Doing feminist collaborative event ethnography

Abstract

Feminist political ecologists have transformed mainstream political ecology since its inception. The foundational and current work of feminist political ecologists indicate that their field is attentive to the epistemological foundations of power, inequities, and inequalities that cut across intersectional identities and hierarchies of difference and at the sites of environmental conflict and governance. Feminist political ecologists have made important theoretical interventions in the interdisciplinary community of political ecologists, but the use of feminist methodologies and 'team-based environmental science' can be expanded. We argue that revisiting feminist methodological commitments is critical for furthering how feminist political ecology examines how, and in what way, power and privilege operate in the contexts where environmental knowledge is produced. We make our argument by drawing upon a multi-year, multi-sited project to describe how collaborative event ethnography (CEE) offers many possibilities to reassess feminist political ecology research designs. We show how the recognition of diverse and plural epistemologies are foundational preconditions to integrating feminist principles in feminist political ecology research. We find that integrating reflexivity, responsibility, and co-production in research designs create opportunities for, and challenges to, carrying out feminist political ecological practice. In so doing, the integration of feminist methodologies are critical to disrupting knowledge hegemonies and providing new modes of practicing feminist political ecologies.Keywords: Collaborative event ethnography, feminist political ecology, feminist methodologies, global environmental governance

Agency and constraint in environmental policy coherence

“…We were influenced by feminist methodology and team-based research (Zanotti & Marion Suiseeya, 2020). Each member of the team acknowledged their positionality, including personal relationships with some of the catchments, and their views on restoration.…”

Combatting Sexual Harassment in the Field Is Fundamental to the Research Enterprise

“…In many cases, norms, rules, and conditions will differ from a researcher’s typical academic setting (Gluckman 2018; Woodgate et al 2018). For example, a researcher who was conducting team-based fieldwork described how deeply team members were interconnected by explaining that they “built up relationships and learned about one another through living together, eating together, collecting data, conducting research, and during our free time” (Zanotti and Marion Suiseeya 2020, 976). In some instances, field researchers may not have independent access to communications or the ability to leave a site, and they may be dependent on gatekeepers for food, transportation, and emergency services (Berkeley PATH to Care Center 2020; Woodgate et al 2018).…”

Event ethnography: Studying power and politics through events

“…Besides my own effort to do so (Koch, 2018b, 2019b), sports studies scholars seldom frame their research as “event ethnography.” Rather, the term circulates most in the initial scholarship studying environmental conferences and summits through “collaborative event ethnography” (e.g. Brosius & Campbell, 2010; Büscher, 2014; Campbell et al., 2014; Corson et al., 2014; Duffy, 2014; Gray et al., 2014; Gray et al., 2020; Marion Suiseeya & Zanotti, 2019; Vadrot, 2020; Witter et al., 2015; Zanotti & Marion Suiseeya, 2020). International environmental summits might be considered a subset of what have been described as “field configuring events,” that is, events that bring together individuals belonging to a specific profession or interest group, but all of whom approach it in a unique fashion.…”

“…Rather, the term circulates most in the initial scholarship studying environmental conferences and summits through "collaborative event ethnography" (e.g. Brosius & Campbell, 2010;Büscher, 2014;Campbell et al, 2014;Corson et al, 2014;Duffy, 2014;Gray et al, 2014;Gray et al, 2020;Marion Suiseeya & Zanotti, 2019;Vadrot, 2020;Witter et al, 2015;Zanotti & Marion Suiseeya, 2020).…”