Shifting the conservation conversation? A critical reflection on DH project design for a counter-mapping of protected areas in the brazilian amazon

Abstract

This article is a reflection on Digital Humanities project design, and a commentary on the way practice often falls short of theoretical ideals. Its critiques are rooted in personal experience of a particular context: mapping conservation areas in the Northeastern Brazilian Amazon. The author explores the theoretical ideals of engaged participative project design in digital counter-mapping initiatives and measures the ability of her own project to live up to such ideals. Through a process of critical reflection, and an exploration of the theoretical literature in critical cartography studies, science, technology and society studies and political ecology, she describes the ways in which counter-mapping can unseat hegemonic discourse for conservation and development schemes in the Amazon, while highlighting the pragmatic limitations that researchers may face in designing participative counter-mapping projects. Engaging with the tensions between theory and practice in politically engaged research, the author offers a critical analysis of her own work as an example of imperfect project design, with the hope that such a reflection may be useful and generalizable for researchers wary of the pitfalls in planning engaged participatory research projects in the field of digital mapping.