Bringing Ethnographic Refusal into Pollution Science

• In Event: Maddening Science: Decolonizing Technoscientific Spaces, Places, and Communities

Abstract

Ethnographic refusal, whereby certain information about Indigenous knowledge and experiences is not disclosed by researchers, has been articulated by Indigenous scholars as a method in support of decolonizing research; settler researchers and audiences should not be able to access all information about Indigenous groups, and refusal to recount certain information can keep knowledge locally controlled and related. I explore how ethnographic refusal might be brought into the natural sciences through a case of studying plastic pollution in sustenance food webs in Newfoundland, Canada, and how not disclosing research findings is a world-making practice with ethical implications.

Presenter

• Max Liboiron, Memorial University of Newfoundland