Envisioning polysemicity: Generating insights into the complexity of place-based research within contested space

In “Implications of sense of place and place-based education for ecological integrity and cultural sustainability in contested places”, Steven Semken and Elizabeth Brandt explore the construct of place, and suggest that place-based education can serve as a mutually advantageous transaction between people and place in contested areas. In this chapter, I extend the implications they have introduced and contend that a critical theoretical perspective is required in work with contested places and displaced peoples in order to recognize the multitude of complexities involved. Building from their work, I suggest using polyvocal and polysemic research in and around contested places as a means to acknowledge multidimensional intersubjective perspectives while also emphasizing connections to place.