Methods of engagement; a transdisciplinary learning approach to the problem of the Eerste River

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY: The concern of this study is with the persistent crisis of the Eerste River in Stellenboschand its relevance in the Anthropocene. In this study, the river is both a lens onto unevenurban development and an instrument for sustainability as a social movement. Thethesis makes two proposals. The first activates the river as part of the larger knowledgeenvironment of a watershed and proposes that a watershed is a way to imagine theinterrelationships of place. In this way, a watershed as a common Thing can activatecollective identity and engender care. However, a watershed as a knowledgeenvironment is complex and diverse.The second proposal of this study is to examine how participatory photography canconnect social networks to co-create knowledge about identity in this complexenvironment. The location for this case study was at the ecologically designed ResearchCentre in the informal settlement of Enkanini. However, the participatory photographyworkshop encountered difficulties, and this led to multi-layered methods of engagementin Enkanini that included walking and conversation.The images from the participatory photography workshop describe an intimate storyabout a place. When publically exhibited in Enkanini, unexpected audience participationemerged, and the photographs elicited further knowledge. The result is a public visualethnography of place that could be used in a conversation about the identity of theStellenbosch watershed. Underpinning the research is the flexible and iterative approachof Transdisciplinary Research Methodology (TDR).

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University