Dataset 4: Mapping Ecological Reparation; Fieldnotes from a Participatory Workshop in Eastern Sicily

Description / Abstract This dataset item contains an anonymised ethnographic fieldnote from a participatory workshop held in Augusta on 7 December 2024 as part of doctoral research on ecological repair in late-industrial Eastern Sicily. The workshop focused on how places in the territory “speak” and how participants narrate places connected to everyday life, memory, work, loss, injustice, and possible futures. The fieldnote documents three moments: a guided walk through the public gardens of Augusta, small-group discussions about meaningful places, and a collective mapping exercise. Through these activities, participants connected personal memories and situated knowledge with broader questions of industrialisation, environmental damage, access to the sea, public infrastructures, labour, illness, and future imaginaries. The fieldnote is valuable as a trace of ethnographic experimentation. It shows how walking, listening, storytelling, mapping, and shared discussion can become methods for producing collective territorial knowledge. Ecological repair appears here not as an abstract concept, but as a situated question emerging from people’s attachments to a damaged yet loved territory. Why the fieldnote is valuable The material can be used to analyse participatory mapping, place-based memory, ecological repair, environmental justice, and public anthropology in a late-industrial landscape. It also documents how small places can open larger questions about work, contamination, care, loss, and future. How the data can be reused The fieldnote can support qualitative analysis, methodological reflection, teaching on ethnographic experimentation, and comparison with other participatory research processes in industrial or environmentally damaged territories. Ethics & rights note The fieldnote has been anonymised. Personal names and directly identifying details have been removed or generalised. Reuse should remain academic, educational, and non-commercial. Users should not attempt to identify participants or detach statements from the collaborative context in which they emerged.