The ecology of global, collaborative ethnography: metho-pedagogical moves in research on climate change with youth in pandemic times

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the nature of ethnographic collaboration during the harrowing and unpredictable times of a global pandemic. Documenting Year Two of a five-year, multi-sited ethnographic study, which necessitated virtual fieldwork in global drama classrooms (in Canada, India, Colombia, Taiwan, England, Greece), we offer a theoretical picture and practical illustrations of the ‘metho-pedagogical’ adaptations and observations made by the Toronto site team. For our study of youth and the climate emergency, we use an arts-led and youth-driven research process to provoke ‘listening bodies’ and the co-emergence of youth, artists, researchers, and research projects towards a more relational climate consciousness, a future created in the now. The prominence of ‘presence’ in our project took on an urgent and surprisingly intimate quality owing to the global pandemic in which we all suddenly found ourselves.