Paper short abstract:

The application of spatial analysis, photomontage, digital storytelling and story maps is explored through the integration of desktop, ethnographic and participatory workshop data. The mosaic of findings represent the complexity of the field site (Mankweng) and collaborators (small scale farmers).

Paper long abstract:

As representations of ethnography expand beyond text into multimodal methods and media, opportunity arises for the application of mixed and collaborative methods in the representation of complex field sites. The application of spatial analysis, photomontage, digital storytelling and story maps is explored through desktop analysis and participatory workshops. The findings represent the diversity and complexity of the field and interlocutors.

The site, namely, Mankweng or Turfloop, is a peri-urban, rapidly urbanising township in Limpopo, South Africa and home to the University of Limpopo (UL). In the early days of fieldwork, through a discussion, with a UL lecturer, about the infrastructural development, land use and land tenure, he described Mankweng as a “mosaic of development”. This description stuck with me, more than those of my other interlocutors. Perhaps our common disciplinary background in Landscape Design influenced this, or my appreciation of visual media to understand and explain concepts. In this presentation, I combine methods from Landscape Architecture, such as those discussed in Zaroufis (2020) and Anthropology to describe Mankweng. Material from participatory workshops relay the stories of farmers of within 3 categories: backyard, subsistence and smallholder farming, expressing the diversity of capacities, hopes and dreams of residents.

Through these stories, urban growth and social differentiation are explored at a large scale using maps, whilst linked to collaborators’ individual stories that are represented through audio-visual media and story maps. A mosaic of representations thus emphasize the danger of painting certain field sites and collaborators with the same brush.