POLLEN 2022: The 4th Biennial Conference of the Political Ecology Network
Political Ecology: North, South, and Beyond
#POLLEN22 | http://www.pollen2022.com | @PolEcoNet

Shift to a virtual format, extended call for organised session proposals, and call for individual papers
When: 28 Jun – 1 July 2022
Where: South Africa | Virtual
Organised By: The Discipline of Geography and the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and The Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) Secretariat at the Australian National University (ANU).
Support is provided by the South African National Convention Bureau (SANCB) and the professional conference organiser is African Agenda.
The Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) organising committee for POLLEN 2022 has made the decision to shift the conference to a virtual format. This decision takes into account the unlikelihood that the international participants will travel under prevailing Covid conditions, and also under advice from the host University of Kwazulu-Natal, in Durban South Africa, in terms of capacity restrictions under Covid protocols for an in-person event on campus.
The Pollen conference will be a fully virtual, interactive event and while we can’t replicate the in-person experience, we can maximise the virtues of technology to ensure we can still gather together in a virtual space to continue to share insights and grow the network. We will be adapting the programme to suit the virtual format and will include a variety of opportunities for interaction – among attendees and between attendees and speakers. The conference will also be extended from a three to a 4-day event, running from the 28 June – 1 July 2022. Details on the conference theme, Political Ecology: North, South and Beyond can be found here.
Extended submission deadline for completed organised session proposals
In anticipation of further interest in the amended format, we have extended the call for organised session proposals till 31 January 2022. The call for organised session proposals can be found here and the submission portal can be found here.
Call for individual papers
We strongly urge participants to consider proposing or joining an existing organised session (see the current list below). However, we will accept individual abstracts and collate papers into thematic sessions. While we cannot guarantee placement, we will do our best to fit individual submissions into the conference program. Abstracts of 250 words, along with a title and 3 keywords can be submitted by 31 January 2022 to the portal here.
Current list of CALL FOR PAPERS (CFPs):
Call for proposals, presenters, participants or contributions to Organised Sessions are posted below and available on the conference website here.
- If ‘We’ are the future of Political Ecology then what should change in political ecology?: Voices of early-career political ecologists Read
- Political Ecology in the courtroom: Power and Knowledge dynamics in legal processes to redress environmental injustice Read
- Emotional Political Ecologies Read
- Mobilising political ecology sees to advance equity and justice for oceans and people: A conversation between academics and civil society Read
- Political Ecology of rural-urban transformations and transitions Read
- Panel: Advancing Blue Justice? Political Ecologies of equity and justice in oceans governance Read
- Cultivating critical reflexivity in conservation Read
- Other-than-human Political Ecologies of wildlife conservation Read
- Indigenous self-determination vis-a-vis conservation and climate action Read
- Political Ecology of memory: Memories of violence and socio-environmental struggles Read
- Political Ecologies of Zoonosis Read
- Deagrarianisation: what are the underlying reasons and effects with focus on livelihoods, poverty reduction and climate change Read
- Power, knowledge and multi-species perspectives in smallholder agricultureRead
- From Overtourism to Undertourism…and Back Again? Confronting Post-Pandemic Tourism ‘Regrowth’ with Postcapitalist Pathways Read
- Decolonizing conservation: Strategies of local-to-global initiatives Read
- The political ecology of China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A grounded analysis of the uneven effects of the New Silk Road on place, socionatures and Read
- Natures out of place? Spaces, ecologies and materialities of the ‘Weird’Read
- Actualizing the potential of political ecology in transformative change Read
- Biodiversity conservation, disruptive politics, and the challenges of (challenging) spatial injustices Read
- Researching social-ecological conflicts – Bringing non-human entities into the analysis Read
- Political Ecology and Film: Cutting Away from Dominant Understandings and Aesthetics Read
- Synergy or contrast? When political ecology theoretical claims meet practical transdisciplinary challenges in social-ecological research projects Read
- Anti-Caste Environmentalism: Marginal Perspectives around Political Ecology in India Read