Traditional ways of life in southern Chile’s coastal zone in many ways resemble Helen and Scott Nearings’ description of the “Good Life”, where individuals’ cultural, economic, and social well-being are tied to the land, the sea, and the communities in which they live. However, those ways of life are increasingly impacted by both environmental and economic change, creating new challenges to and opportunities for living the Good Life. Dr. Ebel has been working in rural coastal communities in Chile for over ten years and will share her research on the resilience and adaptability of rural livelihoods undergoing global change along Chile’s coastal zone, with implications for our own lives here in Maine. Her work demonstrates the deeply embedded resilience and connectedness people have to the places they love, and the communities that continue to make and remake those places despite the hardships people face.

Dr. Sarah Ebel is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Sciences at the University of New England.