This paper examines the role of digital ethnography in understanding and addressing environmental justice issues in Nepal, a country facing significant ecological challenges due to climate change and environmental degradation. By focusing on digitally mediated knowledge production, the study explores how digital platforms and technologies shape the narratives and responses to environmental injustices experienced by marginalized communities in Nepal. The research aims to critically assess how digital knowledge is produced, shared, and accessed, particularly in relation to environmental governance and justice.
Using ethnographic case studies from Nepal's vulnerable regions, such as the Himalayan communities impacted by climate change, the paper investigates the structural affordances of digital knowledge systems. It explores the power dynamics involved in who controls environmental narratives, whose voices are heard or marginalized, and how these dynamics affect the representation of Nepal's most at-risk populations. The study also highlights the intersection between local knowledge systems and global environmental discourses, examining how digital platforms mediate these interactions.
This paper contributes to the broader discussion of digital epistemology by questioning the reliability and effectiveness of digital knowledge in navigating the "triple planetary crises" of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. It seeks to determine how digital ethnography can illuminate the injustices experienced by Nepal’s most vulnerable communities and offer new ways to engage with environmental justice. The research will also consider how digital knowledge production may perpetuate existing inequalities or serve as a tool for transcending them in the context of the Anthropocene.
In conclusion, the study offers a critical reflection on the role of digital ethnography in advancing our understanding of environmental justice in Nepal, as well as its potential to contribute to a more just and equitable response to the environmental challenges of our times.