A mutual relationship over time? Ethnographic Data

EN: Mangrove forests are located at the in-between of the sea and the land. People around the world have made sense of mangroves in many different ways, ranging from mangroves as "home of ghosts", "resources", "biodiversity reserve", "coastal protection" to "death bringers". The aim of the research project is to understand how people in Southern Ecuador have made sense of their mangrove surrounding at the Gulf of Guayaquil over the last 200 years, and how this guides the use of mangrove areas around the Gulf of Guayaquil. The research draws on Communicative and Discursive Constructivism and the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. The research data is composed of ethnographic and historical data, collected online, in archives and in an eight months' field research from 06/2019 until 02/2020 in Southern Ecuador. Besides unfolding empirically how meaning is attached to mangroves around the Gulf of Guayaquil and how discourses have shaped these meanings, the results aim to contribute to the ongoing discussions about the methodological framework used.