This case study contributes to the conceptualisation of, and methodology for, studying caringscapes/carescapes that concern the relations among humans and between human and non-human subjects. It analyses how some local villagers along the Lower Kinabatangan River express their ‘duty of care’ toward the river through their sustained local participation in restorative work by means of such projects as assessing changing water quality in their wetlands. Making sense of their emer- gent sense of responsibility to foster care for the river entails examining not only how the local sense of place centres upon the river, but also how the river itself affects local communal and personal identity in a two- way flow. This case study highlights the agency of those experiencing the process of socioecological change in- volving a social learning process covering two decades via learning networks, community participation in citi- zen science, trust, and leadership by example.
Keywords: citizen science, ethics of care, Kinabatangan River, Malaysia, sense of place, social learning
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Authors
Fadzilah Majid Cooke: International Steering Committee, Sustainable Initiatives for the Marginal Seas of South and East Asia; Advisory Board Designing Entangled Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific, Melbourne, Australia
Martin Vogel: Village Co-operative Kopel Bhd, Lower Kinabatangan, Malaysia
Greg Acciaioli: Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Archaeology and Geography, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Zati Sharip: National Water Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
Village Co-operative Researchers: Village Co-operative, Lower Kinabatangan, Malaysia
Nor Azlin Tajuddin: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, International Islamic University Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
How to cite this article: Cooke, F.M., Vogel, M., Acciaioli, G., Sharip, Z. & Tajuddin, N.A. (2024) Duty of care toward the Kinabatangan River: Environmental monitoring, social learning and Care of Place in Sabah, Malaysia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 00, 1–20. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12513