7}, pages = {484 -- 490}, language = {es} } @misc{RodriguezMansillaAlsopBenczeetal., author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel and Alsop, Steve and Bencze, Larry and Bazzul, Jesse}, title = {What STEM educations might we care for? Where, when, how and why?}, series = {Journal for Activist Science and Technology Education}, volume = {7}, journal = {Journal for Activist Science and Technology Education}, number = {1}, issn = {2560-8908}, pages = {i -- iv}, abstract = {This article is the editorial to issue 1 of volume 7 of the JASTE journal.}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansillaAlsop, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel and Alsop, Steve}, title = {Rethinking Climate Change Educational Research in a World of Shifting Climates}, series = {ICERI2016 Proceedings 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation}, journal = {ICERI2016 Proceedings 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation}, isbn = {978-84-617-5895-1}, issn = {2340-1095}, doi = {10.21125/iceri.2016.1075}, pages = {305 -- 305}, abstract = {It is now becoming clear that climate change is and increasingly will be the biggest challenge facing the world. Yet, far less clear, is how to integrate climate change into schooling to cultivate enduring educational experiences. The goals of this paper are twofold. The first is to explore and identify the visions and trends that guide climate change educational research. In this sense, we aimed to answer the following question: what visions and roles does climate change educational research propose (and also foreclose) for children and teachers in a changing world? To address this question, we conducted a literature review of about fifty relevant publications on education and climate change spanning across countries in the last decade. Our findings indicate that the emphasis of climate change educational research so far has been mainly on the literacy rate of pupils and teachers, and also on the conceptualizations and framing of this theme. This means that, for the most part, climate change educational research has been concerned with visions of deficits of knowledge and misunderstandings of basic scientific principles, especially by pupils. Drawing from a variety of influences, such as critical pedagogy, cultural, and science studies, the second goal of this paper is to assess the main implications of such visions and roles enacted through climate change educational research. In this sense, we critically highlight the functions that they propose for children and teachers in a world of shifting climates where increasing uncertainty is inescapable. As a result of this discussion, we urge a reassessment of learning about climate change in the classrooms based on more socially and ecologically situated explorations that overcome the limitations of current trends in climate change educational research.}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansillaRueLopez, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel and Ru{\´e}, Lourdes and L{\´o}pez, Laura}, title = {Situating the communicative methodology of research in the context of public science}, series = {International Review of Qualitative Research}, volume = {6}, journal = {International Review of Qualitative Research}, number = {2}, issn = {1940-8455}, doi = {10.1525/irqr.2013.6.2.307}, pages = {307 -- 322}, abstract = {The communicative methodology of research (CMR) engages members of communities at risk of exclusion with researchers to jointly transform their social reality. The aim of this paper is to situate the CMR within the context of public science. First, we will provide a brief historical account of the relationship between science and the public. Next, we will examine the variety of "participatory activities and methods" in science that have flourished in the last decades. In the last two sections of this paper, we will show the main characteristics of the CMR, comparing and contrasting them with those of other participatory approaches.}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Speaking My Truth: Reflections on Reconciliation \& Residential School. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2012}, series = {The Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research (REMIE)}, volume = {3/2011}, journal = {The Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research (REMIE)}, number = {1}, publisher = {Hipatia Press}, address = {Barcelona, Spain}, issn = {2014-2862}, doi = {10.4471/remie.2013.05}, pages = {96 -- 97}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Towards Equity in Mathematics Education: Gender, Culture, and Diversity. Springer Berlin, Heildelberg, 2012}, series = {Journal of Research in Mathematics Education (REDIMAT)}, volume = {2/2012}, journal = {Journal of Research in Mathematics Education (REDIMAT)}, number = {1}, publisher = {Hipatia Press}, address = {Barcelona, Spain}, issn = {2014-3621}, doi = {10.4471/redimat.2013.23}, pages = {154 -- 156}, language = {en} } @misc{RueRodriguezMansilla, author = {Ru{\´e}, Lourdes and Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {The international Journal of Deliberative Mechanisms in Science: new Opportunities and Challenges for the new Millennium}, series = {International Journal of Deliberative Mechanisms in Science}, volume = {1}, journal = {International Journal of Deliberative Mechanisms in Science}, number = {1}, issn = {2014-3672}, doi = {10.4471/demesci.2012.00}, pages = {1 -- 3}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMansilla, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez Mansilla, Francesc Gabriel}, title = {Not without the otters: multi-species coalition against hydro-extractivism and in defense of life in common in southwestern Costa Rica}, series = {Ecologia Pol{\´i}tica}, volume = {63}, journal = {Ecologia Pol{\´i}tica}, issn = {1130-6378}, pages = {65 -- 69}, abstract = {For the past two decades, dozens of rivers in Costa Rica have been threatened by the plans of hydroelectric developers to build private run-of-the-river dams. Local communities adjacent to the rivers located between the Talamanca Mountain range and the Pacific Ocean stopped this attempt at hydroextractive expansion after a years-long struggle against dams and in defense of life. Based on a multi-species ethnography, in this article I show how the otters that inhabit these rivers, are also protagonists of this struggle. To do so, I expose the multi-species coalition formed in these communities in response to the absence of otters in the Environmental Impact Assessment of the San Rafael hydroelectric project.}, language = {en} }