Biebrza hydrosocial landscape. Analysis of environmental discourses in the largest Polish national park

Abstract

The author analyzes narratives about the environment in the largest national park in Poland. She attempts to present the socio-cultural aspect of water in Podlasie, based on the concept of the hydrosocial cycle as interpreted by Jamie Linton and Jessica Budds, yet extending it to the non-human world. In the Biebrza Valley there are many different environmental discourses, as well as conflicts related to the different perception of nature - human relationship. Two of them are dominant: the discourse of the employees and experts of the Biebrza National Park ("institutional") and that of the dissatisfied inhabitants ("agricultural"). The author moves away from the knowledge relativism traditional for ethnography.