Visualizing Sugaropolis: Interdisciplinary Recreations of Greenock's Transnational Past

Which interdisciplinary research methods can best convey the transnational and
multiply-inhabited nature of capitalist spaces of consumption? This project will use participatory and co-design methodologies to visualize and re-imagine how
diverse agents involved in Greenock’s sugar industry inhabited transnational
spaces. Preliminary archival research will inform a series of activities with school
children, university students and museum visitors, using methodological
experimentation such as taste interviews and the co-design of story maps, game
prototypes and virtual landscapes. The purpose of these activities is to enable the researchers to assess which methodological tools best convey complex
geographies of meaning, power and exclusion and the multiple, creative and
unfinished nature of such capitalist encounters. By creating visual narratives about the role of sugar in Greenock’s past, the project seeks to develop inclusive and
accessible explanations for sugar’s role in Scotland’s history, with direct relevance
to contemporary concerns about health inequalities in Scotland.