Activity 3.6 – Research Paradigms 

Although it was signed into law only 48 years ago, there are currently 2,224 species listed on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (“Listing Species,” n.d.). During the 1980s and 1990s, there were a multitude of political, social, and legal issues surrounding the ESA, more specifically, the preservation of the northern spotted owl. The issues surrounded the importance of loggers’ jobs and the owl species.  

A structural-functional approach when it comes to the protection of the northern spotted owl and loggers might involve analyzing how the owl species interacts with its forest ecosystem. If the owl were to go extinct, the population size for small rodents, birds, and invertebrates, would increase and throw the forest’s ecosystem off balance. Structural functionalism would examine the change of animal conservation overtime, and how the methods have evolved. The change in logging practices would also be observed. For example, mechanical improvements have reshaped the production of logging over time, which also increases the number of organisms at risk for extinction.

  

Symbolic interactionism would explore the reasoning behind why some people are more inclined to support the protection of the northern spotted owl, and others would rather continue logging. This paradigm would explain that individuals that had positive experiences with animals and nature at an early age would support the movement to add the owl to the ESA. If their parents/family advocated for the conservation of any aspect of the environment, an individual would be more likely to support the preservation of the owl rather than support logging. If an individual grew up around loggers or had loggers in their family, they would be prone to back the loggers and disagree with the conservation of the owl.  

An Ecofeminist would explain that the protection of the owl, or the ESA, will be disregarded as a result of being seen as feminine. Since aspects like conservation, environment, and animals, are seen as a feminine issue, there is a higher chance that these topics will be seen as less important than more masculine topics, like logging. The conceptualization that earning money and having a job is a masculine topic, gives higher regard to men trying to make money by participating in jobs like logging. If a “feminine” issue, like the protection the spotted owl, interferes with this masculine topic, the conservation of the spotted owl will be seen as a silly nuisance to logging, thus making it inferior.  

 

 

 

Works Cited

Listing Species Under the Endangered Species Act. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/endangered_species_act/listing_species_under_the_endangered_species_act/index.html