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Short abstract:

An audio exhibit for deep listening to oral histories of our changing environment and of collaboration to solve environmental problems.

Abstract:

Agriculture and nature conservation are often pitted against each other in narratives of land use, food production and ecological crisis. In the UK, agricultural and environmental protection communities have long been fragmented and siloed, from each other and internally. Lessons from the past about how (not) to work together across issues, sectors, organisations, types of expertise or other difference are forgotten.

As part of RENEWing Biodiversity - a large scale, multi-sited project investigating people’s involvement in biodiversity renewal, our embedded team of STS scholars and oral historians has been capturing stories of environmental collaboration. This is through ethnographic research documenting transdisciplinarity in real time as the project unfolds; as well as through oral history interviews about the life experiences of academics, naturalists, policy makers, campaigners and others. We are preparing an audio exhibit and live listening sessions to take to agricultural and environmental communities in 2024-25, telling stories that juxtapose the experiences of people across ordinarily siloed spaces and domains: academia and professional practice; natural and human sciences; conservation and agriculture, to prompt conversations and reflections on division, common ground and working together.

This Making and Doing stand presents an early version of the exhibit, exploring the potential of deep listening to stories of our changing environment (and of collaboration to solve environmental problems) to create dialogue between stakeholders, past and present. We invite you to listen, reflect, and share your own stories, as well as thoughts on how we could incorporate our ongoing ethnographic fieldwork into the exhibit.

Images: - Pinecone at RENEW Collaborations Workshop. Credit: Angela Cassidy. - Man and two children. Credit: John Marshall. Courtesy of John M Marshall. - Men in field. Courtesy of John M Marshall.