Experimenting with Water-Focused Participatory Research Methods

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a transformation in how water and human-water interrelations are conceptualized in the environmental humanities and social sciences. Such adaptation of theory has been tied to an interest in developing transdisciplinary water research methodologies, particularly in projects focused on practical outcomes. Nonetheless, this article’s authors note an incongruence in how such advances in theory are often not actually applied in practice. Going a small way toward addressing this, the authors argue that there is space for experimenting with more-than-human participatory research praxes to intentionally generate previously imponderable questions. This article describes the authors’ experiences in Aarhus, Denmark, of combining “floating seminar” and arts-based methods, including body maps and public engagement. Through these experiences with passersby-who-became-participants, and with the nonhuman world, the authors’ attentions were drawn to unexpected issues and questions centered on human-water relationships. Here, they reflect on emerging methodologies, and invite curious others to join them in developing them further.