Grassroots, the new section of the Journal of Political Ecology, is inviting proposals for the POLLEN 2022 panel session: “Cultivating Grassroots”
Panel Abstract:
In this panel we explore the notion of “Grassroots”, which has been mobilized by social environmental movements to link their political and life struggles with local realities and concerns. is also the name of Grassroots the new section of the Journal of Political Ecology. In the midst of a global environmental crisis, the objective of this section is to reveal and circulate local experiences, stories and reflections on the politics of
environmental change, unequal access to natural resources and uneven distribution of environmental risks, as well as alternative ways of relating with more-than-human environments. We believe that this type of platform has the potential to inform and contribute to transforming the way in which we do political ecology today, as well as to strengthen the ties between social movements and academia.
To launch this new platform, we invite contributors to explore any of the following interrelated issues:
• The notion of grassroots as a way of referring to social movements, its histories, uses, transformations and critics across different regions and times
• The evolution of grassroot strategies for socio-environmental mobilization, from the emergence of transnational agrarian movements (Borras Jr., Edelman, and Kay 2008) to the influence of social media in popular uprisings (Foust and Hoyt 2018), and from biological warfare in agricultural fields (Beilin and Suryanarayanan 2017) to ‘projection fights’ during the COP26 (Murray 2021).
• New directions and demands that grassroot movements are adopting in the face of globalization, digitalization and climate change. These include mobilization against climate inaction and injustice (de Moor et al. 2021), against new technologies of climate change mitigation such as lithium batteries that require new waves of mineral extraction (Svampa and Viale 2020), or in favor of nonhuman entities such as forest and rivers as legal persons with rights (Revet 2020).
• Any other topic related to the notion of grassroots and to the evolution and strategies of socio-environmental movements.
Traditional single authored presentations are welcome, but we also encourage pieces co-produced by academics and activists in the form of written papers or visual essays. If you are interested in contributing to this panel, please send a 250 word abstract to grassrootsjpe@gmail.com by 20th of January 2022. Accepted papers will be included in the panel and considered for publication in the JPE section – Grassroots (www.grassrootsjpe.org).
Conveners:
Grassroots section editors:
Diego Silva Garzón – Centre for International Environmental Studies (IHEID, Geneva, Switzerland)
diego.silva@graduateinstitute.ch
Emilie Dupuits – Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador)
edupuits@usfq.edu.ec
References
Borras Jr., Saturnino M., Marc Edelman, and Cristóbal Kay, eds. 2008. Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Foust, Christina R., and Kate Drazner Hoyt. 2018. “Social Movement 2.0: Integrating and Assessing Scholarship on Social Media and Movement.” Review of Communication 18 (1): 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2017.1411970.
Moor, Joost de, Michiel De Vydt, Katrin Uba, and Mattias Wahlström. 2021. “New Kids on the Block: Taking Stock of the Recent Cycle of Climate Activism.” Social Movement Studies 20 (5): 619–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1836617.
Murray, Jessica. 2021. “‘Projection Fight’ Breaks out on Side of Cop26 Venue in Glasgow.” The Guardian, October 11, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/10/projection-fight-breaksout-cop26-venue-glasgow.
Revet, Sandrine. 2020. “Les Droits Du Fleuve. Polyphonie Autour Du Fleuve Atrato En Colombie et de Ses Gardiens.” Sociétés Politiques Comparées 52. https://spire.sciencespo.fr/hdl:/2441/alon4g3c99mcp4bhpo2npl6du/resources/2020-revet-varia3-spc-52.pdf.
Svampa, Maristella, and Enrique Viale. 2020. El colapso ecológico ya llegó: una brújula para salir del (mal)desarrollo. Singular. Buenos Aires: Siglo veintiuno editores
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