Fieldwork from the Amazon River to the Brazilian Coast

Between environmental projects and sustainable management practices: Ramona Haegele (IDOS) together with Sabrina Heuwinkel (IDOS) produced a video series exploring the intersection of entrepreneurship, digitalisation and sustainability in Brazil.

 

Ramona Haegele, researcher and PhD Candidate at IDOS, stayed as a guest researcher at FGV EBAPE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from September 2023 to January 2024. Through the EU-funded project PRODIGEES, which focusses on the intersection of sustainability, digitalisation and transnational knowledge cooperation, the IDOS researcher was able to work and conduct fieldwork in Brazil.

In October, the researcher was part of a 10-day immersion programme of the Sustainability Track of FGV EBAPE’s Master in Management (MIM) in the Brazilian Amazon. During the Amazon Experience, students of FGV EBAPE and researchers observed first-hand environmental projects and sustainable management practices carried out by key actors from the public and private sectors in the Amazon region. Throughout the programme, participants learnt how e.g. small producers and cooperatives work together and combine entrepreneurship, digitalisation and sustainability successfully. Together with Sabrina Heuwinkel, Communications officer at IDOS, they produced a video series displaying the projects.

Besides teaching the use of qualitative research methods to the MIM students and engaging with FGV EBAPE’s work in Rio de Janeiro, Ramona Haegele conducted interviews with representatives of the Liga das Mulheres Pelos Oceanos, a network of women who work on ocean conservation. Through the interviews, she gained insights into (in)equalities and discrimination of women and minorities in marine science making. These findings will add to her data on knowledge production processes in marine carbon observations in Germany and Brazil, which is also her PhD project.