UCSC Study #: HS-Legacy-2971
Study Title: Caring for Prairie: The Epistemologies, Ontologies and Politics of the Great Plains
RESEARCH PARTICIPATION
You may have been approached by Jenny Reardon while she was riding her bike across Kansas. She is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California Santa Cruz, and is conducting a research project entitled, Caring for Prairie: The Epistemologies, Ontologies and Politics of the Great Plains. The purpose of the study is to explore questions about how best to know and care for the prairies in Kansas, including how best to tend to the land and care for its life, and about struggles over best practices for managing the prairie’s land, water and the lives the prairie supports. One central element in these struggles has been the locus of credible, authoritative knowledge about how best to tend to the land and care for its life. Who and what can know the prairies and its inhabitants? Indigenous peoples, settlers, University researchers, independent researchers, government officials and bureaucrats, farmers, immigrant laborers? What practices of knowing are deemed legitimate and authoritative?
The information you gave Jenny will be used in the study. This includes:
• Your opinions on how best to tend to the land and care for its life (livestock),
• Your perspectives on your trust in government agencies, immigration, and historic and ongoing inequalities and injustices, and
• If you agreed, your photograph.
It is expected that up to 150 people will participate in this study.
Confidentiality:
The information that you provided to Jenny in the study will be handled confidentially. Your name was not collected or linked to the information you provided. If you declined to have your photograph taken, the information that you provided will be anonymous. If you agreed to have your photograph taken, your photo may be linked to your data when reporting the results of the research.
Jenny may paraphrase excerpts from your conversation to use when reporting the findings of this research. If used the paraphrase will be described in general terms. For example, a source might be identified as a “rancher in central Kansas” or a “conservation biologist” but at times it may be important to name a particular place name. The identities of individuals whom you mention during the conversation will also be protected. When paraphrasing the conversation, the names of any persons that you mention will not be used. Instead descriptive phrases and/or pseudonyms will be used.
Because of the nature of the study information being collected, it may be possible for someone to identify you. In some cases, the work of a particular research project or policy initiative may be sufficiently unique that knowledgeable people may be able to make good guesses about your identity. While the study team will not be able to prevent speculation about the identity of individuals or projects described, you will not be identified in any report or publication of this study in a way that will identify you unless you have agreed to have your photograph taken.
The information you provided might be used for future research without additional consent.
Benefits of this Study:
There are no direct benefits to study participants, although speaking with Jenny may have provided you with a chance to reflect on the practices of cultivating for and caring for prairies and their inhabitants. The results of this research may provide some benefits to society through informing national conversations about middle America, and inform community and policy discussions of post-truth politics and climate change.
Rights and Concerns:
If you have questions about this research study, please contact Jenny Reardon, at (831) 459-1645 or via email at reardon1@ucsc.edu. If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research participant, please contact the University of California Santa Cruz, Office of Research Compliance Administration at 831-459-1473 or orca@ucsc.edu.
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