Paper short abstract:

How can GIS and ethnography, in their complementary mode of representation, contribute to community-based management, care and stewardship in adapting and mitigating climate change?

Paper long abstract:

Based on ongoing research in a sea-Sami community of Porsanger, Norway, we seek to explore the transformative potential of community-based diverse marine economies (Roelvink, St. Martin, & Gibson-Graham, 2015) and environmental caring practices in the face of climate change (Haraway, 2016). Porsanger fjord may be understood as a capitalist ruin. A few decades ago, it was a rich fishery fjord, now totally transformed due to national fishery politics, changing technologies, ecological changes riven by invasive species. These have ruined kelp forests, spawning grounds and fisherfarmer livelihoods.

The capitalist growth paradigm has reshaped the registers of what Guttari (2000) addresses as three ecologies; the environment, the social relations and the human subjectivity (Latour, Stengers, Tsing, & Bubandt, 2018). Our idea is to explore these ecologies in light of GIS technologies and ethnography. Starting out from a series of map-based interviews on local use of foreshore resources in the fjord of Porsanger, in collaboration with Mearrasiida (sea Sami Centre) and the interviewees, we will identify palpable emic topics, and discuss their potential and relevance for being explored through GIS mapping and visual ethnographic methodologies. PPGIS and ethnography adhere to two very different modes of representation, both criticized for their dangers of disempowerment (Dunn, 2007; Grasseni, 2007). Being aware of these critiques, we want to explore if, and how, their analytical complementarity and differences may be useful for mediating "the three ecologies" (ibid2018) and their potentials for community-based engagement, care and stewardship.