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Paper short abstract

I respond to the limitations of eco-ethnography by complementing it with field philosophy, drawing on my fieldwork experience in Pödelwitz, where i collaborate with scientific citizens on concepts in, from, and for the field.

Paper long abstract

Eco-ethnography is a powerful addition to citizen science by enriching quantitative data collection with ethnographic nuance. Yet, it remains confined to citizen science narrowly defined. Furthermore, even though it provides critical reflection on the collaboration between lay-people and experts, eco-ethnography risks reproducing a one-way relation between science and citizens, and by extension nature and society. I respond to these limitations by complementing eco-ethnography with field philosophy, drawing on my fieldwork experience in Pödelwitz.

Field-philosophy is an emerging trandisciplinary methodology, with strong roots in anthropology, which treats conceptual analysis as a collaborative fieldwork activity (Rabinow 2014; Buchanan 2019; Diamanti 2025). Pödelwitz is a village in the central German mining district, which was saved from devastation by local residents and climate activist. From this successful resistance emerged a citizen initiative which aims to transform the village in line with climate justice. I here reflect on my collaboration with the initiative to study what climate justice means for Pödelwitz during and after the German exit from coal.

Field philosophy productively complicates the distinction between of citizens and scientist. Many of my collaborators have an academic background but collaborate with me as activists; they are scientific citizens. Moreover, it expands eco-ethnography's focus on natural science research (like climate) to humanities topics (such as justice), by studying what I call concepts in, from, for the field. Yet, there are lingering concerns, how well these epistemically situated and politically positioned concepts can travel, especially in the polarized times of climate urgency, with which I conclude.