Abstract
Hetzel and Pascht provide an ethnographic case study about the encounter of young people living in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, with scientific knowledge of climate change. Young ni-Vanuatu consider this knowledge as extremely relevant and necessary in order to solve the problems seen as caused by climate change, and they make efforts to distribute it to all inhabitants of Vanuatu. The authors interpret the reception process and the new ideas that emerge as a result of the encounter of scientific knowledge with principles which have been described as important elements of Pacific Islanders’ ontologies, namely the close connection people have with their immediate environment and the outward orientation which connects them with inhabitants of other islands and continents.
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Hetzel, D., Pascht, A. (2017). Young ni-Vanuatu Encounter Climate Change: Reception of Knowledge and New Discourses. In: Dürr, E., Pascht, A. (eds) Environmental Transformations and Cultural Responses. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53349-4_5
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