The 20 visual stories presented below are fictions based on the previous co-research work. The Shared Dialogues transdisciplinary team collectively worked on the original creation, narration and illustration of stories representing part of the diversity of individual and collective experiences in the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena. Therefore, they do not tell all the existing stories, nor do they claim to be generalizable representations of the experiences of a sector or group. Nevertheless, they are stories that we hope will help the readers to elucidate the complexities of the socioeconomic and environmental relationships in this territory.

 

The stories are organised around four groups which we have named ecotones. Evocating its original definition as zones of transition or overlap between different ecosystems, we propose the notion of ecotones as a metaphor for the intersections among communities and stories that inhabit the territory.

Download ecotones here in PDF format

 

 

Inhabiting land and ocean

 

The stories presented below describe the ways of life in the mainland and in the lagoon: their main characters share with us their practices, feelings, and concerns.

 

These are some of the questions we asked and reflected on when creating these stories:

What are the life stories behind each character?

What do the characters have to say that cannot be heard

in public debates and that can broaden our views of

what is happening in the territory?

How can non-human beings be represented?

 

 

Contradiction

 

These stories portray conversations between friends and colleagues in which they express the contradictions, agreements, disagreements and feelings around common issues in the public debate on the relationship between the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena.

 

What public discourses have permeated the conversations and daily activities of the inhabitants of the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena?

How do local actors embody the contradictions that are usually found in these discourses?

In what ways do scientific and lay knowledge emanating from the quotidian in the territory interact and influence each other?

 

 

 

 

Feeling the lagoon

 

Even though all the stories in this publication tell us about the feelings of the people inhabiting the territory and their connection with the land and the sea, the following stories focus on some experiences of suffering, sorrow, sadness, solidarity, and resistance, among others, around the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena.

 

How do local actors face the deterioration of the Mar Menor?

How are feelings about the territory experienced, represented, and shared?

Who is mobilizing, and how, to take care of the lagoon?

 

 

 

Shared reflections

 

These stories reflect moments when the main characters sat together in spaces aimed to dialogue and reflect in favour of the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena.

 

Can we reflect on issues about which we disagree regarding the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena, even if we do not reach an agreement?

How can we think about a shared future that includes migrant people and youth and does not imply a return to the past?

How to give a voice to the lagoon as a subject?