POLLEN newsletter: June

Dear POLLEN members and friends (with apologies for X-posting),

Greetings and welcome to our monthly POLLEN update. We are happy to have received a number of interesting new publications and opportunities, and to once again welcome new nodes!

Our teaching resources page is still expanding. If you have anything that you would like to add, please let us know!

We would like to remind you of our drive to expand the POLLEN network, especially to include interested institutions from the Global South or any other under-represented regions. Please have a think about inviting institutions you work with who might benefit from being part of POLLEN. To aid this process, we have drafted an email that you can use if you would like to invite colleagues. We would like to thank Sabaheta Ramcilovik-Suominen for suggesting this great idea. We hope this draft email will encourage existing nodes to ask their global partners to start their own node:

Dear…,

In attempts to branch out across the globe, we would like to invite you to start an institutional or individual ‘node’ in our network – Political Ecology Network (POLLEN).

POLLEN is a global network, consisting of a large variety of researchers, groups, projects, networks and other ‘nodes’ around the world, that work at the interface of political, economic and social factors with environmental and social justice issues and change.

As the name suggests, the aim of POLLEN is to facilitate interaction and creativity through ‘cross-fertilization’ and to promote the important field of political ecology worldwide, among academics as well as others. Historically, the term ‘political ecology’ has not been confined only to an analytical approach and research program, but also to the theories and narratives that mobilize social and political movements with an ecological agenda.

We, therefore, aim to function as a vehicle to promote, encourage and facilitate political ecological research with other academic fields and disciplines, as well as civil society. The members of POLLEN are both individuals and ‘nodes’.

These nodes are really what POLLEN is all about: autonomous groups of researchers and practitioners working in and on different traditions. It is established mainly to coordinate between, but also to support, the various nodes in ensuring that political ecology messages, lessons and insights are shared, broadcasted and heard more widely. This is done mainly on our blog

One of the main activities of POLLEN is to hold a biennial conference. For more information see our website.

To start your own POLLEN node, please fill in your details on our open Google Sheet membership database, and email the POLLEN secretariat (currently hosted by the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University) at politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com to request that your node is added to the website.

That’s it. We are not a listserve – but do ask for contributions once a month for our newsletter.

This draft email can also be found on the POLLEN website.

We hope everyone enjoys reading this month’s newsletter and we thank everyone who sent us contributions! A pdf version of this newsletter can be found here.

BLOG POSTS

Doing Political Ecology Amid Disaster by Jared Margulies

Travel policy reduces travel costs and CO2 emissions by Jens Friis Lund

Why is vanilla so expensive? | The Economist with Benjamin Neimark

From our friends at Entitle:

Statement of the Encounter of Critical and Autonomous Geographies of Latin America // Pronunciamiento del Encuentro de Geografías Críticas y Autónomas de América Latina

Environmentalism is not a metaphor by Remy Bargout

PUBLICATIONS

Clement, F., Harcourt, W.J., Joshi, D. and Sato, C., 2019. Feminist political ecologies of the commons and commoning. International Journal of the Commons, 13(1). Editorial to a Special Feature which can be found here: Feminist political ecologies of the commons and commoning

Kolinjivadi, V., 2019. Avoiding dualisms in ecological economics: Towards a dialectically-informed understanding of co-produced socionatures. Ecological Economics, 163, pp.32-41.

Lund, J.F., Amanzi, N., Baral, S., Basnyat, B., Chhetri, B., Eilenberg, M., Hansen, C., Lund, C., Mbeyale, G., Meilby, H. and Ngaga, Y., 2019. Towards Participatory Forestry: Policy Briefs-Copenhagen Centre for Development Research, University of Copenhagen. Policy Brief, 1(May).

Neimark, Benjamin, Address the roots of environmental crime Science 12 Apr 2019: Vol. 364, Issue 6436, pp. 139 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6436/139.1

Ramcilovic-Suominen, S., Lovric, M., Mustalahti, I. 2019. Mapping policy actor networks and their interests in the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Lao PDR. World Development 118: 128-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.02.011

Tănăsescu, M., 2019. Restorative ecological practice: The case of the European Bison in the Southern Carpathians, Romania. Geoforum.

NEWS, CONFERENCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

CFP SI: The species turn in South Asian identity politics

The Canadian Society of Ecological Economics 12th Biennial Conference entitled “Engaging Economies of Change” took place from the 22-25 May, 2019 in Waterloo, Ontario. To view recorded keynotes, including a debate between degrowth and ecomodernism by Giorgios Kallis and Ted Norhaus, and other speakers raising issues on Indigenous sovereignty in Canada, feminist economics, radical care and commoning, and related themes, please visit this link at the David Suzuki Foundation: https://davidsuzuki.org/science-learning-centre-article/engaging-economies-of-change-canadian-society-for-ecological-economics-12th-biennial-conference-may-22-25-2019/?fbclid=IwAR0SQ43HKEDpmynAYVqY4So5QyAXeflc-nqjRGQzKljqF8bJuLveNJ8ezT4

Reminder: The Political Ecology Society (PESO) announces the 2019 Eric Wolf Prize for the best article-length paper. The deadline for submission is July 15, 2019.

The Future Pasts research project led from Bath Spa University (UK) is currently curating the exhibition Future Pasts: Landscape, Memory and Music in West Namibia at a Community Arts Venue in Swakopmund, Namibia (for info, see here). The project explores the cultural and conservation landscapes of west Namibia in connection with historical processes of colonialism and conquest.

NEW NODES – Welcome to POLLEN!