Methods of engaged social-ecological research

The Seminar was held by Uli Demmer.

Dates:

 Introduction at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, LMU, 17.10.16, 5-6 pm, Oettingenstr. 67, U 133.

Friday, 2 December: 10.00 - 18.00 (4th floor conference room)

Friday, 16 December: 10.00 - 18.00 (4th floor conference room)

Friday, 13 January 2017: 10.00 - 18.00 (2nd floor conference room)

Friday, 27 January 2017: 10.00 - 18.00 (2nd floor conference room)

 This seminar introduced students into the transdisciplinary methods of engaged social-ecological research and fieldwork. It covered approaches from several disciplines (e.g. geography, ecological economy, transformation- and sustainability research, sociology, social/cultural anthropology). In that kind of research scientists are not objective observers but rather engaged and involved researchers acting with, for and among the people and projects they study.

Such methods become increasingly important as social change, processes of social-ecological transformation and the new social movements involve a wide diversity of actors, knowledges, and ways of participation. The scientific 'gaze' is thus only one among many others. In additon, knowledges are not simply represented but actively constructed and subject to the 'political'. Researchers are called to actively take part instead of simply documenting facts.

The course was about the epistemological frameworks and the methods of this kind of research such as 'advocacy', 'collaboration', 'support', social critique, activism and others. It could usefully be combined with the seminar 'Anthropologie des Pluriverse, Teil II.' at the Institute of social/cultural anthropology at the LMU in this semester.

Literature as a 'starter'

Cattaneo, C. and S. Di Mauro. 2015. Urban Squats as Eco-Social Resistance and Resilience in the Face of Capitalist Relations. Case Studies from Barcelona and Rome. Open Journal of Socio-Political Studies. Partecipazione e conflitto, 8(2): 343-366.
Chatterton, P. and J. Pickerill. 2010. Everyday activism and transitions towards post-capitalist worlds. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. NS 35: 475–490.
Miller, Th. 2013. Constructing sustainability science. Emerging perspectives and research trajectories. Sustainability Sciences 8: 279-293.
Moulaert, Frank und Abid Mehmodd. 2013. Holistic research methodology and pragmatic collective action. In The International Handbook on Social Innovation: Collective Action, Social Learning and Transdisciplinary Research, edited by Frank Moulaert, Diana MacCallum, Abid Mehmood, Abdelillah Hamdouch. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. S. 442-452.
Gibson Graham, J.K. Gerda Roelvink. 2010. An Economic Ethics for the Anthropocene. Antipode. Vol.41 (Supplement s1): 320–346.
Joan Martinez et al. 2014 Between activism and science: grassroots concepts for sustainability coined by Environmental Justice Organizations. Journal of Political Ecology Vol. 21: 20-41.
Schneidewind, Uwe. 2014. Urbane Reallabore – ein Blick in die aktuelle Forschungswerkstatt. Planung-neu.denken. Vol. II : 1-7. (www.Planung-neu.denken, aufgerufen qm 16.4.2015)
Casas-Cortes, Isabel, Michal Osterweil and Dana Powell. 2013. Transformations in Engaged Ethnography: Knowledge, Networks and Social movements. In Jeffrey Juris and Alex Khasnabish (eds.), Insurgent Encounters: Transnational Activism, Ethnography, and the Political. Duke University Press.