Unveiling Territorialities: Small Drones for Ethnographic Research on Environmental Conflicts

Researching environmental conflicts can be a challenging ethnographic endeavor, especially when their causes are influenced (in)directly by illicit stakeholders and activities. In this article we explore the potential of small drones for better grasping the complexity of environmental conflicts from an activist research and an engaged ethnography standpoint. Through a case study in Michoacán (Mexico), we show how we used small drones for ethnographic research in three different stages: before takeoff, during flights, and after landing. We also show how drones helped us unveil illegal and criminal territorialities previously unnoticed in the study area, which were key to understanding the environmental conflict, its root causes, and its present dynamics. Based on our findings, we present a methodological proposal for using small drones for ethnographic research. We also discuss some safety and ethical considerations related to our proposal. We conclude by suggesting some avenues for future research to further explore the ethnographic potential of small drones in environmental conflicts and other research areas.