ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how research design and methodology informed by feminist, qualitative, and interpretive approaches led to using the concept of the taskscape to explain human-bear “conflict” in northern Ecuador. In the Ecuadorian Andes, instances of bear attacks on cattle occurred as the landscape shifted from fields of crops to pastures for raising cattle. The taskscape concept describes how an array of livelihood activities materially remakes the landscape. In this case, tasks on the agricultural frontier shifted from those with loud and frequent human presence such as sowing and harvesting crops, hunting, and timber extraction, to leaving bull calves in remote pastures for days, vulnerable to bear attacks. One key part of the story of the shift in livelihood activities is that as cultural, economic, and political drivers prompted rural out-migration, those who remained committed to the countryside expressed attachment to remaining in a rural place. The chapter details how these and other study findings emerged through an open-ended qualitative research design, and explains the relevance of two key concepts from feminist methodology, situated knowledges and reflexivity, for scientists and social scientists seeking to undertake similar work.
