Apurahat ja residenssipaikat

Tiede

Multispecies ethics of care in the gardening practices in Vantaa and Helsinki

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

In this post-doctoral research, I explore whether and how ethics of care is intrinsic to current and future-oriented human and non-human relationships in urban gardening practices? The research data will be obtained using a variety of long term, deep immersion, and collaborative ethnographic methods in Hakunila, Hermanni and Nissas, in the Greater Helsinki area. The main thematic areas of research are relationships and ethics of care between pollinators, plants, and humans; ethics of care between humans and possible unwanted species (hare, deer, weeds, birds etc.); ethics of care in the relationships between humans and small-scale soil ecosystems. The ethnographic data will be analysed with the frameworks of feminist ethics of care, science and technology studies (STS) and multispecies ethnography. I will contribute to the theoretical discussions that are concerned with the necessity of ethics of care in small-scale lifeworld sustainability; de-anthropomorphising of ethics of care; and valuation and hierarchies within multispecies ethics of care. The research is a novel contribution to the scholarship of urban gardening practices in Finland and Europe. The perspective of multispecies ethics of care brings another layer to the existing research on urban gardens beyond sites of food production or spatiotemporalities of mere human interaction. Thus, the research will contribute to the globally relevant and locally nuanced understanding of the implications of ethics of care in creating and sustaining diverse and regenerative socio-ecological systems against the backdrop of climate emergencies. Such research can be continued, scaled, and integrated into possible future interdisciplinary and transnational knowledge co-creation projects.

In this postdoctoral research project, I investigate whether and how ethics and practice of care are manifested in human and more-than-human relationships within urban gardening practices. Ethnographic research was conducted on three distinct gardening practices in the Greater Helsinki area in 2022 and 2023. I apply a range of long-term and co-creative ethnographic methods that consider the intricacies of multispecies entanglements of care in the gardens. Along with participant observation, deep hanging out, conversations and storytelling, I applied sketching, drawing and illustration methods, which are slow and silent methods that create space for noticing and acknowledging care in the gardens. The ethnographic material is analysed through the theoretical lens of feminist ethics of care, science and technology studies (STS) and multispecies ethnography. My study contributes to the debates that concern caring and care-full multispecies methodologies, de-anthropocentrism, and hierarchies within multispecies ethics of care. The novel perspective of multispecies ethics of care in urban gardening practices adds an important layer to the existing research on urban gardens, extending beyond sites of food production or the mere spatiotemporalities of human interaction. My findings show that awareness of diverse manifestations of ethics and practice of care are paramount in understanding the complexities of climate emergency and biodiversity in urban gardens as lesser-acknowledged forms of urban natures.

Takaisin apurahalistaukseen