Categories
co-production feminisms talks

¿Qué entiendo por investigación transformadora?

Esta semana he participado en las Jornadas sobre Cultura Laboral en la Investigación en la sede de Valencia. Me han parecido magníficas en organización, inspiradoras en contenido y MUY NECESARIAS para un sector tan disperso y precario como es la ciencia. Porque sí amigas, las investigadoras no siempre somos esos seres privilegiados que viven para sus experimentos y sus libros. También tenemos cuerpos frágiles, como nos contó la maravillosa Remedios Zafra, que sufren ansiedad, insomnio, dolores varios y que la mayoría de las veces se sienten solos cual hamster en la rueda productivista. Escuchar a Remedios analizar con tanta lucidez esos bucles invisibles en los que estamos, a un montón de colectivos en lucha por mejorar las condiciones de las investigadoras a todos los niveles, disfrutar de performances y notas de humor a lo largo del recorrido, y conocer a @piratas_ciencia y su incansable labor ha sido toda una experiencia de conexión.

4 ideas planteadas por Remedios Zafra en su charla: La Investigación como Trabajo.

Me pidieron que planteara un seminario ‘propositivo’ y lo llamé ‘Climas, cambios e incertezas. Situarnos como investigadoras’. Lo que traté de compartir fue cómo intento que la investigación que hago sea un cauce para ponerme en acción y no dejarme arrastrar por la angustia y la impotencia ante la crisis climática. Planteé tres ideas que tienen que ver con mi propia evolución de lo que yo entiendo por investigación socioambiental transformadora: una ciencia más democrática, plural y que practica una ética de los cuidados. Creo que las teóricas feministas de la ciencia como Donna Haraway, María Puig de la Bellacasa, Vinciane Despret, Anna Tsing, Marisol de Cadena, entre otras, nos están iluminando un camino que invita a transformar la ciencia que hacemos y a nosotras con ella. Compartí también las preguntas que me hago en mi investigación en el Mar Menor y cómo trato de situarme en un contexto de crisis ambiental y polarización social.

Aquí podéis verlo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaOcyPXKK2w

Aquí descargar las slides:

Luego hubo un debate interesante moderado por Guillermo Muñoz de Piratas de la Ciencia con preguntas sobre la interdisciplinariedad, las relaciones arte-ciencia, la desigualdad o los negacionismos. Al final alguien me preguntó por el papel de la educación científica en los colegios y recuerdo que no sabía qué decirle y me sentí mal por ello. Al estar ahí en un escenario es como que tienes que decir algo y si es inteligente mejor. A ver si la próxima me atrevo a decir: pues no tengo ni idea! También tomé conciencia a partir de una pregunta de lo difícil que me resulta separar lo personal de lo profesional, lo cual he empezado a ver como un problema, que luego iluminó muy bien Remedios en su charla.

Espero que haya muchas más jornadas como esta y que nos sigamos enredando. Nos necesitamos.

Remedios Zafra. Por una nueva cultura laboral.

Categories
aqua Mar Menor socio-ecology talks

Slides from the conference on sociohydrology

Last september I attended the very exciting Delft International Cnference on Socio-hydrology. I was surprised by the interest in interdisciplinary water studies, the deepness of discussions in this direction, and the incredible online-offline setting.

My talk was entitled ‘Eutrophication as an opportunity for multispecies water justice’. I drawed on the work of Alix Levain et al. (2020) that conceptualizes eutrophication as a hydrosocial problem to share some ideas and preliminary results from the Mar Menor case.

Here my slides.

Categories
talks

Conference at NeWAVE

I recently delivered a talk at the e-lecture series of the Next Water Governance – NeWAVE MSCA-ITN together with Julia Martinez, from the Nueva Cultura del Agua foundation. I focused my contribution on the relevant questions to be asked when designing a process of knowledge co-production for water governance: Why and to what end, what, with whom and how.

A short clip of the video:

Below you can download the slides of the full presentation. The talk will be soon online.

Categories
co-production facilitation research talks

Conversatorio: experts and expertise in citizen engagement and deliberative democracy: what is good practice?

On December 10th, I participated in a conversatorio within the 3rd Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival of the European Commission. Chaired by Elisa Vecchione, we had a lively discussion on different questions regarding the role of experts in deliberative and citizen engagement processes.

We discussed what’s different about engaging with an audience that is neither that of your academic peers, nor a policymaker in seek of advice, nor a general public. We also talked about the importance of complexity and how to ensure it is not lost in citizen engagement processes. Finally, we reflected on our personal transformation while participating in citizen engagement processes and on what do we consider good quality scientific evidence.

My contribution to these points mostly stem from a citizen engagement experience in a case study from the H2020 project MAGIC . We explored the role of desalination and wastewater reclamation technologies to supply water for irrigation in the Canary Islands (Spain). The research focused on assessing the pertinence of this innovation from a water-energy-food nexus perspective. That is, by considering information and perspectives from different intertwined resource management domains, namely water, energy, food and climate. We mobilized knowledge from actors working on those different domains first in interviews and second in two participatory workshops. The am of the workshops was to co-create narratives on desirable futures to which these innovations could contribute to.

The first methodological paper of this research process can be downloaded at my publications site. Further information on the case study can be found here.

Categories
co-production facilitation research talks

Ambiguities in participatory processes

During the V Post-Normal Science Symposium I participated in a session chaired by Marcela Brugnach and Caroline van Bers entitled ‘Addressing ambiguity in participatory processes for sustainable resources management to support Integrated Assessment‘.

Ambiguity is a type of uncertainty that refers to the confusion or discrepancy in understanding that exist among actors in a group over the issues of concern and their solutions. Ambiguity reflects the many meanings and preferences in responding to change. It speaks for diversity and the unavoidable differences that exist in any social system. Ambiguity is increasingly recognised as an issue in the coproduction of knowledge, transdisciplinarity but is not yet fully recognised as such. Approaches to identify and address ambiguity are in their infancy. The issue of ambiguity is particularly important in the context of participatory processes and promoting the (re)democratization of science.

In this session we explored how ambiguity has been and could be more effectively addressed in the context of Integrated Assessment and co-production of knowledge on environmental issues. For this purpose, Marcela introduced the concept of ambiguity and its relevance for the democratization of knowledge. Caroline shared several experiences on addressing ambiguities and seeking for shared understanding in Integrated Assessment processes. Finally, I discussed the potential of narratives as epistemic tools to work with ambiguities in extended peer communities.

My talk and all others at the digital conference are available on the PNS5 Youtube channel