ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that rather than relying on abstract ideas of cooperation, situations can be understood as ongoing processes of identity construction in which individuals give meaning to discursive boundaries. It aims to identify what definitions of cooperation inform the choices and actions of protected area managers. In order to understand the negotiated temporal and spatial dimensions, this chapter explores assumptions regarding implicit and explicit power relations between actors. The chapter discusses the issues of acceptance and resistance, integration and distinction, on a social and spatial level. It suggests that the inherent weaknesses of the existing literature in the field, other more lateral analyses are needed, stepping outside the usual frameworks and including an improved definition of cooperation as a negotiated process. Establishing 'cooperation' between adjacent protected areas is about changing people's habits. If 'cooperation' is about individuals, then it is illuminating to take a look at the photos in the literature portraying people.
