Hawksbill Turtle Conservation in the Eastern Pacific: Weighing Biodiversity and Livelihood Risks

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In this chapter we explore the rhetorical strategies that community members use to (a) define risk, (b) prioritize various aspects of risk, and then (c) motivate responses to risk that seem appropriate. This case illustrates the usefulness of Tansey and Rayner’s (2010) cultural approach to risk, which “assumes an active, rather than passive, perceiver . . . driven by organizational imperatives. [The focus on shared meaning emphasizes the centrality of] dynamic relationships among human beings” (p. 60). This statement should not be taken to mean that individuals do not have agency. Rather, we take it to mean that individual agency always exists, but never in a state of absolute freedom. Individual subjects can and do make a difference, but they operate within a cultural context, one that includes history and institutions, rather than in isolation.