Page 7 - Caring_for_your_community

Theoretical frameworks
How to address social issues and play a social role are questions
that have been examined and debated both by practitioners
and academics across cultural institutions and disciplines.
The following section presents some of the most common
approaches that have been used to consider these questions.
As it is impossible to be exhaustive, the range of approaches
chosen reflects the theoretical backgrounds used – deliberately
or not – by the projects included as case studies in this manual.
The choice of particular theoretical frameworks by botanic
garden professionals is often the result of a combination of
the content focus of the programme, the type of audience, and
the disciplinary background of the professionals themselves.
For example, the Social Model of Disability is implicit in the
development of the Therapeutic Garden in SottoVico BG and
the Growing Along with the Botanic Garden programme by
Oxford BG (see pages 19 and 11 respectively). The following
discussion starts with the Social Model of Disability, moves on
to Theory of Change (as interpreted and adapted by Culiacán
BG, page 23), then Evidence-Based Design, and concludes with
Asset-Based Community Development.
The development and adoption of the Social Model of Disability
in the early 1990s transformed the way cultural organisations
develop provision for, and do research with people with
disabilities (Oliver, 1992; Barnes, 1992; Clough and Barton,
1995; Moore, Beazley and Maelzer, 1998). This model explains
the disadvantages experienced by disabled people in terms
of characteristics of social organisations: – loss of or limited
opportunity to join in society on an equal level with others, is
seen as a result of how society is organised. Disability arises
from the economic, environmental and cultural barriers created
by society rather than by any impairment of the individuals
themselves. Researchers using this model argue that, for
disabled people to be able to join in society, there is a need to
identify and remove the barriers which exclude them. This in
turn will bring about a change in the way society is organised.
The Social Model of Disability can be traced back to work done
by Paul Hunt in the UK in the mid-1960s (Light, 1999/2000)
and comes in direct contrast to the Individual or Medical
Model of Disability. The medical model explains disability in
terms of the features of a person’s body: an impairment which
diminishes quality of life and, hence, needs to be compensated
for through welfare benefits and medical treatments (Borsay,
1997; Crow, 1996). As mentioned above, we believe that the
values and principles that underpin the Therapeutic Garden, and
the Growing Along with the Botanic Garden programme are in
line with the Social Model of Disability. This framework has also
been used in the museum context for a number of years and
some studies that are particularly relevant to this discussion
have focused on the role museums can play to combat social
exclusion and, hence, as agents of social change (for more on
this see Sandell 2002, 2003).
The three approaches presented below were chosen because
they are the theoretical frameworks selected by botanic gardens
appearing as case studies in this manual. Theory of change was
used by staff at the Culiacán BG to set up a pathway of change
for community members’ habits, with the aim of building a
harmonious relationship with their natural environment.
Garden staff identified that in and around the city of Culiacán
there exist abandoned public spaces in areas of severe social
deprivation and marginalisation. Such spaces tend to become
dumps or meeting places for gangs or drug dealers, reinforcing
negative patterns of use and stereotypes associated with
narcoculture and unsympathetic ‘modernization’, which
represent obstacles to the communication of environmental
messages. The staff set out to develop an environmental
education programme that would promote awareness and
appreciation of the regional flora which in turn generates
‘habits of social coexistence, a sustainable relationship with
the environment and the appropriation of these spaces’ (Jardín
Botánico Culiacán, n.d.). A visual representation of the change
process was created (see Figure 1), which identifies the problem
and the types of interventions needed to lead to particular
outcomes, as well as how proposed interventions interlink and
are expected to bring about change.
The design of the change map helped garden staff create a
commonly understood vision of long-term goals, how they
will be reached, and how progress will be measured along the
way. Each active stage of the project is based on the Theory
of Change method, and the success of these actions has been
evaluated using a list of key indicators. The Theory of Change
can be seen as a process of development in which participation
increases over time and people are part of the solution. In order
to achieve the goal, people are encouraged to get involved,
receive training, become organised in a community and commit
to the importance of the project (Jardín Botánico Culiacán, n.d.).
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