Mangrove forests are located at the in-between of the sea and the land. People around the world have made sense of mangroves in many different ways, ranging from mangroves as "home of ghosts", "resources", "biodiversity reserve", "coastal protection" to "death bringers". The aim of the research project is to understand how people in Southern Ecuador have made sense of their mangrove surrounding at the Gulf of Guayaquil over the last 200 years, and how this guides the use of mangrove areas around the Gulf of Guayaquil. The research draws on Communicative and Discursive Constructivism and the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. The research data is composed of ethnographic and historical data, collected online, in archives and in an eight months' field research from 06/2019 until 02/2020 in Southern Ecuador. Besides unfolding empirically how meaning is attached to mangroves around the Gulf of Guayaquil and how discourses have shaped these meanings, the results aim to contribute to the ongoing discussions about the methodological framework used.

Transcription of Transect Walks through the mangrove user communities and a science institution engaged in mangrove use. Developed in the context of Rapid Rural Appraisal methods for quick data gathering in community development (Chambers 2012, Pelto 2016:77), the method comprises of a systematical walk through the sample area accompanied by one or more knowledgeable people of the zone (Mukherjee 1997:52). Every object of interest was discussed and explained.

Transcriptions of semi-structured interviews held with mangrove use groups during field work in the mangrove areas of Southern Ecuador. Questions developed based on cultural domain analysis (Borgatti 1994, Bernard 2006:266ff., Schnegg and Lang 2008) and grand tour questions (Spradley 1979:86) within the theoretical framework of the Sociology of Knowledge.

Transcriptions of semi-structured interviews held with stakeholders involved in mangrove management and/or mangrove use during field work in the mangrove areas of Southern Ecuador. Questions developed based on cultural domain analysis (Borgatti 1994, Bernard 2006:266ff., Schnegg and Lang 2008) and grand tour questions (Spradley 1979:86) within the theoretical framework of the Sociology of Knowledge. The lack of female voices is not only coincidently but symptomatic for the scientific and everyday-life (mangrove) discourse (cf. Merchant 1989 [1980], Haraway 1991, Harding 1991, Beard 2015, Cormier-Salem 2017).