Flanders’ First Wolf Pack: Publics’ Sensemaking and Place-Based Knowledge in Social Media Conversations

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Abstract
This interpretive qualitative study addresses publics’ sensemaking in relation to ecological changes that they had not known or experienced before. The context is the current recolonization by gray wolves in Europe, which led to the first wolf pack in the Flanders Region (Belgium) in two centuries. Ethnographic observation of the conversations that took place on government social media, after surprising events—from the arrival of a she-wolf to the raising of her young—reveals a recurring pattern of four sensemaking activities: (1) creating welcoming, protective sentiments, (2) assessing future survival chances for wolves, (3) anticipating disruptions by wolves, and (4) explaining raisons d’être of wolves. By elaborating on and discussing these activities, we highlight the self-triggering dynamics of the unfolding sensemaking process, and the diversity of knowledge sources and approaches involved. In this ongoing process, social media participants increasingly relied on abstract knowledge, analogies and past-time representations that, however, do not resolve the uncertainties and ambiguities encountered. Yet, despite the unprecedented circumstances, our findings suggest potential for place-based knowledge to support the publics’ sensemaking in ways that open up relevant experiential perspectives –including those of the wolves—to deal with the daily challenges of human-wolf coexistence on the ground.

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