Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
DSpace
UBCO
Lammi, Sierra
Master of Arts - MA
University of British Columbia
This thesis examines the research question: how can participatory mapping help share youth experiences with climate change? Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, and a single understanding or solution remains elusive. We all have various experiences with climate change depending on our relationship to place, and where in the world our experiences are based. Given the variance and complexity of climate change, it is important find ways to share unique place-based stories and experiences so we may understand it from multiple perspectives, across different disciplines and worldviews. Participatory mapping is a method that amplifies the voices of community through mapping their knowledge of specific issues. This research examines the ways that participatory mapping can help us understand and communicate diverse understandings and experiences of climate change. Through three focus groups, students at University of British Columbia Okanagan created participatory maps of their experiences with climate change, and specifically those with the Grouse Complex wildfire that occurred in the Okanagan in August, 2023. Drawing from participatory action research (PAR) literature and prioritizing the situated knowledge of participants, the participatory mapping process facilitated critical dialogue among participants, drawing attention to place-based intersectional relationships and their influence on the ways we experience climate change. This study draws attention to the importance of the participatory mapping process, indicating that the process of creating a participatory map may be just as important as the map itself.
Mapping our Stories: An exploration of youth experiences with climate change by Sierra Lammi B.A., The College of St. Benedict and St. Johnâs University, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) (Community Engagement, Social Change and Equity) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) July 2024 © Sierra Lammi, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Mapping our Stories: An exploration of youth experiences with climate change submitted by Sierra Lammi in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Dr. Jon Corbett, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisor Dr. Astrida Nemanis, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Lael Parrott, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Donna Senese, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jason Pither, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science University Examiner iii Abstract This thesis examines the research question: how can participatory mapping help share youth experiences with climate change? Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, and a single understanding or solution remains elusive. We all have various experiences with climate change depending on our relationship to place, and where in the world our experiences are based. Given the variance and complexity of climate change, it is important find ways to share unique place-based stories and experiences so we may understand it from multiple perspectives, across different disciplines and worldviews. Participatory mapping is a method that amplifies the voices of community through mapping their knowledge of specific issues. This research examines the ways that participatory mapping can help us understand and communicate diverse understandings and experiences of climate change. Through three focus groups, students at University of British Columbia Okanagan created participatory maps of their experiences with climate change, and specifically those with the Grouse Complex wildfire that occurred in the Okanagan in August, 2023. Drawing from participatory action research (PAR) literature and prioritizing the situated knowledge of participants, the participatory mapping process facilitated critical dialogue among participants, drawing attention to place-based intersectional relationships and their influence on the ways we experience climate change. This study draws attention to the importance of the participatory mapping process, indicating that the process of creating a participatory map may be just as important as the map itself. iv Lay Summary This thesis explores the ways that participatory mapping processes can engage youth voices in discussions of climate change. Over the course of three focus groups, student participants at the University of British Columbia Okanagan created maps that detailed their experiences with climate change. By sharing their maps, participants answered the question: How can participatory mapping processes help share youth experiences of climate change? Participants discussed four main topics of climate change: wildfire, air pollution, the politics of climate change, and climate anxiety. One focus group detailed participant experiences with wildfire. Through these focus groups, participants explained that their unique identities and perspectives influenced the ways they were impacted by climate change. Finally, this research indicates that the participatory mapping process may facilitate spaces where participants teach one another about unique impacts of climate change. v Preface This thesis was written by Sierra Lammi, under the supervision of Drs. Jon Corbett, Astrida Nemanis, Lael Parrot, and Donna Senese of the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus. The fieldwork was covered by the UBC Ethics Certificate number H22-03794. Sierra Lammi created the research question, collected all data in collaboration with participants, analyzed the results, and wrote the thesis. No generative AI was used in the creation of this thesis. Members of the Global Engagement Office (GEO) gave feedback for initial design of focus groups. Participants of the study (UBCO students) helped analyze the maps that were created and gave feedback to improve the subsequent focus groups. This project was supported in part by a 2022 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada Graduate Scholarship-Masterâs (CGS M). vi Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................. iv Preface ...........................................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ ix Glossary ........................................................................................................................................x Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. xi Dedication .................................................................................................................................. xii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...................................................................................................8 2.1 The Place-Based Nature of Climate Change........................................................... 8 2.1.1 Place-based knowledge and community resilience ...................................... 14 2.1.2 Experiential Knowledge and Intersectionality ................................................ 17 2.1.3 Change through story ........................................................................................ 20 2.1.4 Sharing Place-Based Knowledge .................................................................... 22 2.2 Participatory Mapping ................................................................................................ 22 2.2.1 Maps and power ................................................................................................. 26 2.2.2 Applications of Participatory Mapping ............................................................. 28 2.3 Conclusions and next steps ...................................................................................... 31 Chapter 3: Methodology ..........................................................................................................33 vii 3.1 Situated knowledge .................................................................................................... 33 3.2 Story and Dialogue..................................................................................................... 35 3.3 Participatory Action Research .................................................................................. 38 3.4 The Grouse Complex wildfire ................................................................................... 40 3.5 Methods ....................................................................................................................... 41 3.5.1 Phase One: Pilot Testing .................................................................................. 42 3.5.2 Phase Two: The Grouse Complex Wildfire .................................................... 44 3.5.3 Limitations ........................................................................................................... 49 3.6 Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 50 3.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 4: Findings ..................................................................................................................53 4.1 Phase One................................................................................................................... 53 4.1.1 Wildfire ................................................................................................................. 54 4.1.2 Air Pollution ......................................................................................................... 58 4.1.3 Politics of Climate Change ................................................................................ 61 4.1.4 Climate Anxiety ................................................................................................... 64 4.1.5 The Mapping Process ........................................................................................ 66 4.1.6 Summary of Phase One .................................................................................... 67 4.2 Phase Two: Grouse Complex Wildfire Focus Group ............................................ 68 4.2.1 Community Care and Climate Resilience....................................................... 68 4.2.2 Profit and the climate crisis ............................................................................... 73 4.2.3 Intersectionality of climate change .................................................................. 77 viii 4.3 Mapping our stories: Discussion .............................................................................. 79 4.3.1 What is a map? ................................................................................................... 79 4.3.2 Dialogue and the participatory mapping process .......................................... 81 4.3.3 Experiential knowledge of climate change ..................................................... 85 4.4 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 87 Chapter 5: Conclusion .............................................................................................................89 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................98 Appendix A: Consent Forms and Advertisements ........................................................107 ix List of Figures Figure 1: The map I created using Google Earth to show the extent of the fire evacuation zones outlined in red................................................................................................................................ 45 Figure 2: The projected map containing participant annotations on the mapper beneath. ....................................................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 3: The paper beneath the projected image, containing the participants annotations. ....................................................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 4: All maps made by participants during Phase One. Each map contains the participant number, and points to the place the story comes from. ............................................................... 54 x Glossary Turtle Island: At times, I refer to Canada as Turtle Island. Many Indigenous nations refer to North America as Turtle Island. Doing so rejects colonial naming conventions like âCanadaâ or âBritish Columbiaâ and acknowledges that Indigenous peoples were on this land well before colonizers gave new names to the land. Dominant worldviews: These are the views that have been informed and reinforced primarily by Euro-centric colonial powers. More than human world: This refers to all beings that humans share this world with, including plants, animals, and the natural world, acknowledge their agency beyond human perceptions of the world. xi Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank all the participants who attended focus groups and shared their ideas and experiences. I learned so much from each of them and without their expertise, bravery, and vulnerability, none of this would have happened. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Jon Corbett for his unwavering support and patience during this process. I also extend my sincere gratitude to my committee members: Dr. Astrida Neimanis, Dr. Lael Parrott, and Dr. Donna Senese. I learned so much from all of you and sincerely enjoyed the opportunity to get to know, work and learn from you. I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful professors who taught me so much; Dr. Virginie Magnat, Dr. Shawn Wilson, Dr. Onyx Sloan-Morgan and Dr. Christine Schreyer. I have the deepest admiration for all of you, and your wisdom, input and knowledge is written all over this thesis. For my loved ones here in the Okanagan and far away: Erin, Lola, Em, Emilie, Dani, Kemal, Suzi, Kirstin, Ayla, Mom, Dad, Jamaica, Jake, Suzie, Cormac, Natalie, and Melissa. Thank you all for your love and support. xii Dedication I would like to dedicate this thesis to the cohort of graduate students I am so lucky to be a part of. I cannot fully express the depths of my gratitude for having met and learned from all of you. Without your support I would not be here now. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction This thesis explores how participatory mapping enabled focus groups participants, comprised of students from the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO), to share their experiences with climate change as it connects to their sense of place. Climate change creates extreme disruption of environmental systems across the world (Ferry & Eckersley, 2016; Renouf, 2021), and causes harmful and sometimes dangerous impacts to communities (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023; Porter et al., 2020). The impacts of climate change are diverse, often place-specific, and influenced by specific regional environmental, political, and economic systems. Thus, different communities experience climate change differently (Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018). This research project worked specifically with international students at UBCO, with the support of the universityâs Global Engagement Office (GEO). Domestic students were also welcome to participate, however, I wanted to ensure that international student experiences were prioritized in order to examine climate change from a global perspective. Participants in this research were students, and nearly all considered youth1. This was an intentional choice I made as a researcher, since much of climate change literature excludes youth knowledge of this topic (Karsgaard & Davidson, 2023; Petrasek MacDonald et al., 2013). Youth are actively and clearly leading calls to action on climate change, and so activists and researchers alike are searching for ways to represent youth in discussions of climate change (Narksompong & Limjirakan, 2015), and a growing body of literature is beginning to show that sharing knowledge through 1 Youth refers to persons under the age of 35 according to YOUNGO, the official Children and Youth Constituency to the UNFFFC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (YOUNGO | UNFCCC, n.d.) 2 stories may provide an effective means to incorporate youth expertise in complex and climate related issues (Schlemper et al., 2018; van Herten & Perez, 2022; Verlie, 2021). Sharing knowledge through experiences and stories has been a method of communication and knowledge mobilization used by Indigenous communities and scholars since time immemorial (Kovach, 2021; Meyer, 2001; Wilson, 2008; Yunkporta, 2020). Additionally, feminist (Haraway, 1988) and Black feminist scholars (Davis, 2016; hooks, 2009) have also mobilized storytelling to share knowledge and expertise. Place-based storytelling has played a pivotal role in supporting social movements that challenge dominant ways of thinking (hooks, 2009; Johnson, 2022; Lorde 1984; X & Haley, 1999). Therefore, our stories about our experiences may help us achieve a deeper more holistic understanding of climate change as it relates to our own identity and place (Verlie, 2021). There are many ways to share place-based knowledge and experiences of climate change (Albagli & Iwama, 2022; Käyhkö et al., 2019; Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018; Yusuf & St. John, 2021), but my own experience as a youth educator connected me to participatory mapping. Participatory mapping is a process where communities create maps of their own expertise, knowledge, and relationship to place (Corbett, 2009). This process generally attempts to elevate community voices since the maps are created by community members themselves (Böhlen et al., 2022; Burdon, 2019; Dawson et al., 2020; Facchinelli et al., 2022). To me as an educator and researcher, the creative potential of participatory mapping seemed like an engaging way to document and communicate youth knowledge of climate change. Different scholars and activists have identified the significance of sharing knowledge of climate change through stories 3 and experiences (Pascoe et al., 2021; van Herten & Perez, 2022; Verlie, 2021), and still more studies have indicated the efficacy of storytelling to engage youth voices (Adams et al., 2017; Carney et al., 2022; Schlemper et al., 2018). Bringing these ideas together, my research question emerged: How can participatory mapping processes help youth share their experiences with climate change? This research was conducted inductively through iterative participatory mapping focus groups, where themes and ideas from one group directed subsequent ones. Participatory mapping processes are multifaceted, so I incorporated both individual and collective mapping processes in this thesis to better explore my research question. I worked with GEO to design the focus groups and advertise them to international students, though all UBCO students were welcome to participate. Two focus groups centered on individual participatory mapping processes (Phase One), and one focused on collaborative participatory mapping (Phase Two). Phase One took place in April, 2023, and I spent the summer of 2023 analyzing the dialogue to prepare for the next iteration of focus groups. However, before Phase Two, in August 2023 a large wildfire started in West Kelowna and spread along the cities of Kelowna and Lake Country, eventually forcing the UBCO campus to evacuate due to proximity to the fire. This fire became known as the Grouse Complex wildfire and burned for 51 days, clouding the Okanagan Valley in smoke for weeks (Cunningham, 2023). While I had initially planned to continue holding focus groups exploring participant experiences with climate change more broadly, the effects of the Grouse Complex wildfire were so recent and tangible to the UBCO student community that I felt like I could not continue this 4 work without focusing on that event. Thus, Phase Two took place in October, 2023 and participants in this collaborative participatory mapping focus group centered their gaze on the Grouse Complex wildfire. This research focused on impacts of climate change experienced by students living and studying in the Okanagan. While many participants in this research came from different countries, each is tied in different ways to the land in Okanagan, its history, and its vulnerabilities to climate change. It is important to recognize where this research has taken place, and the story and history of the land is connected to the participatory mapping focus groups in different ways. Like every person in the world, participants in this study have all been affected by climate change, but the history of UBCO and the land in the Okanagan is also relevant and embedded in the lives of participants. All stages of this research were conducted at UBCO, which is located in Kelowna of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. The Okanagan Valley is situated on unceded, ancestral, and traditional territory of the Syilx, so all tourism, agriculture and even UBCO itself sits upon stolen Indigenous land. Syilx people have lived and cared for the land in the Okanagan since time immemorial. Syilx territory is extensive and diverse, and encompasses seven communities spread across the territory. European settlers, arrived in this area approximately 300 years ago and forced Syilx people off their land, attempting to erase their language and practices (Okanagan Nation Alliance, Timeline). While settlers tried to erase Syilx culture, the Syilx people themselves have persisted and in 2003 West Bank First Nation (WFN) regained governance of some of their lands through an agreement with the Canadian government (Westbank First Nation, History). 5 The attempted erasure of Syilx people, culture, and practices, however, has also had devastating impacts on the land and its stewardship. Cultural burnings, sometimes called prescribed fires have been a long-standing tradition of the Syilx (King, 2023). These controlled fires historically helped to mitigate the severity wildfires (Parminter, 2023). However, certain regulations have prevented cultural and prescribed burning from taking place in the Okanagan until very recently (Parminter, 2023). This may lead to increased intensity and frequency of wildfires in this region (King, 2023). As climate change becomes more severe, the Okanagan will continue to face an increased threat of wildfire due rising temperatures, little rainfall and high fuel stocks within forests (Okanagan Nation Alliance, 2024). It has never been more important to support local Indigenous stewardship practices, and for settlers of Turtle Island to engage in climate change mitigation tactics to understand the colonial history and situate themselves upon the land they are living with. Now that I have introduced this research and given some context to where it took place, I would like to introduce myself and how I came to this research. My name is Sierra Lammi, I grew up as a white settler in rural Minnesota, traditionally Ojibwa territory. The land was my teacher, safe space, and place for community. I studied ecology and conservation at university, but my emotional connections to the natural world were stifled, and replaced with words like âobjectivityâ and âbiasâ as I moved through the education system in the United States. Entrenched in colonial contexts, my pursuit of ecological sciences was taught through the lens of Western science, creating objective conclusions about the nature of reality (Onuf, 2013). This was a narrow lens to see the world, where only facts that fit into dominant Western colonial standards of rigor 6 prevailed (Onuf, 2013). Any other ways of knowing about the world were deemed irrelevant and pushed aside. Most post-secondary academic institutions are built around the legacies of white supremacy and colonialism, and thus tend to perpetuate those worldviews (Onuf, 2013). Until I read the book Braiding Sweetgrass (Kimmerer, 2013), while working on community conservation projects in 2018, I had only ever known âobjective scientific truthsâ. Kimmererâs work was the first example I saw of an author and academic writing both scientifically and lovingly about the natural world and our relationships within it. I later discovered work by Anishinaabe writers Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Patty Krawec and learned more about Land Back movements. I am incredibly grateful for these perspectives and knowledges, which helped me find new ways to learn about the land and inspired me to teach environmental education to youth. As an environmental educator, I constantly engage with unique perspectives of the natural world as students develop their sense of place in the outdoors. This increases my understanding of the roles that both power and privilege play in knowledge creation. My students have taught me so much, but I am often still seen as the teacher- the expert that holds the correct answers. I notice this dissonance particularly around climate change topics. Students are worried, informed, and passionate to take action about climate change. The pace of climate change sometimes makes my own knowledge about the subject outdated, and so we all learn and brainstorm ideas together. It was through my work as an educator that I came across participatory mapping. To me, participatory mapping seemed well suited to communicate our relationships to place and subvert who is a knower and a learner of climate change and its 7 associated impacts. These ideas led me to my research question and guided my understandings of the different ways we can co-create and communicate knowledge. Situating myself as a cis-gendered woman with white colonial heritage, I grew up entrenched within colonial worldviews, and contemplated the way that I have been privileged, complicit and stifled within these systems. Throughout this thesis, I have sat in tension with the fact that I am a white settler discussing climate change on Syilx territory, while also being complicit in the colonial systems that have denied Syilx land stewardship. As a settler, I am therefore responsible to reconcile my complicity within colonial systems and approach discussions of climate change in a nuanced way. Approaching my masterâs research influenced by new knowledge and worldviews has been both dynamic and healing. To create change through our work as researchers, we must constantly challenge our assumptions and be prepared to shift our worldviews as we come across new information. For this reason, I believe that using participatory mapping to center youthâs diverse situated knowledge of climate change fits into a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology. Such an approach emphasizes the importance of co-creating and understanding our unique knowledge and expertise on climate change. However, I recognize that this is not the only way to examine youth experiences with climate change; it is simply the approach that resonates with me, and that I center in this thesis. I do not claim any expertise in education, participatory mapping, or climate change. Rather, my unique experiences and research interests guided me towards a body of research that I wanted to learn more about. I have witnessed many youth perspectives and passion about climate change and I approached this research wanting to encourage and advocate for youth voices and expertise related to this issue. 8 Chapter 2: Literature Review In this chapter, I examine climate change as a complex and wicked issue (Ferry & Eckersley, 2016; Rittel, 1973). I explore how our understanding of climate change is shaped by our relationships to place. I also examine how our different lived experiences can be communicated through stories, and how sharing these experiences may increase our collective understanding of climate change. Implementing a PAR approach, I examine the ways that youth voices have been disregarded in climate change discussions, and I examine participatory mappingâs history and role in amplifying disenfranchised voices and worldviews. Finally, I explore what participatory mapping is and how it may effectively share our place-based experiences of climate change. 2.1 The Place-Based Nature of Climate Change Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. The complexities and impacts associated with climate change are still being understood, but experts predict that the world will undergo significant environmental, economic and social changes as a result (Renouf, 2021). Climate change is often framed as a wicked issue- a problem for which there will be no simple solution since it is complicated by economic, political and social systems (Ferry & Eckersley, 2016). Following the 2016 Paris agreement, several political actors committed to taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change (Rajamani, 2016). Although awareness of climate change grew significantly following the accord, the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report stated that urgent and drastic action also needed to be taken soon if society was to mitigate adverse climate effects. This report described climate change as 9 a climate crisis as a means of highlighting its urgency and how it will impact future generations (Gorse et al., 2022; Kemp & Edwards, 2022; Renouf, 2021). Todayâs youth are already experiencing significant and negative mental health impacts as a result of living with the effects of climate change (Brophy et al., 2022; Verlie, 2021). At the same time, youth are leading climate activism movements calling for direct action from grassroots organizations, governments, and corporations to mitigate climate change (Kerns, 2021; Narksompong & Limjirakan, 2015). For example, Crawford (2023) reported in the Vancouver Sun that in December 2023 15 Canadian Youth pushed forward a lawsuit against the government of Canada for its lack of action around climate change. This came after the case was dismissed in 2020 for having âno prospect of successâ (Crawford, 2023). Todayâs youth are both severely affected by climate change and passionate to take action, yet their voices are underrepresented in the literature (Karsgaard & Davidson, 2023; Renouf, 2021). Since youth will see the most extreme impacts of climate change, many activists, scholars and educators believe that it is imperative to find ways to empower and amplify youth voices in discussions about the climate crisis (Brophy et al., 2022; Karsgaard & Davidson, 2023; Petrasek MacDonald et al., 2013; Sloan Morgan et al., 2022). The term âclimate crisisâ alludes to the severity of climate change, which has accelerated at unprecedented rates due to human activities (Kemp & Edwards, 2022). The surge of global consumption linked to capitalism over the past decades has increased climate change impacts. This consumption occurs at a global and systemic scale, as countries (primarily from the Global North) seek massive profits from fossil fuel extraction and land/resource grabs from countries in the Global South (Baer, 2021; The Red Nation, 2021). War and militarism in the name of land and 10 resource acquisition are also key drivers of overconsumption and emissions, and millions of dollarsâ worth of resources are funneled into military operations that generate excessive emissions (Amster, 2014). These activities introduce new challenges to human circumstances. Rising sea levels will affect coastal communities (Pilkey 2019), while melting sea ice poses a threat to arctic communities (Dawson et al., 2020). Furthermore, as climate disasters escalate, more people will be forced to move from their homes as refugees (Charles Rodriguez et al., 2023; Galway et al., 2022; Peters et al., 2016). Certainly, the varied impacts of climate change create a complex phenomenon that impacts us all. It is also important to note that global inequities impact access to resources, causing some communities to suffer the effects of climate change more severely than others. Commonly referred to as climate justice, this idea emphasizes that the Global North contributes most to climate change, yet the Global South suffers more severe impacts (Lambrecht, 2022; Porter et al, 2020). Issues of climate justice are also found at the community-level across the world, where particularly Black, Indigenous and People Of Colour (BIPOC) communities, suffer the worst consequences of mass extraction and consumption (Cripps, 2022; Táíwò, 2022). Many scholars and activists center relationships to place while addressing wicked issues. Indigenous scholars and activists explore relationships to place within Indigenous sovereignty movements (Coulthard & Simpson, 2016; Simpson, 2017). Black liberation activists explain that Black communities in the US have a nuanced relationship to a place that is entangled with racism and white colonial history (Burkhard, 2019; hooks, 2009). Youth advocacy has increasingly focused on the dynamic ways todayâs youth are navigating the places they inhabit (Carney et al., 2022; Schlemper et al., 2018; Sloan Morgan et al., 2022). Climate change is no different, and equitable long term solutions are often contextualized within local places to create 11 a mosaic of solutions to climate change, depending on place (Käyhkö et al., 2019; Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018; Rabbani et al., 2022). Impacts of the climate crisis show up differently across the world. Furthermore, climate justice reminds us that peoplesâ experiences of climate change are nuanced. The ways humans experience climate change are inherently place-dependent, and climate change is commonly referred to as a place-based issue (Gong et al., 2023; Petrasek MacDonald et al., 2013; van Herten & Perez, 2022). Notable scholar Yi Fu Tuan (1974) explains that place is understood through human experiences, encompassing social interactions and relationships with humans and non-humans in an area. While Tuan emphasizes how our experiences shape the ways we navigate our world, many Indigenous scholars think of this idea through relationality. Opaskwayak Cree scholar Wilson, for instance, explains that humans view the world through a series of relationships between one another and the more-than-human world, and it is these relationships that comprise oneâs sense of place (Wilson, 2008). Apalech Clan scholar Yunkaporta (2020) further expands upon Tuanâs experiential views of place, explaining how these experiences are created as humans enter intentional relationships with the human and natural world around them. While these ideas draw from different knowledge systems, they emphasize the importance of recognizing subjective understandings of place. Wilson (2008) calls this âmultiple realitiesâ- or situations whereby multiple ways of knowing exist side-by-side and are made possible because humans form and exist through multiple, unique relationships. Thus, place can be understood as an amalgamation of many experiences and relationships (human and non-human) that occur within a specific space, creating a holistic concept of place rather than one that is strictly 12 geographic (Wilson & Hughes, 2019). Carney et al., (2022) further explain that place-attachments arise through the positive or negative relationships and experiences we have with places. Tuan (1974) describes intense emotive place-attachments as topophilia, or a love of place, which is shaped by positive experiences. The ways humans come to know the world are shaped by the places we come from (Basso, 1996; Peters et al., 2016; Charles Rodriguez et al., 2023). Tuan (1974), points out that many cultures see âtheir habitat not only as the worldâs geographic center but its cultural and population centerâ (p. 34). This creates multiple narratives about the world, as different beliefs and cultures are shaped in different places (Brotton, 2014). The ways in which one knows and navigates the world can be thought of as their worldview. These worldviews in turn stem from our attachments and relationships to place (Basso, 1996; Tuan, 1974). Produced in close relation with Western Apache Peoples, settler scholar Keith Bassoâs 1996 work Wisdom Sits in Place illustrates how our worldviews are shaped by place. This work explores the ways that Western Apache cultural histories and worldviews arise from the land itself and are often communicated through place names. An Apache elder said, âWhite men need paper mapsâ¦we have maps in our mindsâ (Basso, 1996, p. 43). This elder went on to explain that the names given to significant places on Apache territory tell a story of why that place is significant. By learning place names and stories, Apache culture and worldviews are preserved and communicated (Basso, 1996). Basso explores this idea in the context of the Western Apache, however, every culture and people have unique relationships to place, and thus different understandings of their world (Durham et al., 2023; Käyhkö et al., 2019; Klok et al., 2022; Pascoe et al., 2021). 13 Just as worldviews are shaped by our relationships to place, experiences with climate change are equally influenced by place. No universal experiences or solutions to climate change exist because people experience its impacts in multiple ways, and thereby have different needs for just and equitable climate mitigation actions and outcomes (The Red Nation, 2021; Baer, 2021; Táíwò, 2022). Multifaceted understandings of climate change must therefore examine the varying ways humans experience climate change, and how these experiences are tied to place (Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018; Porter et al., 2020; van Herten & Perez, 2022; Verlie, 2021). Scholars such as Naomi Klein (2014) maintain that climate action must work towards equitable solutions, not just global emission reductions. A place-based approach to climate change directly recognizes the unique relationships that people have to a place and how they experience the impacts of climate change (Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018; Pascoe et al., 2021). Such an approach contextualizes the challenges facing local communities and paves the way for locally relevant solutions (Facchinelli et al., 2022; King & Gregg, 2022; Porter et al., 2020). The significance of climate change demands place-based solutions, and society must rethink the ways we understand climate change. Just as there is no one solution to climate change, there is no one way to understand it. Understandably, it is important to explore new ways to gather place-based knowledge and contextualize local challenges of climate change so that community voices can be heard and their needs addressed. This might create communities that are better positioned to mitigate and adapt to impacts of climate change as it is understood and experienced locally. 14 2.1.1 Place-based knowledge and community resilience Community resilience refers to the ways communities respond to and recover from shock, including the effects of climate change (KekoviÄ et al., 2023). To speak of community climate resilience is to speak of climate justice, since some communities have access to resilience-supporting resources that others do not (King & Gregg, 2022; Porter et al., 2020). For instance, the ability to repair damage after a wildfire event depends largely on social organization and economics (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023). In this way, community resilience can be understood through place-relationships, where communities with strong support networks and access to resources are better equipped to recover from a disaster (Charles Rodriguez et al., 2023). By understanding place-relationships, we develop solutions designed to meet the specific needs of local communities (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023; Charles Rodriguez et al., 2023; Ferry & Eckersley, 2016; Krasny, 2023). These needs are particularly significant, yet complex within immigrant communities. Navigating new relationships to place, land and social networks, immigrants often already face distinct challenges associated with relocation (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023; Charles Rodriguez et al., 2023; Peters et al., 2016). A review conducted by Charles et al. (2023), examined the ways that nature and perceptions of the outdoors impacted immigrant communitiesâ well-being in new places. Some studies presented in this review indicated negative associations between nature and well-being that arose from feeling unsafe in natural spaces, in part due to turmoil associated with climate change (Marconnot et al., 2019; Rothe, 2010). The authors suggest future research should explore ways to strengthen community resilience, that are tailored to communities with various experiences of climate change. 15 Furthermore, Acharibasam & Datta (2023) specifically examined the preparedness of Sub-Saharan immigrant communities to wildfire in Western Canada. This study found that immigrant communities faced many barriers to climate resilience in relation to wildfire. These difficulties arose due to a unique understanding of climate change within the country of origin, a lack of first-hand experiences of climate change in a Canadian context, combined with poor access to community resources (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023). Building upon findings in Charles et. al, (2023), this study reaffirmed the importance of local and place-based knowledge to build climate resilience (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023). There are various ways to understand and study climate change. Purely quantitative and scientific understandings of climate change may erase emotions entangled within this issue, and gatekeeps who are seen as the experts or âknowersâ of climate change and differentiate from those who are considered a âconsumerâ of climate knowledge (Verlie, 2021). Acting on climate change from one perspective may erase the local knowledge of another area. For instance, the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) model aims to reduce emissions related to forestry (Mabhuye et al., 2023) and has been adopted in over 47 countries (Jang et al., 2023). Globally, however, REDD+ is not offsetting as much carbon emissions as expected (Cannon, 2023). Several studies show that key information about local forest systems are not fully addressed by the REDD+ model and indicate a universal model may not be as effective as locally sourced solutions (Blomley et al., 2017; Mabhuye et al., 2023; Pascoe et al., 2021). Pascoe et al, (2021) explain how relying solely on Western scientific understandings of climate change excludes vital information under the REDD+ model in Papua New Guinea. Local and 16 Indigenous communities living near the forests in Papua New Guinea held generations of knowledge about the land and how it had changed over the years, and policies implemented under REDD+ were misaligned with Indigenous Suau community stewardship practices (Pascoe et al., 2021). To examine the unique challenges within local forestry systems in Papua New Guinea, Pascoe et al (2021) collaborated with Indigenous knowledge keepers using storytelling to incorporate place-based knowledge of climate change. Participants in Pascoe et at (2021) engaged in storytelling by verbally sharing different memories and experiences they had within the forest, as well as stories and legends passed on by family members. Many stories centered changing forest systems, so participants in this study ended up sharing experiential knowledge of climate change. Storytelling often involves recounting memories or experiences from individuals, but may also include collective cultural stories, such as legends, creation stories, and the stories that we create ourselves (Johnson, 2022). Pascoe et at, (2021) explain, âStorytelling, we argue, may destabilise dominant ontological assumptions about climate change, including causal and temporal explanations that often obscure Indigenous ways of perceiving and performing environmental changeâ (p. 361). While there are many ways to engage in storytelling, the stories we tell help us make sense of the world and communicate our world views (Johnson, 2022). The stories told in Pascoe et al, (2021), for example, created a greater understanding of climate change, indicating that relying solely on dominant Western scientific ways of knowing fall short of achieving equitable climate mitigation solutions. Through storytelling, an ever-expanding definition and understanding of climate change takes shape, centering place-relationships and experiences as the foundation of this knowledge.17 2.1.2 Experiential Knowledge and Intersectionality Several climate scholars, particularly within the social sciences and humanities, have adopted storytelling as a means of exploring place-based understandings of climate change. van Herten and Perez (2022), analyzed essays from an online graduate student course (with participation from universities in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands) where students wrote essays detailing their experience with climate change. These emotive stories centered around studentsâ local situational experiences and feelings with climate change, and together these wove a global web of interactions and effects created by the climate crisis. The term âglocalâ was used to highlight how local effects of climate change were nestled within global systems and networks (van Herten & Perez, 2022). These localized stories encompassed a multitude of experiences and feelings about climate change. Through story, the authors argue that students âwill realize the relationship between scientific data and their own living environments and the value of their own experiences as a source of knowledgeâ (van Herten and Perez, 2022, p. 10). Using story to communicate their situational knowledge, students became viewed as local experts of climate change. By sharing their glocal essays, students contributed to a more expansive understanding of climate change. Furthermore, Blanche Verlie (2021) wrote a book reflecting on the ways emotions and experiences of climate change shared through stories created a deeper understanding of this issue. These ideas come with Verlieâs decade of experience as a climate change educator in universities in Australia and included years of work reflections from different projects and climate change courses Verlie taught. Verlie centered the embodied way students âfeelâ climate change, giving attention to the emotions that intertwine with experiences and giving agency to 18 the phenomenon itself. Thus, we can think about climate change though the different relationships and experiences we have with place. Students in this course shared and witnessed one anotherâs experiences, legitimizing one anotherâs knowledge and expanding the definition of what climate change meant to the group (Verlie, 2021). This aligns with van Herten and Perezâs statements above about the ways stories can communicate our experiential knowledge. Verlie, however, emphasized the importance of listening to, or witnessing, the stories of others. Experiential knowledge of climate change was validated through the process of sharing and reflecting on one anotherâs stories (Verlie, 2021). Verlieâs work demonstrates that collaborative and dialogical processes are essential in developing shared understandings of climate change, blurring the line between experts and learners. Verlie explains that most people are âconsumersâ of climate stories and not experts (Verlie, 2021). Most of us are told what the reality of climate change is by scientists and experts, but our everyday realities and experiences are often disregarded. By sharing and witnessing one anotherâs stories, we can contribute to what Verlie (2021) calls a âcloudy collectiveâ understanding of climate change, where the multiplicities of experiences create a dynamic and ever shifting understanding of the phenomenon. Climate change is then understood through intersectional place-relationships, encompassing the multitude of unique situations that contribute to different experiences (Verlie, 2021). The cloudy collective model feeds into Wilsonâs ideas about multiple realities, concluding that multiple experiences and realities of climate change can exist and be explained by the various ways we form relationships to our world (Wilson, 2008). A cloudy collective understanding of climate change is driven by our stories and experiences, and thrives on a patchwork of differences between experiences to create a more holistic understanding of climate change. 19 These different experiences occur through the unique intersections of our own identities. Angela Davis (2016) uses the term intersectionality to explain how our embodied identities (of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, disability, socio-economic status) intertwine with global power structures (like colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy). Davis explains that this interpretation of intersectionality has roots in activist movements, as these identities are immersed in âhistories of struggleâ (Davis, 2016, p. 18). Certain identities have faced different kinds of systemic oppression and are impacted differently by colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy, and heteropatriarchy (Davis, 2016). Kimberlé Crenshaw was the first to coin the term intersectionality in 1980âs, while studying the intersection or race and gender in the United Statesâ justice system (Crenshaw, 1989). Crenshawâs view of intersectionality can be summarized as âthe connection between two constructs, such as race and genderâ (Santovec, 2017, p. 8). The intersection between two different forms of discrimination come together to create unique challenges for individuals at these intersections. Crenshaw argued that strides toward racial justice often centered men and did not adequately account for the increased discrimination that women of color endured as a result of gender-based violence. While the term intersectionality initially emerged from Black feminists, this concept can encompass a wide variety of intersections as âpart of a larger critique of rights and legal institutionsâ (Cho et al., 2013, p. 791). Therefore, intersections of disability, class and sexual orientation also influence how an individual might navigate and be perceived in the world (Davis, 2016). The concept of privilege is also tied to intersectionality, since individuals with certain identities (wealthy, white, heterosexual, able-bodied) have not been disadvantaged directly because of their identity. These intersectional identifies thus influence the way we navigate the places we inhabit and the experiences that occur. 20 As we engage in storytelling, deconstructing intersectional identities that individuals embody becomes significant. Verlie (2021) explains that the cloudy collective model thrives when participants share different experiences, and it is these differences that create an ever-expanding understanding of climate change. Similarly, the glocal essays created in van Herten and Perez (2022) present unique and personal experiences of climate change. When read together, they highlight a diverse range of experiences. They are directly influenced by participantsâ intersectional identities. Both Verlie (2021) and van Herten and Perez (2022) indicate that stories and storytelling can communicate experiential knowledge and highlight how our intersectional identities influence those experiences. By collectively sharing our experiences, stories and worldviews, we foster a deeper understanding of the diverse realities others navigate. This collective sharing creates opportunity for mutual learning- where experiential and theoretical knowledge of both learners and experts are reciprocally shared to create collaborative knowledge (hooks, 1994). 2.1.3 Change through story Activists around the world have used stories to question dominant systems (Attrash-Najjar & Katz, 2023; Burkhard, 2019; hooks, 2009). For example, hooks explored place-based stories and experiences from Black communities in the Southern United States to discuss the ways colonial and white supremist systems persist throughout the region (hooks, 2009). Similarly, Audre Lordeâs stories through poetry have inspired change through the raw emotion told through her narratives, giving voice to violence against women, Black communities and LGBTQ communities in the United States (Scheyer & Abdul, 2022). Given climate changeâs entanglement in social, economic, political and environmental systems, storytelling may help us 21 navigate the complexities of this issue and center non-dominant worldviews. Drawing from Verlieâs (2021) cloudy collective model of climate change, the more diverse experiences we share and understand, the better we understand, and therefore respond to, climate change. The knowledge that is communicated through story is centered by a number of Indigenous knowledge keepers. Plains Cree and Saulteaux scholar Margaret Kovach, (2021) explains that âknowledge is cognitive, embodied, instinctual, and spiritualâ (p. 69), and elaborates that the ways humans know about the world are diverse and relational. The relationships we have with knowledge are rooted in our relationships to place, and thus, experiential (Wilson, 2008). Storytelling both communicates and creates knowledge in a process Yunkaporta (2020) calls âyarningâ, or the active weaving together of information through conversations. Thus, knowledge is dynamic and derived from our relationships and experiences (Wilson, 2008). Kovach (2021), points out that this view of knowledge is frequently in tension with Western Scientific ways of knowing. Pasco et al (2021) demonstrate that tension by exploring the vast amounts of climate change knowledge held within local forest communities in Papua New Guinea, and overlooked by scientists in the REDD+ program. Western knowledge is usually derived by evidence-based and âmaterial proof for substantiationâ (Kovach, 2021, p.70), while other worldviews do not adhere to those limitations (Attrash-Najjar & Katz, 2023; Breen, 2019; Burkhard, 2019; Byman et al., 2022; Simpson, 2017). Kovach explains, and Pascoe et al demonstrate, that not all knowledge of the world can be verified by Western standards founded within colonial frameworks (Kovach, 2021). Thus, this tension usually perpetuates dominant experiences, keeping other knowledge and place-relationships disenfranchised. As climate change becomes more severe, Verlie (2021), Pascoe et al (2021), and van Hereten and Perez 22 (2022), all point out that storytelling may help us achieve a more nuanced, dynamic and experiential understanding of the phenomenon. However, while there are many ways to tell stories, Kovach, Wilson and Yunkpaortaâs work emphasizes the ways relationships (to each other, a place, and knowledge itself) influence our stories. 2.1.4 Sharing Place-Based Knowledge Thus far, this literature review has explored how our knowledge of climate change is derived by our experiences and relationships to place and can be communicated through stories. Scholars have increasingly used mixed methods and qualitative approaches (Currie & Miranda Correa, 2021; Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018; van Herten & Perez, 2022) to understand climate change, emotionally, holistically and not exclusively through the singular lens of Western Scientific views (Blomley et al., 2017; Pascoe et al., 2021). This literature has directed my research focus towards employing participatory mapping as a tool for storytelling about climate change. I believe that this method may create space for diverse and intersectional ideas and experiences of climate change to be shared. 2.2 Participatory Mapping Participatory mapping is a process by which local communities and individuals create a map that communicates their own spatial knowledge and relationships to a specific place (Corbett, 2009). This process is often undertaken with support from institutions (such as academic, governmental, or non-governmental organizations), nonprofits or other various other agencies. However, the knowledge included on a participatory map comes from communities themselves. Participatory mapping projects share what a community âperceives as its place and the 23 significant features within itâ (Corbett, 2009, p. 4). How a participatory map is created and used varies according to the community that created it. Some use the map within their own community, to reconstruct and reshare knowledge of place among themselves (Simpson, 2017). Often, however, participatory maps are used to communicate community knowledge of place to others who may be outside of that community (Chambers, 2006). The ultimate use of participatory maps is dependent on the community themselves, and participatory mapping projects may have a wide variety of goals (Corbett, 2009). The goal of the participatory mapping project then dictates how the mapping process will occur, who will participate and how the knowledge will be mapped (Corbett, 2009). Though there are varying objectives for participatory mapping projects, they seek to highlight community knowledge using cartographic tools (Guldi, 2017). Maps have historically been created by individuals in positions of power (Harley, 1989), whether through wealth, status, or education, the power to create maps was held in the hands of a few (Harley, 1988). Participatory mapping, however, places the power to create maps in the hands of communities. Communities engaging in a participatory mapping process may assume various levels of involvement of the map making process. In todayâs digital world, participants can add their ideas to an online platform or take anonymous surveys indicating their spatial knowledge using online platforms like Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) (McCall, 2021). Other participatory mapping process require deeper involvement with community members, where community and supporting agencies engage in the process in person to construct maps 24 together. These workshops may include physically annotating a printed map (Schlemper et al., 2018), or use mental mapping processes, where participants sketch their spatial knowledge (Adams et al., 2017). While participatory mapping is often championed as a tool to support change (Guldi, 2017), there remain challenges. Particularly within academia, the methods may become data mining exercises that extract community and participant knowledge (Cochrane and Corbett, 2018). It is also possible that supporting organizations may also influence the maps created by communities to progress their own agendas (Chambers, 2006). Finally, the long-term impacts of participatory mapping projects are still largely misunderstood, and in cases, communities see no meaningful change from this process until years after the fact, if at all (Laituri et al., 2023). Laituri et al., (2023) critically reviewed participatory mapping research projects and found that power differentials between facilitators of the mapping process and participants persist in most cases. This review indicates that researchers often stand to gain the most in the short term during participatory mapping projects, and draws attention to the importance of project process. Laituri builds from Chambersâ (2006) observation that the facilitator of the mapping process ultimately influences the map that is produced, and by extension the eventual outcome and use of the map. Numerous other studies underscore the crucial role of process in participatory mapping methods (Adams et al., 2017; Carney et al., 2022; Eligue & Macagba, 2023; Knight, 2022; Schlemper et al., 2018), emphasizing the need for practitioners to approach the process both critically and intentionally. Eligue (2023) used participatory mapping to explore 25 participants' connections to their environment, employing âgeo-narrativesâ to delve into their place relationships. The mapped narratives facilitated critical reflection on participants' entanglements with environmental issues and other influencing factors. The authors highlight the value of mapping these connections below: âThe process of mapmaking without the need for professional cartographic images enabled the students to elicit the value and the meanings they attach to the place beyond nostalgic feelingsâ (Eligue, 2023, p. 173). Through the process of creating and analyzing their maps, participants more deeply examined their own place-relationships. This indicates that the participatory mapping process itself can at times be more empowering and transformational than the map that is produced. It is also important to note that not all participatory mapping projects seek social justice or systemic change explicitly. Participatory mapping at its core revolves around finding ways for communities to map out and share their knowledge of place (Akbar et al., 2020; Corbett, 2009). The ways that participatory mapping is used for social justice are still being explored (Guldi, 2017; Laituri et al., 2023), but remain underrepresented in academic literature (Cochrane and Corbett, 2018). This method most strongly revolves around how the power to create maps is more accessible and inclusive of community voices (Corbett, 2009). 26 2.2.1 Maps and power Cartography, or the art and science of creating maps, has changed drastically over the centuries. Cartography can be seen in the earliest known civilizations, where prehistoric cultures depicted their place-relationships using petroglyphs (Kent et al., 2020). Ptolemy, an ancient Greek scholar, laid the foundations for early global coordinate systems (Tsotsos & Savvaidis, 2003), and maps became defacto tools to navigate the globe. Thereafter, maps were often viewed as âaccurateâ and objective portrayals of the world for a long time (Kent et al., 2020). Today, however, maps can be defined as âan object whose spatially distributed elements show the relationships among elements of some systemâ (Bertrum, 2021, p. 141). This contemporary definition emphasizes the subjectivity of maps, since the ways in which elements are related may be different according to different worldviews and perspectives (Harley, 1989). Mapmaking today often takes place digitally, and with large quantities of openly diverse spatial data available(Tavra & Å kara, 2020) just about anyone can create a map. Cartographer Brian Harley (1990) said that creating maps âis never merely the drawing of maps; it is the making of worlds'' (p. 16). The privilege of creating those worlds on maps was held exclusively in the domain of those who held power, through wealth, education, class, or positions of high status (Kent et al., 2020). For example, maps were used by European colonizers to remove Indigenous communities from lands they sought to claim in the Americas, Africa and parts of Asia (Futch & Fine, 2014; Kent et al., 2020; Simpson, 2017). Colonizers created maps that depicted lands on Turtle Island as âemptyâ and free to take for themselves (Guldi, 2017). Of course, Turtle Island was not empty, and Indigenous communities had entirely 27 different spatial connections to the lands (Doolen, 2018). Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge of the land was not considered by colonizers who re-drew the lines of their own expanding empires on supposedly âemptyâ land (Harley, 1988). Maps created during this time reinforced colonial power structures because those were the institutions the makers of the maps (colonizers) sought to reinforce and uphold. Harley famously pointed out in his 1989 work Deconstructing the Map, that maps have always portrayed the realities of their makers and are subjective rather than objective. Harleyâs 1989 work was foundational in the field of critical cartography, which is the examination of maps and the map making processes using a critical lens to understand the roles that systemic powers play in shaping the creation of the map (Rose-Redwood, 2015). This approach directly questions who has made a map, for what purpose and how the process of mapping (or creating a map) occurred (Crampton & Krygier, 2006; Harley, 1989). Questioning the process by which a map is created, we must then question whose knowledge was considered in the creation of the map, and whose was ignored. This underscores the goal of participatory mapping, which is to highlight community knowledge and voices on issues rather than only present the knowledge that maintains existing power structures. The very nature of participatory mapping centers participantsâ place-relationships, making it an effective method to investigate diverse place-based issues (Eanes et al., 2018; Facchinelli et al., 2022; Woodward et al., 2021). 28 2.2.2 Applications of Participatory Mapping Participatory mapping is a common method used in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Participatory Action Research (PAR) (Akbar et al., 2020; Woodward et al., 2021). Due to its accessible nature and flexibility, participatory mapping has been used in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from urban planning (Jankowski et al., 2021), community conservation and land management (Al Amin et al., 2020; Bayala et al., 2023; Tallo, 2018), social health issues (Carney et al., 2022), education (Harvey & Kotting, 2011; Schlemper et al., 2018) and more. The field of literature surrounding participatory mapping processes is wide, but I will discuss several examples of how the method can incorporate and represent community knowledge on climate change as well as involve and empower youth in place-based issues. Participatory mapping demonstrates potential to integrate local climate knowledge, and present place-based knowledge left out by other forms of formal data collection. Facchinelli et al, (2022) worked with communities in the rural Bolivian Amazon to accurately map incidents of gas flaring that were being overlooked by official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data collection means. This study compared the NOAA data sets with the data collected on site by community members. The results showed that community data was significantly more accurate and that official data was vastly underrepresenting the instances of gas flaring (Facchinelli et al., 2022). The information obtained from this map was then used to influence legislative policy to halt mining activity in this region of the Amazon due to the intensity of gas flaring. This study highlights the importance of local place-based knowledge held by community. âLocal partners played a key role throughout all phases of the project, ultimately expanding the study area for gas flaring, initially set as the [Yasuiní Biosphere Reserve], 29 to cover most blocks with oil activity, as well as the identifying flaring sites not detected by satellite.â (Facchinelli et al., 2022, p.8). Similarly, Yusuf & St. John, (2021) engaged community stakeholders using participatory mapping to monitor sea level rise in coastal regions of the United States. Through internet surveys and in person interviews, local stakeholders contributed their local spatial knowledge about this issue, from which researchers created a map which was used to inform local policy. These authors strongly recommended participatory mapping as a method for knowledge creation about climate change in a local and place-based context. Participatory mapping has also demonstrated efficacy in encouraging and amplifying youth voices. Adams et al, (2017) conducted a study in South Africa where children created maps of their neighborhoods and identified where they felt safe and unsafe. The visual representation of the maps made it easier to discuss this emotional topic, allowing outside researchers and policy makers to better understand the worldview of the children. Adams et al, (2017) elaborate that centering the experiences of children is crucial to establishing policies to keep children safe in the neighborhoods that were studied. They further recommended participatory methods, such as photo voice and mapping to effectively include these voices in complex and emotionally charged discussions. Teixeira et al., (2020) used participatory mapping to explore childrenâs experience with housing redevelopment in Massachusetts. The flexibility and creativity within the mapping process created an opportunity for youth to participate in the project using various forms of multimedia in ways that engaged them based on their interests (Teixeira et al., 2020). A combination of 30 photography and mapping allowed researchers to combine participatory techniques with creative methods that appealed to youth and encouraged inclusion (Teixeira et al., 2020). In Schlemper et alâs., 2018 study, youth participants used participatory sketch mapping to explore and communicate their relationship to the neighborhood they lived in. Participants contributed their own experiential knowledge and place-relationships, thus, creating a spatial narrative of their own neighborhood. The creation of these narratives empowered participants to engage more directly with civic actions in those areas, since social issues and inequalities were critically examined and discussed within the participatory mapping process (Schlemper et al., 2018). The study emphasizes the potency of experiential knowledge shared through participatory mapping and dialogue. This, in turn, speaks to hooksâ (1994), discussion on mutual learning processes where experiential knowledge and theoretical expertise co-create information. Schlemper et al. (2018) exemplify mutual learning through the participatory mapping process itself. Participatory mapping methods are employed in many disciplines to explore a wide variety of place-based issues. Yusuf & St. John, (2021) and Facchinelli et al, (2022) conclude that community and place-based knowledge has the potential to present vital understandings of climate change. Meanwhile, Schlemper (2018), Adams (2017) and Teixeira et al., (2020) demonstrate that participatory mapping process may effectively engage and empower youth voices. 31 2.3 Conclusions and next steps This literature review has demonstrated that: 1. The ways we experience climate change are tied to intersectional place-relationships. 2. Sharing our experiential knowledge of climate change encourages holistic views of the issue and may center disenfranchised perspectives. 3. Participatory mapping processes may be an inclusive way for youth to share their expertise on climate change. Academic literature is calling for ways to engage youth perspectives in discussions related to climate change, and at the same time indicates that experiential knowledge may contribute to more holistic understandings of the phenomenon. Participatory mapping methods hold great promise to incorporate community and youth views and expertise in climate change related dialogue. However, there have been few studies examining this intersection. The literature demonstrates how storytelling contributes knowledge to climate change, and how participatory mapping can encourage storytelling by documenting youth expertise on place-based issues. However, the ways in which participatory mapping can communicate youth knowledge of climate change are not well studied. In this thesis, I aim to examine these gaps by asking: How can participatory mapping processes help youth share their experiences with climate change? Most of us are consumers of climate stories and not producers (Verlie, 2021), and I want to know if participatory mapping can help 32 not only produce climate stories, but facilitate a deeper understanding of various climate impacts. Through three separate participatory mapping focus group activities, UBCO students created maps of their experiences with climate change and shared those experiences with each other. Focus groups facilitated the sharing and witnessing of place-based climate stories, with the purpose of co-creating an ever-expanding view of the dynamic ways that climate change is impacting us. The design and implementation of these activities is discussed in the next chapter. 33 Chapter 3: Methodology In this chapter I explain how I approach my research question: How can participatory mapping help share youth experiences with climate change? I will explain the epistemological foundations of my thesis and my methodology. I explore situated knowledge, and examine how stories and experiences are articulated through dialogical methods. Then, I explain why I chose a participatory action research approach for this study, and my own reflections on this approach. I will also give further details about the Grouse Complex wildfire and how it affected UBCO, and the surrounding community. Finally, I will detail the methods used within this thesis, which were iterative participatory mapping focus groups and collaborative dialogue to discuss meaning and analyze the maps. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted on the recorded dialogue from the focus groups to pinpoint and devise the themes and findings that are presented in chapter 4. 3.1 Situated knowledge The research in this thesis is built from situated knowledge. This is the idea that our human experiences, derived by our intersectionality and place-relationships, create unique understandings of the world (Haraway, 1988). Situated knowledge acts under the assumption that systems of power (such as Western philosophy, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy or capitalism) dictate how knowledge is normalized and produced in dominant mainstream society (Freire, 1968). These dominant power systems often serve to regulate or make invisible situated knowledge that lay outside of those systems (Meyer, 2001). Haraway (1988) was one of the first settler academics to write about situated knowledge and explains that the unique knowledge we possess arises from the influence our embodied identities have on the ways we interact with and navigate the world. As I discussed in the previous chapter, Feminist, and Black feminist 34 theories specifically, suggest that intersectionality creates unique knowledge and perspective among individuals according to their identity and place relationships. Wilson (2008) discusses how multiple realities of the world are constructed by the unique relationships each person has to place. The ways humans approach knowledge, the land and place are all relational, making the ways we know about the world subjective according to the relationships we have (Yunkaporta, 2020). Freire (1968) explains that systems of oppression and power often shape which knowledges are accepted into dominant ways of thinking. Thus, situated knowledge that lies outside of dominant power systems present unique ways to know about the world, but are often not validated to the same extent. During my work as an educator, I was awed by the knowledge my students had. I often did sensory mapping exercises with students, and I witnessed the different perceptions of place and experiences in nature they communicated through their maps. I thought I had a decent understanding of climate change because I understood the science of it, but my students taught me new things about this issue through their own experiences. I wanted to explore this topic more in graduate school, where my approach to research changed significantly. For so long I had been a staunch supporter of objective science as the only way to do academic work. However, my peers and professors showed me that emotions, experiences, and positionality can make research more rigorous and more holistic. I was particularly inspired by two specific courses (Indigenous Methodologies taught by Dr. Shawn Wilson, and Qualitative methods taught by Dr. Virginie Magnat) where knowledge and experiences were shared through creative outputs. Through the creativity and vulnerability of everyone in those classes, I learned 35 more about the world than I had all four years of my undergraduate work. I wanted to approach my own research from a place of emotion, relationality and connectivity rather than objectivity. Prioritizing situated knowledge by telling stories with maps seemed like an exciting way for me to do that. 3.2 Story and Dialogue The storytelling in my research occurs through the dialogue that emerges from the participatory mapping process. Freireâs 1968 Pedagogy of the Oppressed explains that dialogical learning emerges as experts pose questions to learners and solutions are found collaboratively rather than the expert alone imparting knowledge onto learners. Collaborative dialogue is central to this learning approach. Through open dialogue between learners and experts, both parties engage in critical thinking and achieve shared understandings of different issues. Learners are not only receivers of knowledge, but contributors (Freire, 1968). âDialogue is thus an existential necessity. And since dialogue is the encounter in which the united reflection and action of the dialoguers are addressed to the world which is to be transformed and humanized, this dialogue cannot be reduced to the act of one personâs âdepositingâ ideas in another, nor can it become a simple exchange of ideas to be âconsumedâ by the discussants.â (Freire, 1968, p. 88-89) Freireâs quote above draws attention to the importance of reciprocity and self-reflection during collaborative dialogue. It is not enough to simply hear someoneâs experience or story, all parties must listen with intent to reflect on what was shared. Freire argues that through this reflection comes consciousness of the oppressive systems of the world, which may lead to action. Through this dialogue, experts and learners better understand complex systems. There may, however, remain power imbalances between experts and learners during dialogical processes. 36 Therefore, it is critical that learners are seen as equal contributors to the knowledge being discussed. Reading Freireâs work, I saw my own feelings and experiences as an educator reflected. It seemed like there was a name and theory to the feelings I had with my students that aligned with my own goals as a researcher. This excitement grew as I read about mutual learning processes described by hooks (1994) in Teaching to Transgress. These ideas further expanded my knowledge on critical pedagogies and cemented my desire to implement these ideas in this thesis. hooks echoes Freireâs perspectives that most learning processes are influenced by racist, sexist and colonial ideals. Therefore, knowledge must be co-constructed by the lived experiences of learners, and embrace multiculturalism in learning spaces (hooks, 1994). hooks (1994) further points out that such multicultural knowledges and experiences donât always foster âharmoniousâ learning environments, and disagreements are bound to occur since learners are entrenched in global power dynamics, creating different experiences. This diversity of experience and knowledge is a strength (hooks, 1994), and is congruent with Verlieâs (2021) insistence that through differences, we form cloudy collectives. Thus, our experiences that emerge through dialogue facilitate mutual and empowering learning processes, where one source of knowledge is not valued more than another (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1968; Verlie, 2021). As much as we often think researchers are experts, we are trying to learn about the world just like our student. These critical and mutual dialogical processes stood out to me because they expand who is considered a knower, which is the most meaningful part of being an educator to me. Participant stories were the catalysts that sparked collaborative dialogue in my research, and the âdataâ in this research comes from the dialogue that occurred in focus groups. However, 37 Simpson (2017) and Knight (2022) explains that using storytelling in research without proper contextualization may lead to appropriation, since it has been an important mode of knowledge transmission in many Indigenous and BIPOC paradigms. Rather than settler researchers avoiding these methods, Breen (2019), Wilson (2008) and Kovach (2021) explain that Indigenist methods may be applied intentionally and respectfully to shift the process of knowledge creation away from colonial roots. I am a white settler living on stolen land and cannot claim these knowledge systems as my own. Rather, I want to explain and contextualize how I came to know about ways of doing research that center story and relationships. Indigenous scholars and activists have been engaging in these methods since time immemorial, yet they often remain outside of dominant ways of thinking (Kovach, 2021). Krawec (2022) calls on settlers to disrupt dominant modes of knowledge production. Similarly, Knight (2022) calls on settler cartographers to âquestion colonial authorities of knowledgeâ (p. 10). My intention in engaging in storytelling through this research is to question dominant and colonial ways of learning about climate change and explore the climate expertise that we all possess. To engage in storytelling well, I turned to what Wilson (2008) calls relational accountability. Wilson explains that researchers must ensure that the stories shared in the research process remain accurate and contextualized. Researchers remain accountable to their participants, ensuring that stories are told in full, rather than only in pieces to suit the research (Wilson, 2008). Knight (2022) also calls on cartographers to employ what she calls cardinal ethics. She notes that, âthe intellectual and ideological reasons for mapping direct how and where mapping takes place and maintain respect for ancestry, culture, environment, land and communityâ (Knight, 2022, p. 5), and further explains that cardinal ethics are the embodied practice of these ideals within the mapping process. 38 However, as I am writing this thesis, I have been confronted with the complexities and difficulties reaching these values. Tensions exist between approaching my work in ways that feel good and the pressure to maintain the structure of a thesis produced at a Western university on unceded land. It is nearly impossible to detail every word of the conversations that took place in the participatory mapping focus groups, and I have questioned how to maintain relational accountability to the participants knowing that not everything can be included. Originally, this thesis was going to focus more exclusively on the participatory mapping process, but the stories and revelations shared by participants demanded a wider scope. Knowing that I cannot include every detail, I hope to maintain relational accountability by expanding my findings section to include all major topics and themes addressed by participants (even if they fall outside of my direct research question), in the participants' own words as much as possible. There are also some conversations that took place that should not (and are not) included in this thesis because they were shared specifically to the people in attendance and are not meant for wider distribution. This is not a perfect implementation of true relational accountability by any means, and I continue to question the ways we can create space for this important concept in the research process. 3.3 Participatory Action Research I further draw on Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a guiding methodology for this research. Kindon et al., (2007) emphasize that PAR, along with other forms of community-based research, has few specific rules to follow and is more of a way to approach a research question. Typically, PAR is a type of community-oriented research process, often undertaken with the goal of community action and knowledge building (Onuf, 2013). Drawing from experiential 39 knowledge gained through hands-on processes, PAR works through community participation to question complex issues (Cornish et al., 2023). Furthermore, the dialogical approach to knowledge production that is central to this research is commonly intertwined with PAR work. Freireâs work with reciprocal and collaborative dialogical learning models have been highly influential in PAR methodologies, and centers the importance of lived experiential knowledge (Orlowski, 2019). Both Freireâs and hookâs critical pedagogical ideas, described in section 3.2 above, invert the top-down system of knowledge, where knowledge is typically given by experts to learners. Within Freireâs (1968) dialogical methods, however, experts and learners work together to create a shared understanding of issues, giving attention to diverse voices and worldviews. Repositioning learners and experts to achieve collaborative understanding makes dialogical approaches emancipatory in nature, centering non-dominant knowledge and experiences, and thus aligning well with PAR (Cornish et al., 2023; Friere, 1968; hooks, 2009; Orlowski, 2019). I find myself a part of the very community that I am researching with, since I am an international student at UBCO. Freire (1968), hooks (1994) and Wilson (2008) advocate for researchers to work within and as a part of community, rather than seeing themselves as above or separate. Such a relationship between researcher and participant positions all parties as more equal contributors of knowledge on the given topic (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1978; Wilson, 2008). Given my relationship to my participants, who are my student peers, there are fewer power dynamics between researcher and participant, making this work more conducive to Freireâs dialogical approach, and contributing to hookâs mutual learning process (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1978). In focus groups for this research, I will not present myself as the expert, but rather foster a 40 situation where all participants feel that they possess unique expertise on climate change. Thus, everyone in the focus group will collaboratively teach each other about climate change through multiple different worldviews informed by each personâs intersectional place-relationships and situated knowledge. However, as the researcher, I have undoubtably gained the most from this work, as it allows me to get a masterâs degree from an institution that few have the privilege of attending. Meanwhile, the student community who shared their stories with me may not see meaningful change to their lives as a result of this work. Therefore, I do not feel that I have fulsomely engaged in true PAR work, but studying PAR texts and methodologies has indeed guided the ways that I approached this research. I do not want to impress upon readers of this thesis that my work has made meaningful contributions towards social change for students simply because this work is labeled under PAR methodology. Instead, I aimed to engage with PAR to collaboratively create knowledge, and challenge who is considered an expert of climate change. 3.4 The Grouse Complex wildfire Phase One of this research explored international student participants' experiences with climate change (see section 3.6.1 for more details), and Phase Two explored wildfire in the Okanagan. This shift in focus group subject matter occurred for two reasons. First, wildfire was highly prevalent in studentsâ mapping during Phase One and emerged as a major theme from discussions in these focus groups. Secondly, in August 2023, a wildfire swept through the Okanagan, starting in West Kelowna and reaching as far as Lake Country (see Figure 2 in section 3.6.2). This fire, referred to as the Grouse Complex wildfire, forced many people to 41 evacuate their homes, and UBCO itself was evacuated for several days because of the encroaching fire. Phase One of this research took place in April 2023, and Phase Two took place in October 2023. The Grouse Complex wildfire heavily affected the Okanagan and specifically UBCO students. There were even plans to delay the start to the school year because of the fires, however, UBCO was secured in time for students to return. The fires burned for weeks, and smoke lingered throughout the valley. Phase One had already identified wildfire as a relevant impact of climate change among students, and I did not feel like I could continue hosting focus groups discussing climate change impacts without addressing the collective trauma students were facing. For these reasons, I decided to focus Phase Two specifically on student experiences with the Grouse Complex wildfire. 3.5 Methods This study was conducted using three focus groups, each comprised of between 5-7 UBCO student participants. I created posters that were advertised primarily through the Global Engagement Office along with other relevant networks, professors and course unions. All participants were self-selected and signed up through the advertisements. Participants came from a variety of contexts, and students from Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Germany, Canada and Australia were present. Participants consisted of a mix of disciplines from humanities, engineering, geography, and STEM fields. I have given participants numbers to keep their names and stories confidential in the writing of this thesis. There were 14 total participants across all three focus groups, however three 42 participants participated in both Phase One and Phase Two. Since the topics of the focus groups between these two phases were different, participants were allowed to take part in both. This means there were 17 unique experiences shared across the three focus groups. I understand that a sample size of 17 does not fully represent all experiences of the 12,000 students at UBCO. Holding more focus groups to increase the sample size would likely yield different results and reflections about climate change. However, since the primary goal of this study was to explore processes that encourage mutual learning about climate change, small focus groups likely contributed to building trust between participants which, in turn, may have contributed to more critical dialogue between participants. In this sense, hosting small focus groups was beneficial to this work. To continue exploring student experiences with climate change, I believe it would be beneficial to hold more focus groups as time provides, but not to drastically increase the number of participants in those focus groups. The study was restricted to UBCO students, and there were no requirements to participation beyond involvement in a focus group. During these focus groups, participants detailed and communicated their experiences with climate change using participatory mapping techniques (sketch mapping, painting, writing), and they took part in collaborative dialogue circles to discuss their different experiences. 3.5.1 Phase One: Pilot Testing The first phase of this study occurred in the Spring of 2023. Two focus groups were held with both undergraduate and graduate students at UBCO. Participants in Phase One of this research are numbered #1-10. The purpose of these focus groups was to explore student experiences with climate change from anywhere in the world. To explore a wider range of climate 43 experiences, this study was advertised to international students through the Global Engagement Office. Most participants in Phase One were international students, however some domestic students also participated. The two focus groups in Phase One were held in April of 2023, one week apart from one another. Lunch was provided in both focus groups, but there were no incentives beyond that. Below are the details of the pilot study focus group structure. 1) The participants were given a brief introduction to the study and asked to reflect on their experiences from a place in the world with which they had experienced the impacts of climate change. The workshops were video recorded to help understand the mapping process and how participants interacted with the maps that were produced. 2) Participants had 45-60 minutes to create a map detailing their experiences with climate change. These maps included anything participants wanted to incorporate into their story. They were given paper, pencils, markers, and colored pencils to create a map in whatever way made sense to them. While maps were created, participants were free to chat with other participants and myself about whatever was on their mind. Conversations ranged from climate change topics and ideas about their maps, to other topics unrelated to the workshop. This relaxed approach helped build comfort and relationships between these participants. 3) Once participants finished their maps, they took turns sharing their meaning or intent to the whole group. This helped others to understand their experiences with climate 44 change. This sharing took place in an informal way, and participants could ask questions or add their own ideas where appropriate. The dialogue that unfolded from this sharing was designed to be an open discussion. Once participants had shared their maps, I asked them about the participatory mapping process itself to explore how it influenced their ability to communicate their experiences with climate change. 4) After the dialogue portion, participants numbered their maps and placed the corresponding number onto a world map to show where each story was coming from. After Phase One, the dialogue was coded and analyzed over the Summer of 2023. With this information, I made plans for additional focus groups that would take place in the Fall of 2023. 3.5.2 Phase Two: The Grouse Complex Wildfire Phase Two took place in October 2023 and participants focused their experiences on the Grouse Complex wildfire. The fire was still burning at the time of the focus group, though Kelowna was not under immediate threat. Participants who took part in Phase Two of the research are numbered 11-17. The Collaborative Map Unlike Phase One, participants created a collaborative map of their experiences with the Grouse Complex wildfire. All participants added their annotations, sketches and stories to one map, since their experiences were all centered in Kelowna. I created a map of the Central Okanagan using Google maps (Figure 1). This map displayed a satellite image of the extent of the fire boundaries to help participants orient to the area of interest. This map was projected onto a white piece of paper, and participants used markers to annotate the image onto the 45 paper (Figure 2). When the projector was turned off, this collaborative map consisted of a blank piece of paper with participants' annotations, and stories (Figure 3). Figure 1: The map I created using Google Earth to show the extent of the fire evacuation zones outlined in red. This map was projected onto the wall, and participants annotated the paper beneath. Notice the blue marker that pins the location of UBCO. 46 Figure 2: The projected map containing participant annotations on the paper beneath. 47 Figure 3: The paper beneath the projected image, containing the participants annotations. Lunch was provided at this focus group, but no other incentives were offered. Below are the details of the structure in this focus group. 1. Five participants gathered at the Institute of Community Engaged Research (ICER) and received an overview of how the map would be created. Two additional participants 48 contributed their stories to the map separately at a later date as they were unable to attend the focus group. Each participant selected a color so that their stories could be differentiated. The focus group was video recorded so the dialogue could be analyzed later. 2. Each participant documented their experience with the Grouse Complex wildfire on the map, taking as much time as they felt was necessary. While participants were annotating the map, they could talk to others, use pens, markers or sticky notes. 3. After all participant experiences had been recorded onto the paper, they took turns standing up next to the map and sharing their story with the group. This sharing was informal free ranging. 4. After each participant had shared their experiences, I read some excerpts from Braiding Sweetgrass (Kimmerer, 2013) and The Power of Story: on truth, the trickster and new fictions for a new era (Johnson, 2022) to try and alleviate feelings of climate anxiety that might have surfaced during these discussions. There was also time given for participants to discuss their feelings about these experiences as they were willing. 5. I asked participants to reflect on the mapping process. These reflections were discussed as a group. 49 3.5.3 Limitations This research took place during my masterâs study and was active for less than 12 months. Time was a limiting factor in the ways that topics could be explored, presented, and acted upon. Most PAR work takes a long time to complete, as it often accompanies action in response to ideas and knowledge created (Cornish et al., 2023; Kindon et al., 2007). As such, any potential next steps taken as a result of this information are beyond the scope of this study. An integral part of PAR involves giving back to the community that took part in the research in some form of reciprocity (Kindon et al., 2007). As I am writing this thesis, there has not been meaningful action taken on the issues discussed by participants. This work might take place in the future, but I as the researcher have benefitted the most from this study. In section 2.2 I discussed how the use of participatory mapping in academic settings for the purpose of data collection might feel extractive of participants. I am left to reflect on whether masterâs level research can meaningfully engage in true PAR approaches within a two-year time frame. While PAR theory influenced my thinking and engagement in this research, I do not feel as though I have fulsomely applied this approach. To do so, would take much more time and meaningful engagement with participants. In addition to the constraints of time, this study was constricted in terms of how stories from participants could be shared. Keeping with Wilsonâs (2008) notions on relational accountability, researchers that use storytelling and knowledge co-creation have a duty to ensure that their participantâs entire story is shared and held with care. While I tried my best to incorporate as much participant knowledge, story, and ideas as possible, I could not incorporate every detail of each participantsâ stories in this thesis. Like so many qualitative researchers, I had to choose the ideas and themes that helped answer my research question. I was, however, able to share 50 my findings with participants to ensure accuracy and help maintain accountability in that way. However, I am left to wonder how researchers can create more space and opportunities within academia to maintain relational accountability of participants. 3.6 Analysis The dialogue from all three focus groups was transcribed using MacWhisper Software. After the transcription, I listened to the entire recording to ensure accuracy. I conducted an inductive thematic analysis on all transcripts to identify common themes. It is important to note that a group analysis of themes took place within each focus group, where I asked participants from each focus group pointed questions about topics and ideas that stood out to them. A thematic analysis measures qualitative data, such as dialogue, by identifying key ideas or themes that continue to emerge from that dialogue (Riger & Sigurvinsdottir, 2016). Since I did this analysis inductively, I had no preconceived themes or code words that I initially applied to the data. Rather, an inductive thematic analysis allows code words and themes to emerge directly from the data (Proudfoot, 2023). Based on participant reflections and my engagement with the transcribed dialogical data, I was able to create specific codes which I then applied to the transcripts. During Phase One, the codes and themes were the same for both focus groups. Similarly, an inductive thematic analysis was conducted with the dialogue from Phase Two, drawing from a collective group analysis to create initial codes. Codes and themes from Phase Two were established separately from those in Phase One, since the topics were different. 51 While separate themes emerged from Phase One and Phase Two, themes and codes concerning the mapping process were similar and comparable between both phases. The information regarding findings and themes from the focus group was re-distributed to the participants for verification of accuracy and articulation. 3.7 Summary What did I intend to do? Initially, my goal for this thesis was to find ways to highlight youth knowledge and expertise on climate change. I wanted to find engaging ways to share a wider variety of experiences with climate through mutual learning processes. Rather than focusing only on scientific knowledge, I wanted to work towards an ever-expanding understanding of climate change through our stories and experiences. It was important to me that situated and experiential knowledge was prioritized in this work to explore the intersectionality and complexities of how we all experience climate change differently. How did I try to do this? I wanted to center situated knowledge through storytelling and critical pedagogical approaches through a PAR methodology. This arose from a desire to decentralize dominant ways of knowing and understanding climate change. In line with critical pedagogical epistemologies and mutual learning processes, I sought a dialogical approach to my research. Since I hoped to examine climate change as a place-based issue, the spatial nature of participatory mapping processes resonated as a way to facilitate dialogue and storytelling among participants. Within three different focus groups, participants created participatory maps to share their experience with climate change 52 How do I feel about it? Overall, this work has left me with many questions about climate change, and the research process in general. Since no there were no meaningful changes for participants as a result of this study, I do not feel like I have fulsomely applied PAR. There were times I felt uneasy writing participant stories in a thesis; sometimes it felt like the stories should only be for the people to whom they were told. At the same time, I believe it is important to tell and share our stories because they can be powerful. It has been challenging for me to do work in a way that feels aligned with myself and my community with expectations from a colonial institution. However, I am grateful to sit with these feelings and hope that other researchers do too. I do not have an answer on how to do work in ways that feel good all the time, but I know these feelings will make my work better in the future. 53 Chapter 4: Findings In this chapter I present the results of this study. Since there is a range of topics discussed between the three focus groups, this chapter is broken into three sections. The first will present findings and themes from Phase One. Next, I will discuss findings and themes from Phase Two. Finally, I will discuss how all three focus groups perceive the participatory mapping process and to what extent it facilitated the sharing of youth experiences with climate change. 4.1 Phase One Phase One took place in April 2023, and consisted of two focus groups. Participants created maps detailing their experience with climate change in a place of their choosing. There were a total of 10 participants, with 5 in each of the two focus groups. Participants were assigned a number to maintain anonymity, and their maps point to the place their experiences comes from (see figure 4 below). 54 Figure 4: All maps made by participants during Phase One. Each map contains the participant number, and points to the place the story comes from. Four themes emerged from Phase One of this study. These were: wildfire, air pollution, climate anxiety and political underpinnings of climate change. Each theme is discussed below. 4.1.1 Wildfire Participants in both focus groups discussed wildfire at length. Many shared perspectives from their personal experiences of being under a wildfire evacuation. Others shared experiences of watching wildfires affect a place they were connected to, but they were not physically present during the fire. Wu et al. (2021), explain that wildfire is among the most destructive impacts of climate change, and models predict that the frequency and intensity of wildfires will become more severe as a result of climate change. During the participatory mapping exercise, several participants perceived wildfire to be the most relevant impact of climate change, and one that is 55 particularly pressing due to increasing frequencies of wildfire events. â¢ âI think it, like in my mind, it seems obvious that wildfires are an issue all over the worldâ (Participant #1). â¢ âYou know, I think the most important impact of climate change in all of the world is wildfireâ (Participant #5). â¢ âAnd so you know in the past, like fires were a rare thing, but now we seem to have more years of fires than we do of not having firesâ (Participant # 10). While climate change related wildfires may be common around the world, their impacts and perceptions remain rooted in place-relationships. For example, Yoruba people in Nigeria have oral traditions and proverbs going back thousands of years that speak to the necessity of fire for a healthy landscape (Asiyanbi, 2023). Asiyanbi (2023) stresses that while multiple groups of people across the world may live with fire, the fire ecology of Yoruba territory is unique, and incomparable to a place like British Columbia. Both places have a different history of fire suppression and a unique ecological and political landscape, so issues related to wildfire are very different between a country like Nigeria and Canada. It is easy to lose the nuances of place-based impacts of things like wildfire, however, due to the ways that climate change is portrayed in dominant global media outlets. Das (2019) indicates that climate events in the Global North are often well publicized by media outlets, attracting global attention and sympathy, and eventually material support. Meanwhile, wildfires that occur in the Global South sometimes go unnoticed by the rest of the world (Cripps, 2022). As a result, communities in the Global South receive less international attention, and local challenges of 56 wildfire impacts are not widely recognized nor understood (Cripps, 2022). This centers a perspective and understanding of climate change solely from the Global North, and so actions are taken to mitigate those issues, while those in the Global South receive less attention and support. Participants indeed pointed out that wildfires attract varying degrees of international attention in different parts of the world and indicated that place influences different understandings of wildfire. â¢ âYeah, it seems like more and more of the world seems to be on fire, and not all of it makes the news. I didn't know that Iran had wildfires. You know, you hear about the big ones in Canada, the United States like in California, and Australia and then I think I heard briefly about Turkey. It canât exactly be solved from a worlds view thoughâ (Participant #1). In addition to the destructive nature of wildfires, they also contribute to increased feelings of climate anxiety and trauma (Brophy et al., 2022; Verlie, 2021). Participants spoke at length of the emotional impacts caused by these fires, whether it came from their own experiences living in close proximity to fire zones, or from watching wildfires through news coverage. Those who spoke about their direct experience in a fire zone expressed feelings of anxiety, isolation, fear; needing to âpack up your life into a few bagsâ (Participant #10). Several participants also expressed that the fear and anxiety present during a wildfire affected them both mentally and physically. Participants #3 and # 4 explained these emotions using their maps and focused extensively on the feelings that resulted from being in a fire zone and of watching wildfires endanger their home while they were away. 57 â¢ âSo this is me in my house, feeling very, oh god, feeling very trapped and isolated because for a lot of the summer of 2021, it was too dangerous to go outside with the amount of smoke in the air. Like, ash would fall from the sky, and some days it was pitch black at 6pm because of how much smoke. And through the process of drawing this out and being able to talk, it made me think about privilege. And so I wrote "Eco Anxiety" because I was feeling a lot of eco anxiety and also a lot of dread and isolationâ (Participant #3). â¢ âI think what I tried to depict here was that there was this real sort of sense of feeling just like sick, and like feeling the effects of that, but also being at a distance. I remember looking at these photos, I think most people saw them like through a computer screen, and like really feeling horribly sick, seeing that, but also feeling at such a distance. And because of the time difference, you would, like, slightly dread waking up in the morning because you didn't know what would have happened overnight. And my parents were close to it, and I have family that were close to it. So yeah, that was kind of real, but also quite distant. I've got, I also, I think a little bit similar to [Participant #3] with the anxietyâ (Participant#4). Wildfire was the most extensively discussed experience of climate change during Phase One. However, the contexts surrounding wildfire remains unique in different places (Asiyanbi and Davidsen, 2023). While participants discussed wildfires across the world, Asiyanbi (2023) reminds us that it is important to contextualize unique histories of fire suppression, and land use. Participants indeed reflected on this, and explained that mitigation tactics should remain rooted in place, which is the approach to climate action Nicolosi & Corbett (2018) also advocate 58 for. Furthermore, during this discussion, participants also spoke of climate anxiety and impacts from air pollution. Knorr et al. (2017) explains that wildfire smoke does create hazardous air pollution, which can lead to negative mental health impacts (Hu et al., 2021), however air pollution and climate anxiety were brought up in other contexts and not just in relation to wildfire. Therefore, those topics will be discussed separately. It should be noted, however, that wildfire was identified as a major contributing factor to both air pollution and climate anxiety. 4.1.2 Air Pollution Air pollution also emerged as a prominent impact of climate change. Participants spoke of the negative effects of air pollution and how it occurs in different places. These ranged from wildfire smoke and stubble burning of agricultural fields to burning fossil fuels, toxic chemicals, and the emissions brought out by day-to-day living in densely populated cities. The extent, cause and response to air pollution varied depending on place. Wang et al., (2020) point out that air pollution intensity across provinces in China often shifts according to global energy trends. This demonstrates that global consumption patterns disproportionately affect different parts of the world, which is also noted by Anderson et al (2018). All participants pointed out that their experiences of air pollution depended heavily on place. â¢ âI think years ago, when I landed in Canada, I felt like wow, the sky looks like this. It's so differentâ (Participant #8). â¢ âWhen I first came to Richmond (Canada), I really had a feeling that the air was, for real, sweet. Yeah, it really gave me that kind of feelingâ (Participant #7). 59 Intense air pollution causes a myriad of health and respiratory illnesses (Manisalidis et al., 2020). Hu et al., (2021) point out that these impacts also affect the mental health of those in proximity to highly polluted areas. Indeed, participants, through their maps, spoke of the negative physical and mental health impacts they faced. Respiratory issues in the lungs and fear or breathing toxic air were recurring experiences because of heavy air pollution. Participant #8 describes the physical and emotional toll of air pollution in China. â¢ âAnd yeah, we have to wear a mask to prevent from this PM 2.5. It's a thing which is like thinner than our hair but it's around the air which can cause, asthma, a cough, or, like, even more seriously, cancer or something. And thatâs the big thing, sickness. [The smog] also really affected our mental health because, like who would want it to be a gray world every day? So, it just makes us feel unhappyâ (Participant #8). Both participants from China (participant #7 and #8) explained how their school system included a curriculum about physical fitness and they were graded on how well they could run, even if air pollution was high in the surrounding area. Participant #7 explained that their school was located just outside a thermal plant, and each morning the students had to run outside as part of the curriculum. This participant explains that they still feel the effects from those runs today. â¢ âAs we have been talking about, we were forced to run circles around the playground every morning. Actually, for my high school, we needed to do that twice per day. And you know what? Just, maybe, three kilometers from my high school there was this thermal plant. I was very sensitive with all these particles. My nose was super sensitive 60 and, oh god, it just hurt to run in the mornings. Sometimes, I can't feel my lungsâ (Participant #7). While air pollution often comes from chemical plants, it also comes from smoke from fires (Knorr et al., 2017). Participants explained that wildfire smoke contributed to health concerns due to poor air quality in addition to specific events such as stubble burning (a process where farmers burn off the unusable parts of a crop after the harvest). Participant #9 explained a little bit more about the stubble burning process in New Delhi. â¢ âAfter the harvest, like in farming, after the harvest you have some, like, residual stubble of the harvest. So, what farmers used to do is they burned these stubbles because it's too much hard work to pull them off, so they just burn it. Then, you use it as a manure because it has that charcoal property after burning itâ (Participant #9). This theme was intertwined heavily with the politics of local places. Things like farming practices, emission regulations and population densities are highly variable around the world (Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018). While there are global initiatives aimed at reducing air pollution and emissions, there is no global enforcement of these initiatives (Baer, 2021). Meanwhile, the landscape may shape what kinds of energy can easily be produced in different regions (Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018). Major oil and gas corporations incentivize fossil fuel production globally (The Red Nation, 2021), often hindering smaller communities from transitioning towards renewable energy due to financial barriers (Baer, 2021). Participant #7 explained that citizens in the Global South âcontinue to look for ways to grow their economic capital and find a better lifeâ. This growth often involves unfettered emissions, as capitalism incentivizes fossil fuel use (The Red 61 Nation, 2021). The intertwining factors of unique cultural practices, local government structures, ecological landscapes, and global fossil fuel initiatives result in distinct yet profound differences in the ways air pollution impacts various communities around the world. 4.1.3 Politics of Climate Change Political issues were underpinning every map and throughout the discussions. Some experiences centered around how the politics affected or exacerbated the issue at hand, while others delved into more subtle cultural and political norms associated with the place their experiences are localized. Participants #7 and #8 explained the pressure, influenced by the political climate, they felt to perform well in physical education courses in different provinces in China, despite proximity to thermal plants. â¢ âIts about the ranking so you can get to better high schoolsâ (Participant #7). â¢ âYeah you can get into better high schools with higher gradesâ (Participant #8). â¢ âBecause everything was evaluated, even our runsâ (Participant #7). Participant #7âs explained that intense academic pressure and strict evaluation made even the physical education classes very competitive, despite their school being so close to a thermal plant. Students knew the exercise was damaging to their lungs, but felt they had to continue with them to improve their academic performance, which would subsequently help them achieve a better career or offer increased career opportunities. 62 Participants discussed how politics and culture related to farming practices also contribute to air pollution effects. Participant #9 explained how local politics made it difficult to regulate stubble burning, something they had previously stated contributed to air pollution in New Delhi. In 2023, stubble burning contributed between 30-40% of air pollution in Delhi from October-November, but there was little political action taken to prohibit this practice because the regionâs farmers have few options to continue cultivating yields at such high demands (Kumar, 2023). Participant #9 explained this tension during the focus group. â¢ âThere were huge politics regarding the stubble burning. It was all over the news because, like, we respect our farmers in India. They are our food growers. So we don't want to penalize themâ (Participant #9). These relationships between political systems and experiences of climate change highlight the prevalence of climate injustice. Participant #3 discussed privilege associated with being able to stay inside during the wildfire smoke. For many, the smoke was more of an inconvenience to their outdoor recreational activities than a serious threat to their life since they had a means to escape it, unlike unhoused communities in the same area. Alternatively, participants #7 and #8 explained that due to the pressures of their local school system, they could not avoid the effects of air pollution. Furthermore, participant #9 explained that while citizens near New Delhi understood the negative health impacts of stubble burning, both farmers and policy makers in the region had little choice but to continue the practice to keep up with agricultural demands and provide for themselves financially. Much of the focus group discussions focused on the imbalances of who experiences the most severe impacts of climate change. Participants pointed 63 out that while some places experience similar impacts (like air pollution) certain individuals, groups, or communities experience the issue differently. Much of this climate injustice stems from capitalist driven systems that incentivize profit at the expense of environmental degradation and resource exploitation (Baer, 2021; The Red Nation, 2021). For example, participant #6 explained that markets for land development made processes like deforestation highly profitable in both Iran and Kelowna. Climate justice becomes relevant because, as participant #7 pointed out, people often make the choices that benefit their own well-being and convenience over choices that may be more environmentally friendly. Táíwò (2022) explains that it is often communities of lower socioeconomic status are not always able to choose sustainable options. Therefore, we must examine the choices that are available. Do citizens have a choice to stay indoors during times of heavy air pollution, or are they required to do physically demanding tasks outside? Can farmers afford to spend extra time removing agricultural stubble, or should they burn the field to remain financially solvent? While capitalism is deeply integrated in global markets, there are alternative lifestyles. Indigenous scholars and activists, collectively known as The Red Nation (The Red Nation, 2021) explain that incentivizing profit at the cost of environmental degradation and well-being is largely a Western colonial concept. These capitalist systems are the product of Western and colonial practices of extraction, and many Indigenous epistemologies prioritize well-being of people and the land over profit (The Red Nation, 2021). Baer (2021), agrees and questions how to shift the dominant paradigm away from capitalism. Furthermore, Klein (2014) discusses how changing our relationship with the natural world can lead to greater systemic changes in the way our dominant society operates. Participants in this study did not offer solutions for how to make 64 this shift, the discussions did identify the significance of these systems and clearly articulated their influence on the ways climate change is experienced in different places. In both Phase One focus groups, participants explained the inherently political nature of climate change, detailing different ways that political and capitalist systems specifically influenced their experiences with climate change impacts. 4.1.4 Climate Anxiety Participants expressed feelings of fear, uncertainty, anger, sadness, and other emotional responses to climate change. Most of these feelings were brought on by specific extreme climatic events, such as wildfires or heavy air pollution. Participant #3 described feeling âanxiousâ and âisolatedâ during periods of heavy smoke and being forced to remain indoors due to hazardous air quality brought on by wildfires. Participant #4 described a feeling of âsicknessâ while watching Australia burn from afar. Participant #8 articulated the negative emotional impacts brought on by intense air pollution, and explained that living in a âgray worldâ impacted their âmental healthâ, causing them to feel âunhappyâ. Furthermore, Participant #10 discussed the emotions and trauma caused by a fire that went through Kelowna in 2003, emphasizing the emotional impacts as well as the physical destruction caused by the fire. â¢ âAnd the sort of trauma that created within the city was huge. But I think it's interesting, it's like every year nowâ (Participant #10). 65 Most participants spoke of climate anxiety as it related to specific and extreme climate events. Some mentioned that it was also triggered by the lack of collective and unified global action around this existential issue. Some participants also mentioned that discussing climate change experiences in the focus group setting made them feel uneasy. Some explained that discussing the issues together helped them find deeper understanding and solidarity around this complex and intersectional problem. The literature around climate anxiety suggests that this feeling is most commonly experienced among younger generations (Brophy et al., 2022), and this is reflected in the study composition as most participants were under the age of 35. However, it is also important to note that since the participants in this study were self-selected, it is likely that students who chose to participate did so precisely because they feel higher levels of climate anxiety. However, since the current literature suggests that these feelings are becoming more common among young people, it is highly relevant to find ways of incorporating these feelings into discussions of climate change. Furthermore, both Verlie (2021) and Porter et al. (2020) explain that our emotional responses to the climate crisis, may inspired people to take action. Furthermore, intense feelings of climate anxiety are often associated with the tangible effects or experiences that occur during climate related disasters (Gislason et al., 2021). As participants discussed in this study, inequalities related to the effects of climate change also increase anxiety (Cripps, 2022). Notably, no maps produced during the focus groups told stories of climate anxiety explicitly. However, nearly all participants expressed intense emotions around the subject, suggesting a deep entanglement between climate change and the participantsâ emotions. This supports Verlieâs ideas that creating spaces to discuss climate change through emotions, rather than through scientific fact alone, is essential in addressing the issue (Verlie, 2021). 66 These findings reflect and build from other academic literature relating to youth engagement and climate change. More than ever, youth experience high levels of climate anxiety, which often motivates them to advocate for climate action (Brophy et al., 2022; Sloan Morgan et al., 2022). Furthermore, Verlie (2021) argues that discussing and understanding diverse experiences and emotions around the ways others live with climate change can be considered climate action. 4.1.5 The Mapping Process Sections 4.1.1 - 4.1.4 explain the findings related to climate change experiences in Phase One of this study. This section will discuss findings related to the participatory mapping process and how specific outcomes from Phase One affected the questions that were asked to participants in Phase Two. What is a map? Phase One participants collaboratively reflected on the definition of a map. Many indicated that their work was not a map, viewing it as more of a drawing, sketch, or flowchart instead. However, all participant maps fit within Bertrumâs (2014) definition of mapping explained in section 2.2.1 since they focus on spatial relationships with climate change. Phase One indicates that a participatory map should be defined more inclusively to allow space for different expressions of spatial relationships. This question arose in Phase One of this research, and so in Phase Two, I decided to ask participants how they defined a map so we could build a collaborative understanding of what a participatory map constitutes. 67 What role did the mapping process play? Participants explained that the mapping process helped them think spatially and critically about their experience with climate change, which helped them express their personal experiences with this phenomenon. The process helped through their story, and connect different spatial relationships of climate change. Some pointed out that the mapping process helped relate to climate change issues âon a global scaleâ. However, it seems that the most effective way maps were used during Phase One was through the dialogue that they directly elicited. By asking questions and collectively reflecting on different, yet shared experiences, participants created a deeper understanding of climate change together (Freire, 1968; Verlie, 2021). Using maps to facilitate dialogue is quite common in participatory mapping studies (Adams et al., 2017a; Adams & Savahl, 2017; Eligue, 2023.; Futch & Fine, 2014) and the use of participatory mapping here speaks to the strength of this method as a tool for facilitating dialogue and understanding. 4.1.6 Summary of Phase One Overall, Phase One: 1. Featured four themes related to climate change impacts felt by the focus group participants. 2. Indicated that qualitative participatory mapping methods help facilitate dialogue about experiences of climate change and the systemic factors embedded within the phenomenon. Phase one served as an investigation on how UBCO international students experience climate change. Implications and themes were broader, focus group discussions centered on reflecting 68 on diverse experiences. It has, however, identified several unique themes to explore, making Phase One effective as a preliminary research tool to pinpoint areas of concern for different communities and focus the efforts of Phase Two of the research project. 4.2 Phase Two: Grouse Complex Wildfire Focus Group This section examines the findings from Phase Two of this research. I explore a participatory mapping focus group where UBCO students detailed and discussed their experience with the Grouse Complex wildfire in the Okanagan. A total of seven participants contributed to this map. Of those seven, 5 participated in the focus group and two could not attend the focus group, but added their story and were interviewed separately. The results from this focus group can be grouped into two distinct themes of: communities of care during times of climate disaster, and profit driving the climate crisis. Within both themes, however, participants explained that their unique intersectional realities shaped their experiences with the fire. 4.2.1 Community Care and Climate Resilience Many participants in this focus group found comfort and safety within the community during the Grouse Complex wildfire. Participants described various kinds of support. Some explained that they offered or were offered places to stay after being evacuated, while others relied on friends and community for emotional support. Below are examples of how participants describe community care during their unique experience with the wildfires. International student communities 69 International student participants shared stories about their difficulties during the wildfires. Many explained that they had fewer support networks in Kelowna and Canada and felt they had âno where else to goâ outside of their house. Participant #14 explained how their family packed all their belongings into their car, creating a âhome on the goâ to escape the wildfire smoke. Another international student participant explained that the lack of connections and networks in Canada meant that they had fewer places to stay to escape the fires and the smoke. Many participants wanted to leave their homes, even if they were not under official evacuation, because the intense smoke was giving them headaches, even while indoors. â¢ âI just remember that for a lot of international students, if some kind of emergency happens, a lot of them become really helpless in that situation because a lot of students didn't have any place to stay. That's also, like, something that happens in case of emergency for the students who are international and they don't have maybe as many connections here in Canada or Kelowna or BCâ (Participant #12). This focus group showed that community connections are particularly precious, yet also necessary, for immigrant communities during a climate crisis like wildfire. This echoes Acharibasam and Datta (2023), which centers Black immigrant experiences of climate change in Western Canada. The findings in this 2023 study highlight the lack of community resources for climate disasters, specifically among immigrant communities. Many immigrant communities already struggle in Canada due to intersections of race and socio-economic status, but a lack of experience with climate disasters in a Canadian context, combined with limited access to community resources, creates additional strain for many immigrant communities navigating climate disasters (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023). Charles et al, (2023) also explain that immigrant 70 communities often face both precarity and instability as they create a sense of place in a new country, and so finding supportive networks to boost community resilience can be challenging. However, KekoviÄ (2023) points out that there is no one way to foster community resilience, and to do so requires contextualization of local places. Therefore, addressing immigrant and international student community resilience in the Okanagan would require a deeper investigation into the challenges this community faces. Participants in Phase Two reflected on this, and called for UBCO to more carefully consider resilience and support for international students during climate disasters like wildfire. Extending care to communities navigating disability One participant described trying to evacuate their home while navigating a disability that inhibited their mobility. They describe a neighbor coming to their door and telling them their street was under evacuation. This gave them and their family a little extra time to get the necessary items. This participant also described the support from their family during this time. â¢ âAlso, if I didnât have my family to help me evacuate, I would have been on my own when the cops came to knock on my door. And by then I would not have been able to pack because it was time to go. And then thereâs the fact that we had family and I had friends offering me places to stay. I would have been more worried if I didn't have those thingsâ (Participant #11). â¢ âI wasnât able to carry a lot of things and lived in a house with three flights of stairs and that sucked to go up and down. So, I was very very lucky to have my family there to help 71 especially with the larger things and the more precious breakable things we needed to take with usâ (Participant #11). Furthermore, members of this participantâs family had been evacuated and needed specific requirements to be properly housed. Participant #11 described facing many challenges to find suitable care for that family member. â¢ âThey also have a lot of trouble because my aunt's dad is elderly and quite disabled. He ended up having terrible experiences at the care homes that they were evacuating to, because there was not enough support and careâ (Participant #11). Without their friends and family, participant #11 indicated that supporting this family member would have been very difficult. This highlights a need to consider intersectional aspects of community resilience, specifically pertaining to support for people navigating disability during a climate crisis. Some academic literature suggests that more research be dedicated to disability resources while planning for community climate resilience (King & Gregg, 2022; Stein et al., 2023). Stein et al, (2023) specifically indicate that discussions of climate change often leave out the intersection of climate justice and disability justice, and that many climate action strategies do not adequately support communities experiencing disabilities. Steinâs findings were reflected in participant experiences during Phase Two. Participant #11 explains that this need is particularly prevalent for communities at high risk of wildfire due to the level of mobility required to evacuate safely. Therefore, further and diverse research is required to determine exactly what kinds of community resources are necessary to increase resilience for those people navigating different disabilities. 72 Community care and anxiety Community care helped participants alleviate feelings of fear and anxiety during the fire. One participant explained that they were feeling anxious and worried in their home, but soon relocated to a house with many of their friends to wait out the fire together. They explain feeling fear, but also relief that came with being in the company of others. â¢ âColdstream, that magical place. There in the community with our friends, we were safe, we were calm. And before [coming to this house] it was terrifying, and weird, and I felt the terror of the fire, and the unsafe feeling of being in my house and not having any space to go. But then, being in [Coldstream] in such a safe space, I was still scared but it helpedâ (Participant #14). Each participant explained that seeking out community for support was instrumental to their physical and emotional well-being during the Grouse Complex wildfire. Participant #17, who was a student at UBCO but was not in Canada during the evacuation of campus, was regularly in contact with friends during the fires. They described their own feelings of fear and anxiety about not knowing what was happening in Kelowna. They described a sense of helplessness that came with watching the fire progress from far away. While some government services were offered to those affected by the wildfires in the Okanagan, participants in this study were predominantly supported by acts of community care (offering friends places to stay, bringing food to people who could not get to work, offering rides 73 out of the city for those without a car). This reinforces current literature on the importance of equitably sharing community resources and making them accessible to people who need them as a way to increase climate resilience (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023; King & Gregg, 2022). Notably, participants specifically described community resilience relationally through acts of care for friends, family and neighbors. Several authors explain how relationship-building can be seen as an extension of care and well-being (KekoviÄ et al., 2023), resistance to colonial norms (Wilson, 2008; Yunkaporta, 2019) and a means of witnessing and validating one anotherâs stories and experiences (van Herten & Perez, 2022; Verlie, 2021). Strong relationships between individuals can also foster community resilience, since connected communities are better equipped to share resources and support each other physically and emotionally through climate disasters (KekoviÄ et al., 2023). Planning for wildfire requires deep and diverse understanding of community needs and networks. This relational approach may help institutions and municipalities create more equitable and efficient policies around wildfire evacuation. 4.2.2 Profit and the climate crisis Conversations in Phase Two also centered around the ways that political systems, and specifically capitalism, exacerbates the impacts of climate change. Participants explained how the fire created opportunities for some individuals to increase profits. Participant #11 described seeing advertisements and receiving calls from realtors listing land near their home in Kelowna that had been burned by the Grouse Complex wildfire. 74 â¢ âIt was especially hard for me because in this area kind of by my house they were already starting to carve up and build more neighborhoods on the mountain. And I knew if that was already an opportunity that was presenting itself on Knox Mountain where there was less tree and less forest to remove and it was easier to build developments, I know for a fact that people would grab at that so quickly. I was just wondering if that is what the mountain will have to experience in the next few yearsâ (Participant #11)2. Another participant added on to this statement: â¢ âBut it also is about how you were saying, like with Knox burning and clearing for development. It's crazy how the climate crisis, at the expense of many, creates a lot of profit for a select few and you see that tied to inaction of people with wealth power to do something about [climate change]. It's so upsettingâ (Participant #13). Participants also discussed the personal impacts of the evacuation on their job and income. The fire prevented some participants from returning to work, or conversely, some employers demanded that their employees return to work even after they had been evacuated. A disruption to the typical structure of the workday was both a source of stress and relief depending on participants' workplace flexibility. Participant #13 offered space for â10 people, 2 dogs and a catâ at their home in Coldstream. They describe feeling privileged to offer a safe space, but feeling 2 While these participantâs reflections highlight concern about corporations profiting from land grabs after a fire, such an event may not occur in the Okanagan context. Much of the land in the area being referenced is privately owned and was already set to be developed for housing. Land grabs in the wake of wildfires have indeed occurred in different places around the world, so the participants expressed genuine concern about the systemic issue of land grabs as a whole. 75 happy to âslow down and spend time with loved onesâ. They pondered on how this feeling is influenced by a capitalist society. â¢ âSo, it felt like reconnecting with a deep part of myself that had been subdued for a very long time. Just being together was all we could do at the time- I mean like we could donate and volunteer- but generally all we could do is be together and eat together and spend time with one another. So, I am just thinking of how can being together can be, like a tool to push back against systems that ultimately exacerbate the fires that we seeâ (Participant #13). However, other participants expressed anxiety that they were expected to return to work so quickly while the fires were still burning. Participant #11 explained that their family members went to work while they were evacuated. â¢ âEveryone had to go back to work when we were evacuated and we only brought so many clothes. So, I was the only person not working, or working remotely, so I was constantly doing laundry and getting groceries because my grandparents are not that mobile either. And it was just weird to like while I am sleeping on the floor my parents are tiptoeing around me getting ready for workâ (Participant #11). Participant #12 is an international student and explained how inequalities of socio-economic status contributed to feelings of precarious safety from the wildfires. Without existing social networks in Canada, some international students had nowhere to stay for free. Thus, in order to 76 leave Kelowna and avoid the effects of heavy smoke, participant #12 considered staying at an Airbnb in another city. However, the cost was too great to stay for long. â¢ âBecause obviously Airbnb and like hotels and these things are there, but for a lot of students, especially the international graduate students, they are on a limited budget, so that is also not an affordable optionâ (Participant #12). Participants reported increased prices for lodging during this time and indicated that many companies were profiting from those trying to escape the fires in the Okanagan. Lacking extensive community networks, an increased financial burden was placed on many international students who had to pay for lodging outside of Kelowna. Participant #12 explained that leaving Kelowna was a high priority because the smoke was getting into their home, and even indoor spaces had poor air quality and negative health impacts. Acharibasam & Datta, (2023) also report immigrant communities bearing increased financial burdens in wildfire situations. This happens for a variety of reasons, but without extensive networks of community resources, individuals must bear the associated costs themselves (Acharibasam & Datta, 2023; Krasny, 2023). The discussions above allude to the ways that profit both drives the climate crisis and contributes to climate injustice. Both of those impacts are associated with discussions by anti-capitalist academics (The Red Nation, 2021; Baer, 2021). Anti-capitalism contains a wide range of ideas, but generally refers to replacing capitalistic economic systems with a different economic system (Bohrer, 2020). Anti-capitalist ideas may also reject certain social and cultural systems that uphold dominant and colonial narratives of Western society (The Red Nation, 77 2021). Participants pointed out that profit incentives maintain âbusiness as usualââ practices during a wildfire. Instead of recognizing the grief and disruption that is taking place in the community, participants felt that many corporations simply looked for ways to increase or maintain profit during the fires. Current societal values entrenched in capitalism incentivize profit above community. This singular drive not only exacerbates climate change (Baer 2021), but actively affects the ways that some people experience the climate crisis. This is consistent with the Red Nationâs perspective, which explains that capitalist systems will directly perpetuate instances of climate injustice (The Red Nation, 2021). This is particularly prevalent in the wake of climate disasters. Hawaiiâs Governor has stated that several companies outside of the state have attempted to purchase land that was burned during Mauiâs 2023 fires, some of which were peopleâs homes (Shelton, 2023). Shelton further indicates that buyers intend to turn a profit at the expense of those affected by the climate crisis, and participants in this research focus group had similar observations in the wake of the Grouse Complex wildfire. Participants #11 and #13 specifically discussed âland grabsâ, which prompted them to reflect on different ways corporations and individuals may profit from the crisis. 4.2.3 Intersectionality of climate change The themes above highlight the diverse ways participants experienced the wildfire and the various needs of different communities during a climate crisis. All stories took place within the same city, among UBCO students, yet experiences were diverse. This is consistent with Futch & Fine (2014), where researchers also used participatory mapping to demonstrate how people experience the same place differently. Indeed, participantsâ experiences with the wildfire were 78 influenced by their intersectional relationships to the Okanagan. These relationships reflect Angela Davisâ ideas about intersectionality, where the unique identities and struggles brought on by systemic power dynamics distinctly affected how participants engaged with and responded to the wildfire (Davis, 2016). Therefore, this study indicates that our intersectional place-relationships influence the ways we are impacted by and respond to climate change. For example, some Canadian student participants felt better prepared for the fire, since many of them had experienced heavy smoke or evacuation before. Most international students, on the other hand, had never directly experienced a wildfire before and were uncertain of how to prepare and react. â¢ âFor me, it was like a first-time experience of actually seeing a wildfire happen. So, it was kind of an uncertain time for me in terms of, like how to react and stuffâ (Participant #12). Furthermore, the varying states of mobility described by some participants added an additional dimension to the ways that individuals respond to wildfires. Since a wildfire evacuation requires efficient mobility, those navigating disabilities deal with an added challenge to their wildfire response. These diverse experiences indicate that there is no one-size fits all response to wildfires in the Okanagan. In order to increase community resilience in the region, a deeper exploration of different place-relationships must take place to ensure community needs are met. These sentiments amplify the climate change and climate mitigation literature that is calling for place-based (Nicolosi & Corbett, 2018; Pascoe et al., 2021) and diverse (Blomley et al., 2017; Knight, 2022) approaches to climate change resilience and mitigation. This thesis builds from Futch & 79 Fineâs work and indicates that participatory mapping processes may be useful to identify and discuss intersectional experiences of place-based issues. 4.3 Mapping our stories: Discussion In this section, I examine my research question, and reflect on the ways that participatory mapping helped participants share their experiences with climate change. As part of this reflection, I will share insights of how participants defined a map compared to the definition given in section 2.2.1. Once that definition is explained, I will go into more detail about these two findings regarding the mapping process below. These two findings are that: 1. Maps can facilitate the sharing of place-based stories of climate change but cannot tell the full story in isolation from the dialogue that occurs through the participatory mapping process. 2. The mapping process encouraged critical dialogue and participants collectively reflected on the ways climate change is influenced by place, intersectionality, and systemic structures. 4.3.1 What is a map? During Phase One, participants questioned how to define a map and whether their work should be considered a map. To further reflect on these questions, participants in Phase Two were asked to answer the question âwhat is a map?â and discuss it as a group. 80 Participant definitions of a map all aligned with the definition from Bertrum (2021) (see section 2.2.1), but they also included unique aspects. For this reason, I would like to incorporate the knowledge and ideas from participants in this study to expand the definition of a participatory map. Maps do indeed communicate our spatial relationships, but they tell a specific story about the world seen through the lens of the maker (Harley, 1989). Thus, some participatory mappers have used sketch mapping to communicate participants' spatial narratives, or the way they engage in the world around them (Carney et al., 2022; Schlemper et al., 2018). Carney and Schlemper highlight that using participatory maps for storytelling is not novel, but participants in this study explicitly consider a map as a storytelling instrument. Therefore, I propose the following definition of participatory maps: A participatory map helps individuals or groups communicate and understand their own spatial realities. This includes relationships with each other, our own worldviews, and the spaces and places we are entangled within. Often created with a specific purpose in mind, participatory maps represent the spatial and lived realities of their makers (Harley, 1989), facilitating a process to communicate our own knowledge, stories, and perceptions through their creation. Using participatory maps, we can express our unique worldviews, acknowledging multiple understandings of the world. Through the inherent power associated with maps (Harley, 1989), participatory maps act as tools to share our stories and experiences through mutual learning. These processes facilitate more holistic understandings of various issues. This definition acknowledges the role of the map maker (Harley, 1989), but also underscores the significance of the mapping process. Prioritizing the narrative and experiential knowledge gained through the 81 participatory mapping process may steer map makers away from the colonial roots of cartographic practices (hooks, 1994; Knight, 2022). Knight (2022) calls for anti-colonial mapping processes, and Audre Lorde famously said, âthe master's tools will never dismantle the masterâs houseâ (Lorde, 1984, p. 110). Lorde explains that if society wants to address systems of oppression, we cannot do so with the same tools and a system that built them. Maps have historically been used to exercise colonial and oppressive power over others (Harley, 1989), and so settler cartographers engaging in participatory mapping projects must view the mapping process, and the map itself, as tools for understanding rather than asserting different worldviews. Participatory mappers must ask themselves; How is this map building and creating knowledge, rather than just communicating it? Often, the roots of this question lie in the process through which the map was created. 4.3.2 Dialogue and the participatory mapping process Covered in sections 2.1.2 â 2.1.3, the academic literature underscores the efficacy of storytelling in driving change. Meanwhile, place-based narratives, as explored by Eligue (2023), Pascoe et al. (2021), Porter et al. (2020), and Verlie (2021), can contribute to holistic understandings of climate change. In this research, holistic understandings of climate change emerged primarily through dialogue brought on by the participatory mapping process. These discussions addressed nuanced considerations of the dynamic systems influencing participant experiences with climate change. 82 While participants used maps to discuss, think through and share their stories, the maps alone did not fully capture the story a participant was sharing. There were many instances where participants spoke in detail about things that were not included on the map. This means that viewers who were not present when the maps were created and discussed would have less context to the story being told through the map. For example, in Phase Two participant #11âs verbal story focused extensively on what it was like to navigate a wildfire evacuation with a mobility disability. However, this detail did not appear on the map itself. This participant also remarked during the mapping process that they did not realize âhow much they had movedâ during the time of evacuation. The participatory mapping process may have led to deeper reflection of their experiences. In fact, several participants remarked that the participatory mapping process helped organize their thoughts. For participants in Phase Two, having a map that represented the area of the Grouse Complex wildfire helped them âremember the smaller detailsâ and âthink throughâ them more. It appears that the map was most helpful for participants as a tool to critically reflect on their experiences as they shared their stories. This idea echoes Eligueâs idea that âThe maps themselves may not capture the complex relationship between the people and the place, but putting value to the stories captured through the mapping process cannot be neglectedâ (Eligue, 2023, p. 191). Maps alone may not tell the full extent of someone's lived reality, but the dialogue that unfolded in these focus groups encouraged reflections that contributed to a more holistic understanding of the realities of climate change. This suggests that the process of mapping may sometimes be more rich than the map itself. As I explained in section 4.2, discussions within these spaces focused on critical systemic and intersectional factors of participants' experiences. Through these discussions, inequalities become more pronounced (i.e. challenges of navigating wildfire for international 83 student communities or those navigating disability; privilege and local cultural and educational practices affecting exposure to air pollution). Sharing and understanding these details contribute to the cloudy collective and ever-expanding understanding of climate change (Verlie, 2021). Many participants in all three focus groups in this study expressed gratitude at having the space to share their stories. Most enjoyed the social and artistic aspects of the focus groups (eating together, sharing vulnerabilities, getting to know one another, asking critical questions of each other). Participant #11 reflected on their positive relationship to the other participants and to the focus group itself, which may have contributed to them comfortably sharing additional verbal details about their story. Similarly, Participant #3 who was in both Phase One (#3) and Phase Two (#13), explained that they did not resonate much with the maps themselves, but the maps were most useful in the dialogue and conversation that they generated. This space of the focus groups fostered shared connections between participants who then felt comfortable to share potentially vulnerable experiences. To only rely on maps alone to tell a story risks the possibility that some knowledge and intersectionalities may not be adequately expressed. This also underscores the responsibility of the researcher or facilitator of the mapping process to ensure that the space in which mapping takes place is safe for participants. Wilson (2008) emphasizes that the space in which knowledge and understanding is co-created is special. Similarly, Freire (1968) and hooks (1994) explain that learning is multidirectional, and experts and learners co-create understanding collaboratively, rather than experts imparting their knowledge unto a group. Wilson, Freireâs and hookâs ideas all emphasize the importance of relationships. By building mutual and trusting relationships within learning spaces, experts and learners more equally contribute and discuss experiences and share knowledge (Freire, 1968). 84 Participatory mapping projects often speak to intersectional and potentially fraught topics, so relationship-building between all stakeholders must be a foundational principle throughout the mapping process. Building trusting relationships may promote more equitable and safe ways of discussing knowledge and experiences in the participatory mapping process (Knight, 2022; Wilson, 2008). It is then through this process that holistic understandings and discussions of wicked issues like climate change emerge. Knight (2022) speaks of the importance of engaging in counter mapping processes through good relations and intentions and demonstrating the importance of relationality. However, this thesis serves as a reminder for those engaging in participatory mapping to be intentional and mindful of the mapping process, not simply focused on context and cartographic elements of the map that is produced (Lauturi et al., 2023). The importance of the process over the product is particularly relevant to climate change discussions. Since there will not be one solution to the climate crisis, researchers should make more effort to engage intentionally with the process of understanding unique and diverse climate change experiences. The world is being âclimate changedâ rapidly creating unpredictable seasons, weather patterns, and other climatic phenomena (Verlie, 2021), so as we look ahead to hopeful climate futures, we must develop processes that allow for continuous and multi-directional learning (hooks, 1994). Sharing experiences of climate change contributes to the ever-expanding understanding of what climate change is, which in turn informs us how to live with this phenomenon (Pascoe et al., 2021; Verlie, 2021). There are many ways to share climate experiences without maps (Pascoe et al., 2021; van Herten & Perez, 2022; Verlie, 2021), but participatory mapping in this thesis provided a process-oriented method that effectively facilitated collaborative dialogue that highlighted participantsâ intersectional experiences of climate change. Many participants indicated that the spatial and temporal aspect 85 of mapping specifically encouraged deeper reflections and connections towards each otherâs different experiences. By centering relationality in the participatory mapping process, we can better uncover non-dominant experiences and worldviews, thus expanding place-based knowledge of how humans experience and live with climate change. 4.3.3 Experiential knowledge of climate change This researchâs participatory mapping process documented climate change stories and demonstrate how the participants were deeply influenced by intersectional relationships to place. These relationships were also intertwined with participant emotions and global political and economic systems. The participatory mapping process allowed participants to collaboratively question and discuss how these compounding factors related to climate. In many âglocalâ essays published in Van Herten and Perezâs (2014) explorations of student experiences of climate change, global and social systems entangled with climate change are also critiqued. By discussing them, students created deeper understandings of climate change. While many arts based and dialogical methods also offer creative and collaborative outlets for new ideas (Chilton & Leavy, 2020), it is possible that the participatory mapping process may offer specific spatial benefits when discussing wicked issues like climate change. The spatial nature of participatory mapping draws attention to relationships between complex systems, allowing them to view multiple aspects of climate change simultaneously. When participants located their stories, struggles, emotions and knowledge about climate change on a map it helped draw attention to the intersectionality of this wicked issue. Specifically in Phase Two, as participants added their stories to a shared and collaborative map, the duality of intersectional and common experiences led to a discussion of systemic factors that influenced 86 their wildfire experience. In this system level discussion, anti-capitalist ideas were prominent and topics of conversation challenged dominant and colonial societal norms. I recognize these reflections are emblematic of the composition of the participants; if the activity had involved a different set of students with different interests, perhaps these reflections would have identified other priorities. Participants came to the focus group with critiques of capitalist and colonial systems already, but the participatory mapping process made it easier to share those ideas and understand how those systems influenced climate change. For example, the discussion about âland grabsâ occurring on land that had been cleared by fire in the Okanagan and the increased lodging prices in surrounding areas pointed out that certain (usually wealthier) individuals sometimes profit from natural disasters, including those that are climate related (Cerullo, 2023; Hosgood, 2022; Rose-Redwood, 2015; Salgado & Hay, 2023). The participatory mapping process did not instill these values in participants. However, it may have provided a space for participants to communicate and question their existing ideas safely and with reciprocity. Furthermore, the visualization of spatial experiences/relationships may help participants notice or articulate these details more clearly. Nicolisi and Corbett (2018) conclude that âit is critical for both academics and policy-makers to consider the intersections between climate impacts, place attachment/detachment, adaptive capacity, and policyâ (p.93). This review, and others (see Blomley et al., 2017; De Sherbinin, 2014; Facchinelli et al., 2022; Pascoe et al., 2021; Verlie, 2021) call for developing mixed qualitative methods to understand climate change holistically as it relates to place. This thesis answers calls for further exploration of mixed qualitative methods of understanding climate change, and attempts to maintain both relational accountability to participants (Wilson, 2008) and cardinal ethics of the mapping process (Knight, 2022). Intentional and relational 87 participatory mapping processes may encourage settler cartographers to decenter dominant colonial approaches to both the mapping process and knowledge about climate change. Furthermore, the participatory mapping process may have helped facilitate mutual learning and greater understanding between participants and researchers through collaborative dialogue (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1978). These conversations contributed to a cloudy collective understanding of climate change, where each participant was viewed as a knower of some aspect of climate change (Verlie, 2021). Many studies utilize participatory mapping or spatial narratives to engage youth involvement of complex issues (Little, 2020; Schlemper et al., 2018; Teixeira et al., 2020), and there is an increasing need for youth involvement in climate change discussions (Karsgaard & Davidson, 2023; Narksompong & Limjirakan, 2015; Petrasek MacDonald et al., 2013). While the participatory mapping process in this research may be engaging for some youth, it can also be a barrier. Some participants expressed initial confusion at the abstract task of mapping their experience. However, most participants indicated that their maps still served as a good communication tool and conversation starter. Researchers should ensure participatory mapping concepts remain accessible for youth, but this thesis indicates its efficacy as a way to encourage collaborative dialogue about climate change. Furthermore, this research indicates that intentional and relational participatory mapping processes may be an effective way for stakeholders to unpack the complexities of place-based climate change through mutual learning processes. 4.4 Summary Phase One served as a preliminary exploration of the impacts of climate change on UBCO students. The process illuminated the complex web of global and place-based factors that 88 contribute to oneâs experience with climate change. Phase One narrowed the focus of locally relevant climate impacts for UBCO students, wildfire emerged as the most prominent issue. Participants in Phase Two shared experiences from the Grouse Complex wildfire. They explored ideas of inequities and intersectionality around community resilience, and the ways that the drive for profit both influence and exacerbate the effects of climate change. Across all focus groups, the mapping process helped participants collaboratively and critically illustrate and reflect on their own experiences. Relational participatory mapping process may provide people with a way to disentangle the emotions and intersectionalities of climate change in collaborative learning environments. Such an approach may blur the lines between experts and learners. However, this study amplifies Yosurf and St. Johnâs conclusion that participatory mapping may be âa means to an end but not an end itselfâ (Yosurf and St. Johnâs, 2021, p.92). This process examines critical and important perspectives, and may have the potential to inform certain aspects of climate mitigation at UBCO, but the work is not complete. This participatory mapping process may help inform actions and next steps to ensure that those with decision making capabilities are asking the right questions. However, the focus groups are not the end of this work. 89 Chapter 5: Conclusion This study set out to explore the use of participatory mapping as a tool to share and understand different place-based experiences with climate change through storytelling. The nature of this work was inductive, and I had no preconceived notion of what I would discover through this process, or if the mapping would be an effective method. After reading the multiple ways that stories are used to share knowledge and specifically share knowledge about climate change (Pascoe et al., 2021; Renouf, 2021; van Herten & Perez, 2022; Verlie, 2021; Zwaal, 2003), I saw a connection to mapping our stories of place. Participatory action research (PAR) seemed a suitable methodological approach to analyze and interpret these stories due to the collaborative dialogical component elicited by the participatory mapping process (Cornish et al., 2023). I organized and facilitated three participatory mapping focus groups where participants shared their experiences with climate change. As a result of these focus groups, six themes emerged, which generated five key findings of this research: - Finding #1: Experience with wildfire emerged as the most prominent climate change impact participants expressed in this research. However, air pollution, climate anxiety, and political underpinnings of climate change were also discussed. - Finding #2: Participants relied on communities of care to increase community resilience to the climate disaster of wildfire. 90 - Finding #3: The intersectional identities of participants significantly influenced their experiences with climate change. Dialogue centering these unique and intersectional experiences were vital to forming a holistic and cloudy collective understanding of climate change. - Finding #4: Participatory mapping can help facilitate sharing of place-based climate stories, but rarely tells the full story. - Finding #5: The participatory mapping process encouraged critical discussions that allowed participants to collaboratively reflect on the ways that climate change is influenced by place, intersectionality, and systemic structures. Phase One centered the ways climate change is intertwined with global systems and the emotions and intersectionalities that stem from relationships to place. Finding #1 emerged from the Phase One focus groups and identified wildfire as the most prominent impact of climate change for participants. While discussing the different impacts of climate change, it became clear that climate anxiety and political factors that influence climate change were aligned with tangible climate change events, such as wildfires and air pollution. Participants felt anxiety as a result of the wildfires they experienced; factors that contributed to air pollution were highly political, and health impacts varied in different places. Through the participatory mapping process, participants collaboratively and critically discussed these climate issues and how their own emotions and intersectional realities overlapped with systems of capitalism and political factors. The participatory mapping process served as a way to navigate and communicate 91 participant knowledge and experiences. The discussion that occurred during this process focused on intersectionality, systemic factors of climate change and centered participant emotions. Thus, the process of mapping in Phase One appeared more important than the actual maps created, since the process facilitated collaborative and nuanced understandings of place-based climate change between participants. Participants varied in their level of engagement with the mapping itself, but all enjoyed the discussion that emerged about climate change impacts around the world. The prominence of wildfire in Phase One combined with the recent Grouse Complex wildfire experienced in the Okanagan in August 2023 shifted Phase Two to focus on student experiences with wildfire. Participants mapped their individual stories onto a collective map of the Okanagan, which they then used to present and share their experiences with the Grouse Complex wildfire. Once again, the mapping process helped participants think through and organize their thoughts about the experience, and findings #2 and #3 emerged from Phase Two. Finding #2 explains the importance of community resilience, and participants cited the various ways those around them contributed to their well-being during the fire. All participants explained the importance of sharing community resources. They discussed that community support provided both physical safety from the fire but also emotional support in coping with the stress and uncertainty of evacuation. Most participants focused on the supports they found within community, rather than any governmental resources. Finding #3 explains the ways profit driven capitalism influenced the wildfires and the climate crisis. Participants discussed examples of this occurring in and around the Okanagan during the 92 Grouse Complex wildfire. Finding #3 also explains how the intersectionality of participants influenced their experience of the wildfire. Some participants explained that international student communities and communities navigating disabilities were particularly unsupported during the wildfire. They indicated that further attention to the unique needs of communities outside of dominant experiences must be addressed in order to bolster a collective community resilience to climate change. Intersectional experiences ultimately arise from the different ways participants navigate the Okanagan, considering factors of race, ethnicity, disability, socio-economic status and community networks specifically (Davis, 2016). These intersectionalities are further tied to climate justice, as some participants experienced more direct impact of the wildfire than others (Porter et al., 2020; Rosignoli, 2022). Furthermore, participants discussed that these intersectionalities were exacerbated by capitalist systems. Conversations during Phase Two centered around prioritizing community support networks instead of maintaining âbusiness as usualâ motivations that center around profit. While findings #1-3 focus more directly on experiences and perceptions of climate change, findings #4 and #5 more directly answer my original research question. Finding #4 explains that the participatory mapping process in this study did help participants share their experience, but the map alone does not tell the full story. The map helped participants think through their experience with a spatial lens and helped them recall details of the experience that were important. However, the dialogue that unfolded around the maps is what allowed participants to share their story most fulsomely and contribute to a collaborative understanding of the issues depicted on the maps. The map was a tool to contribute to this âcloudy collectiveâ understanding of climate change (Verlie, 2021), but without the process of mapping and the associated dialogue, the maps alone would not capture the full experiences of participants. 93 The process of mapping also encompasses the relationships built between participants in this study. Both Knight (2022) and Wilson (2008) explain the importance of building trusting relationships in research processes, and Freire (1968) further indicates that through intentional and equal relationships, experts and learners can engage in collaborative understanding through dialogue. Participants in all focus groups built relationships, (to each other and to myself as the researcher) through the process of creating their maps in the same space. The focus groups provided a space for participants to work, talk and eat together as they got to know one another before they shared their experiences. Encouraging trust between participants likely contributed to fruitful discussions that emerged as participants shared their maps. This indicates that those using participatory mapping methods must be intentional about the process used to create the map. Since the goal of most participatory mapping practices is to highlight and give voice to underrepresented knowledge (Dawson et al., 2020; Knight, 2022; Schlemper et al., 2018; Teixeira et al., 2020), encouraging the building of trusting relationships among both participants and researchers is vital to achieve collaborative understandings of the issues being mapped. A map itself may not always communicate the full extent of knowledge from the makers, but the process of creating a map can build relationships among participants which leads to a greater mutual understanding. The dialogue that emerges from the participatory mapping process may also provide a critical lens to view complex issues like climate change. Finding #5 explains that across all three focus groups, the participatory mapping process led to a deep reflection about climate change and detailed discussion of experiences through collaborative dialogue. This process contributed to a âcloudy collectiveâ understanding of climate change through the different and intersectional 94 experiences discussed (Verlie, 2021). Participants likely already had ideas about how intersectional (race, ethnicity, disability, socio-economic status) and systemic (colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy) factors influenced their experience with climate change, but spatializing these emotions and experiences through mapping process allowed them to connect and build on these different ideas together. Finally, incorporating ideas and knowledge from both Phase One and Two, I propose an expansion to the definition of a participatory map as follows: A participatory map helps individuals or groups communicate and understand their own spatial realities. This includes relationships with each other, our own worldviews, and the spaces and places we are entangled within. Often created with a specific purpose in mind, participatory maps represent the spatial and lived realities of their makers (Harley, 1989), facilitating a process to communicate our own knowledge, stories, and perceptions through their creation. This definition puts ideas and knowledge from participants into dialogue with scholars to highlight the social aspect of mapping and explicitly position participatory mapping as a tool for communicating situated knowledge. While this research has implications for those studying participatory mapping, the findings listed from this research are highly place-dependent. They only reflect the experiences of UBCO students. I believe that to replicate this process would yield different themes, according to the different intersectional experiences of other participants. Though many participants called for UBCO to take action to better support students through the climate crisis, further research is needed to understand exactly how UBCO should do that. Additionally, further studies are required to address the challenges that international students at UBCO face in regard to these issues. These future studies may shed light on new and more effective ways to support those 95 students. Finally, this thesis indicates that the intersection of disability justice and climate justice in the Okanagan should also be investigated further. This thesis is âa means to an end but not an end itselfâ (Yosurf and St. Jon, 2021, p. 91), and indicates several areas of future research and action regarding student experiences with climate change. The key findings from this research, however, revolve around the impact of the participatory mapping process itself. Both findings #4 and #5 indicate the importance of the participatory mapping process over the final map product itself. Indeed, many participatory mapping studies prioritize the mapping process over the products, pointing out that the map serves to elicit specific knowledge or dialogue around a certain issue (Adams et al., 2017b; Adams & Savahl, 2017; Eligue, 2023). This research contributes to that specific area of the participatory mapping literature and highlights how spatializing emotions and experiences through maps helps articulate, intersectionalities and systemic issues wrapped up within the wicked issue of climate change. Participants across all focus groups indicated that the intentional process of mapping climate stories and then collectively discussing these stories, may be useful in educational settings to teach one another about the diversity of climate change experiences. Participants explained that this method allowed them to visually see the ways that climate change intersects with other aspects of local and global systems, and through seeing it together they could question and discuss it with others. Mapping out stories has been used to engage youth voices in place-based issues (Carney et al., 2022; DiFulvio et al., 2016; Schlemper et al., 2018), and may be useful specifically for climate change engagement. Educators, climate experts and activists all seek to create holistic understandings of climate change (Verlie, 2021). Therefore, processes 96 that allow for creative ways to disentangle the nuances and create mutual learning between experts and learners (Freire, 1968) may be valuable. Mapping our experiences is not the only way to engage in these learning processes but the spatial component may be specifically helpful to explore nuances to the human experience with climate change. The work involved for this thesis has been emotional for me as a researcher and for the participants involved in the focus groups. It is emotional to talk about climate change and how we are impacted; it is emotional to share the things that attach us to place; it is emotional to lay out the injustices and insecurities communities face that remain beyond their ability to influence. Often, academic spaces try to separate the research from our own emotions, promoting instead a lens of objectivity that separates researchers from their work (Kovach, 2021). Separation and dissonance were the only ways I knew how to approach research for a long time. We as researchers and community members constantly switch personas to exist both in academic spaces and within our communities, switching out our âresearcher hatâ and our âcommunityâ or âactivistâ hats, but rarely wearing more than one at the same time. This issue continues to humble academics in their work, particularly if they work with PAR type methods. Although this work is being done under PAR, it will ultimately benefit me and not the participants. Any actions regarding the knowledge that was shared would be beyond the scope of this thesis. I have sat with these tensions and tried to work through them, but ultimately, I am left with far more questions than answers about different experiences with climate change and the research process as a whole. I do not know exactly how to do research that feels good all the time- there were many moments that did not feel good. Creating space for research to be done through our emotions and relational ties, rather than in spite of them, demands continued 97 attention. Witnessing the participatory mapping process in this study made clear the ways emotions and relationality are inextricably tied into the issues we study and fight for/against. While this way of approaching research felt cathartic in some ways for me, tensions with the research process still exist. I still question how PAR methodologies within timeframe of a masterâs degree can maintain accountability to the community. However, I believe experiencing and acknowledging those tensions ultimately lead to more rigorous and holistic work towards change. It is often through our praxis that these ideals truly begin to take hold in our hearts. Therefore, I believe that relationality, intentionality and emotion within our research questions are necessary. I am reminded of Shawn Wilsonâs words, âif research doesnât change you as a person, then you havenât done it rightâ (Wilson, 2008. P. 135). I have been and continue to be changed from the knowledge shared with me from participants, peers, my community, and professors. This is something I will be forever grateful for. 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Communicating Climate Change: Making Environmental Messaging Accessible (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003037378 Zwaal, N. (2003). Narratives for nature: Storytelling as a vehicle for improving the intercultural dialogue on environmental conservation in Cameroon. s.n.]. 107 Appendix A: Consent Forms and Advertisements These are the consent forms all participants signed before the focus groups took place. 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 Join a masterâs study in collaboration with the Global Engagement Office to create story maps about your experience with climate change and the outdoors! You Qualify If You: â¢ You are an international graduate or undergraduate student at UBCO Participation Involves â¢ Attend a 2-hour focus group session in ICER (ART 368) â¢ Use artistic methods (sketch mapping, drawing, creative writingâ¦) to tell your story about climate change. â¢ Share your story with other participants and put your experience on the map! Location: Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER) ART 368 Potential Benefits Share your story and enjoy some pizza and lots of other food and good company.FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact Sierra Lammi (sglammi@mail.ubc.ca) with any questions! Focus groups will be held before the end of April, fill out the survey in the QR to find the date that works best for you! International student participants needed to map experiences with climate change and the outdoors. 115
Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Interdisciplinary Studies
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
Corbett, Jon
Mapping our stories : an exploration of youth experiences with climate change
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