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Paper short abstract

This paper examines an experimental, activist-led ethnographic methodology in human–environment research. Based on collaborative fieldwork in conflicted Carpathians in Poland, it explores positionality, knowledge co-production, and mediation across fractured epistemic fields.

Paper long abstract

This paper discusses an experimental methodological approach to researching human–environment relations grounded in engaged and collaborative anthropology. The project was co-designed with the Wild Carpathians Initiative and examines environmental conflicts in the Carpathian region through activist-led ethnographic fieldwork.

The study responds to the challenges of conducting research in the field characterised by contested knowledges, unequal power relations, and tensions between scientific, activist, and local perspectives. Methodologically, it explored a decentralised research design in which environmental activists were trained in ethnographic methods during an intensive two-day workshop and subsequently conducted fieldwork themselves. Their research focused both on local community attitudes toward environmental protection and on reflexive accounts of their own positionality as openly identified activists in the field.

This approach raises key methodological and ethical questions relevant to human–environment research in polarised settings: How does activist positionality shape access, trust, and the production of ethnographic knowledge? What forms of data emerge when researchers operate simultaneously within advocacy-oriented and analytical frameworks? How can reflexivity be collectively negotiated rather than individually managed?

The paper reflects on the frictions, ambiguities, and tensions generated by this research design. It argues that activist-led ethnography can function as a form of methodological mediation across divided epistemic domains, enabling the co-production of knowledge that would be difficult to access through conventional academic fieldwork.

By critically assessing this collaborative methodology, the paper contributes to broader debates on interdisciplinary, participative, and ethically situated research practices in contemporary human–environment anthropology.