| Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, Thank you for your input this month – and for a rich newsletter with plenty of activity to share across the network. First we have an introduction by POLLEN’s Singaporean node, followed by a long list of new publications, workshops, conferences, vacancies, articles, blog posts and more. Hope you enjoy! Best wishes, POLLEN Secretariat NOTE: the updates below are a copy of the original newsletter, and therefore might not contain all hyperlinks and content. To access the original with full content, as well as to see previous newsletters, follow this link: https://us20.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=71814a42a0d2d8f390cbee1be&id=3fe97edf35 |
| Getting to know your fellow POLLEN members Every monthly newsletter includes a brief introduction to one of the many POLLEN nodes. We hope this will help build better connections between our community. Our second ‘virtual visit’ is in Singapore. Enjoy! |
| Short group bio There is an emerging group of scholars in Singapore who work broadly in the interdisciplinary field of political ecology within Asia and elsewhere. While political ecology is not new to Singapore, it is only within the past few years that political ecologists have begun to connect with one another and create the beginnings of a working collective. Small workshops have been held on agrarian and food studies at Yale-NUS (National University of Singapore) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and a reading group on Asian Political Ecologies was formed in the Department of Geography at NUS. Other events related to political ecology have also likely been held in recent years, but which are not yet on our radar. Forming this POLLEN node and bringing together interested political ecologists has actually helped to connect us and further the development of political ecology in Singapore. Thus far, the group includes: Miles Kenney-Lazar, Carl Grundy-Warr, Nathan Green, Annu Jalais, Rini Astuti, Jessica Clendening, Sumiya Bilegsaikhan Taij, Felicia Liu, Yingshan Lau, Radhika Bhargava, Jeasurk Yang, and Anjana Ramkumar at NUS, Marvin Montefrio, Anthony Medrano, and Jared Moore at Yale-NUS, Harvey Neo at SUTD, Zhan Shaohua and Md Saidul Islam at Nanyang Technological University, and Forrest Zhang at Singapore Management University. The group is only just forming and there are surely many others who we have not yet connected with – if you see this message, please do get in touch! (contact Miles at geokmr@nus.edu.sg) Fun fact Although Singapore is a small country, known as the ‘little red dot’ because it is often represented as such on maps of Southeast Asia, the emerging node of political ecology here is connected well beyond the country’s 724.2 km2 (an area that has actually increased over time due to land reclamation). Political ecologists in Singapore work within and beyond the boundaries of the city-state, across Asia and beyond. This is reflective of the political ecologies of Singapore itself, in which its environmental resources and pollutants (e.g. fresh produce and carbon dioxide) extend across the globe. |
| Is your political ecology ‘decolonial’? A praxis workshop at #POLLEN20 This is a special pre-conference workshop organized by and for early career researchers and activists. The virtual workshop will take place on 21 September 2020 from 3-5pm BST. Deadline to register interest in attending the workshop: 10 September 2020. More details here. |
| New Issue of Ecology, Economy and Society – The INSEE Journal A new issue of the, India-based, interdisciplinary journal Ecology, Economy & Society has been published. It contains a special section on New Water Epistemologies, which might be of interest to some of you. Please ignore this message if it is not, or access the issue here: https://ecoinsee.org/journal/ojs/index.php/ees |
| New project exploring the future of work and environment in Algeria Jessica Northey and Gordon Crawford of Coventry University have recently celebrated the signing of an MoU in July 2020 with partners Adel Chiheb and Said Chakour from Jijel University, Algeria, in order to implement an ambitious new project, drawing on political ecology, to explore the future of work and the environment in Algeria. Entitled “Imagining the future: Engaging young people on environmental challenges to create new and sustainable livelihoods in Algeria,” the project is steered by a network of youth researchers from across Algeria. The Youth Futures project, funded by the British Academy, investigates innovative ideas of young people on tackling environmental challenges. It will capture creative energy of young people to understand how they imagine their own futures, as citizens and decision makers. For more informatio |
| CfPs Call for Papers on Special Issue: Justice and Power in Bioeconomy and Biosociety transformations.Read more here. |
| From our friends at Undisciplined Environments There’s more than just dirt beneath the lush lawns By Lauren Tropeano (June 30, 2020) The Can Batlló radical social innovation: Movements co-producing public services By Viviana Asara (July 9, 2020) Green New Deal(s): A Resource List for Political Ecologists By Gustavo García López and Diego Andreucci (July 16, 2020) Scaling-up territorial alternatives to water extractivism: Mini hydroelectric plants in Ecuador By Emilie Dupuits (July 21, 2020) |
| Blog posts, documentaries, podcasts Report and film on women from a pastoralist community in Western India: The report and film present a snap shot narration of the articulations of women from a community called the Raika, that practices pastoralism in the state of Rajasthan in Western India. The report and film are part of an action study by Kalpavriksh, as part of a global collaborative project Academic Activist Co-generation of Knowledge on Environmental Justice. Thomson, Gail: A perfect storm? COVID-19 and community-based conservation in Namibia. Conservation Namibia blog Bigger, P.M.: Green Structural Adjustment in The World Bank’s Resilient Cities (June 30, 2020) Developing Economics Zografos, C. Covid recovery and radical social change. (7th July 2020) The Ecologist Report from the conference on “Extraction: Tracing the Veins”, organised by the Massey University Political Ecology Research Centre and Wageningen University (June 29-July 10 2020). Access report here. |
| Vacancies Tenure-track position: in Global Development Studies at Queen’s University in Canada. Specific field of study: Indigenous or Ethnic Minority Self-Determination. We welcome applicants who examine the political-economic and socio-cultural dynamics of self-determination on issues such as political autonomy, resource management, livelihood strategies, local knowledge, and cultural preservation. Deadline for submitting applications is September 15. See details in this link. Postdoctoral Research Position in Political Ecology: Department of Geography at the University of Zurich. Application deadline: 31 August 2020. See full description here. |
| Other news New approved interdisciplinary research projects, funded by Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), Ecuador: Ecuador’s Development Path Since the Return to Democracy (1979) Through the Perspective of Disasters’ Impact (2019-2021) Ecological Politics Revisited: Local Benefit or Public-Private Gains? The Local Impacts of REDD+ Mangrove Protection Projects in Ecuador (2020-2022) |
