Premium
Exploring multiple ontologies of drought in agro‐pastoral regions of N orthern T anzania: a topological approach
Author(s) -
Goldman Mara J,
Daly Meaghan,
Lovell Eric J
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12212
Subject(s) - focus (optics) , ontology , climate change , pastoralism , value (mathematics) , ethnography , sociology , epistemology , computer science , ecology , biology , anthropology , philosophy , physics , livestock , machine learning , optics
There has been increased focus within the human dimensions of climate change on understanding the complex and multiple ways of ‘knowing’ climate. While these discussions are important in recognising different ways of knowing the climate and climate change processes already underway, we argue that this epistemological approach is limited and challenging. It begins with an assumption that there is one world (climate) out there that can just be known differently, and that knowledge can be isolated from ways of being and acting in the world. This often results in a distilling of complex knowledge practices into information for the purposes of integration. Drawing from a material‐semiotic approach from S cience and T echnology S tudies ( STS ), we propose a shift of focus to ontology, with an emphasis on the enactment of knowledge and reality (climate) simultaneously. We present ethnographic data from two drought events (2008/2009 and 2010/2011) among M aasai pastoralists in N orthern T anzania in E ast A frica to illustrate the value of such an approach, using multiple topologies (regional, network, fluid) for thinking through and following multiple enactments of drought in practice.