Contribution short abstract:

This paper explores David Abram’s concept of ‘wild ethics’ and asks what it means to be an ethical researcher when exploring the adaptation of traditional ecological knowledge in rural communities.

Contribution long abstract:

Adopting the role of participant-as-observer in the field of emplaced traditional craft means that the lines between your roles can appear blurred and there can be limitations. But there also exists the possibility for meaningful knowledge exchange and sustained engagement. Pre-existing links to the locality as well as the sincere reciprocity of care and learning between the researcher and the community, can create a seemingly unclear boundary between different facets. A continuous dialogue opens throughout the research process between ethics in an institutional sense and ethics as an individual interacting with the world. This paper reflects on many different influential approaches to fieldwork in craft research as well as my own experience of research on the topic of dry-stone walling throughout Scotland, which reveals how craftspeople in this sphere are evolving their traditional practices in dialogue with their environment. It references David Abrams concept of 'wild ethics' to place the researcher as one influential being within ‘a community of living subjects’