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munity struggles as a form of compensation and a means to building reciprocal
relations (see Cloke et al., 2004). During her ethnographic work in a Mayan com-
munity in Guatemala, Sundberg (2004) had to promise to help with labeling medici-
nal plants in English and 'volunteered to assist in every way possible' (p. 50). In his
research on environmental activism in India, Paul Routledge (2002), similarly, was
only allowed to 'observe' the activities of an NGO that was protesting new large-
scale hotel developments after promising to participate in their action. Routledge,
clearly breaking from the ethical canon of ethnographic research, spoke with hotel
developers and managers disguised as a Western businessman interested in the
booming tourist industry and its (often illegal) hotel construction.
These examples demonstrate that the traditional model of a 'detached observer'
is increasingly irrelevant and that the dynamics of research need to be clearly
exposed (rather than submerged). Such research suggests that the subjectivities of
both academics and research participants are mutually affected, transformed and
(re)constituted during fi eldwork as well as the analytical and writing stages, follow-
up visits and so on (Routledge, 2002; Sundberg, 2004; see Hyndman, 2001 on
fi eldwork as unbounded).
While impossible to avoid, the politics of ethnographic representation can be
directly addressed where participation is explicitly incorporated into the ethno-
graphic method. That is, researchers can acknowledge the co-production of identi-
ties and environmental knowledge by both subjects and researchers and, using
participatory forms of research, see that the desires and needs of both are addressed
through the research process.
Rather than viewing ethnographic intervention as a disinterested search for truth in
the service of universal humanistic knowledge, we see it as a way of pursuing specifi c
political aims while simultaneously seeking lines of common political purpose with
allies who stand elsewhere [. . .] (Gupta and Ferguson 1997, p. 37)
Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach where researchers not only
recognise the effects of their research but they design projects around the possible
transformations (e.g., of identity, politics, environments) they would like to enact.
PAR relies upon a host of qualitative methods such as workshops, personal inter-
views, participant observation, team research, etc. that are clearly aligned with an
explicitly political and participatory ethnography (Kindon et al., 2007).
Our research on the economic and environmental transformations of fi sheries in
New England uses a PAR approach to facilitate a 'community becoming' and a
potential for community-based management of fi sheries resources (St. Martin and
Hall-Arber, 2007). Using ethnographic methods we engaged members of fi shing
communities into a cooperative investigation of fi sher's local environmental knowl-
edge, territoriality and sense of community. Fishers were recruited to conduct in-
depth interviews with other fi shers in their communities. In addition to eliciting rich
narratives of community and environmental histories (the forte of ethnographic
methods), the interviews also worked to generate a new subjectivity among the
participants, one that emphasised their positionality vis-à-vis community, shared
environmental knowledge and common territories of resource utilisation. The eth-
nographic approach in a PAR context proved vital as a means to foster a potential
for community-based management practices and to counter the individualist neo-
liberal subject given by dominant forms of resource management.
