ETHOS Lab welcomes Adam Veng, who has just taken on a position as RA in the project Democratic Innovations in a Green Transition. He will join ETHOS’ research community and continue the tradition of working with mapping and critical thinking.
Here he gives an introduction to himself and the project:
Adam: My background is in Social Anthropology from Copenhagen University where I have worked as a research assistant on various climate/environment projects, all including different forms of collaborative action research methods. At ITU I am employed in the project Democratic Innovations in a Green Transition where I explore how different actors on the climate agenda network with one another.
How are digital methods embedded in the research?
I am currently working primarily with the tools Hyphe, but in the future propably also T-Cat, to make digital mappings of how the controversy over the Danish Climate Act play out on the internet, and how grassroot organizations and formal political entities (dis)connect with one another on matters of green transition. I am employed until August 2022.
Considering the legacy of mapping, how do you reflect on the application of mapping within research?
While being new in the field of digital mapping, I intend to bring in critical approaches to mapping methods/approaches by gradually inviting the movements I study (anything from, say, radical activists to local environmental groups) in the actual mapping process. I will iteratively discuss the maps, that I as a researcher produce, with my informants and plan this process to culminate in a ādata sprintā where informants are invited to produce their own cartographies (digital and/or analogue) of how they understand and experience the network of the climate movement they are part of.
What are your hopes for the research and your contribution to it?
I see great potential in crossing the alleged distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches by combining digital methods with action research-oriented Anthropological fieldwork. I am happy to be part of the open and caring network of ETHOS that supports this kind of critical research.