Convenors
Liesbeth Huybrechts, University of Hasselt
liesbeth.huybrechts@uhasselt.be
Cristiano Storni, University of Limerick
cristiano.storni@ul.ie
This panel explores and discusses the role of ethnography in more-than-human participatory research and design (Grusin, 2015; Braidotti, 2016) in the context of contemporary socio-environmental research, namely research and design on, for and with non-human entities in the Anthropocene (Moore, 2016; Adams, 2020). Specifically, we aim at exploring the role of ethnography in the practice of «re-tracing». The term «retracing» is a corrective to the decolonial reflexivity of words like «discovering»: we as researchers do not discover the world, but rather engage with traces of multiple worlds (Simonsen et al., 2014). Tracing is therefore about following human and non-human ways of doing and caring for socio-environmental challenges. It is also about critically reflecting on how our traditional ways of observing, describing, and explaining are falling short for dealing with the enormity of factual information about our current socio-ecological crises, but also the affective displacement and the emotional denials that accompany our exposure to it (Todd, 2021). Most concerning of these denials is the one that we are all inextricably and persistently entangled, but we know very little about what this means for knowledge and action (e.g., design interventions) in our common world.
«Re-tracing» therefore acknowledges the need to describe and make visible the invisible interdependencies we have ignored so far. It requires us to first unlearn the fictional boundaries that come with divisions and privileges (e.g., our land vs. their land) and that lead towards socio-ecological separations and imbalances (e.g., north and south, left and right, rich and poor, normal and ab-normal). Starting from this concern, we aim at investigating ethnographical approaches for careful observations that would enable us to better capture how we are all connected to one another, to shift and multiply viewpoints, to develop new sensibilities and frameworks for seeing the world as multiple.
Open questions
- What is the role of ethnography in «re-tracing» complex entanglements of humans and non-humans?
- What competences, tools and capabilities are required for the ethnographic researcher to «re-trace» human and non-human worlds and their interdependencies? What data to be collected, how to collect them?
- How can ethnographic «re-tracing» support rethinking ways of being with others (of co-existing)? How to analyse «re-traced» data?
- How can ethnographic «re-tracing» of socio-environmental issues and the multiple viewpoint characterising them be rendered, represented and communicated in research and design?
Keywords
ethnography; participatory design; participatory research; more-than-human; «re-tracing».
Sub-disciplines
participatory design; participatory research; social sciences.
References
Braidotti, R.
2016 «Posthuman critical theory», in Critical posthumanism and planetary futures, pp. 13-32.
Grusin, R A. (Ed.)
2015 The nonhuman turn. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Adams, M.
2020 Anthropocene psychology: Being human in a more-than-human world. Routledge.
Simonsen, J., C. Svabo, S. M. Strandvad, K. Samson, M. Hertzum, O. E. Hansen
2014 Situated Design Methods. MIT Press.
Todd, S.
2021 «”Landing on Earth”: an educational project for the present. A response to Vanessa Andreotti», in Ethics and Education, 16, 2, pp. 159-163.
Moore, J. W. (Ed.)
2016 Anthropocene or capitalocene?: Nature, history, and the crisis of capitalism. Pm Press.
Convenors’ bios
Liesbeth Huybrechts is Associate Professor and works in the areas of participatory design, design anthropology and socio-environmental transformation processes in the research group Arck, University of Hasselt, Belgium. She has developed a research interest in the design for/with participatory exchanges and processes of capacity building between human and the material/natural environment and the «politics» of designing these relations.
Cristiano Storni (he/him) is Associate professor in Interaction Design at the Computer Science & Information Systems department, University of Limerick, Ireland. He has a background in Human Computer Interaction and Science and Technology Studies. His work lies at the intersection of social science, computer science, and design with research interests including design theory and practice, participation design, health, sustainability, and inclusion.