Dear POLLEN Members and Friends,
It was a dry and hot end of summer in southern Sweden, where the POLLEN Secretariat now resides. Since we skipped the August newsletter, brace yourselves for a two-month newsletter. It is a bit longer than the usual newsletter, but it is full of lots of new content!
Has your POLLEN node NOT been introduced to the rest of the network? If your node is keen to share your work in upcoming newsletters, please write to us at:
politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com
We also welcome proposals for the latest publications, CfPs, and more from our lively community.
With best regards from your POLLEN Secretariat,
Torsten Krause | Mine Islar | Wim Carton | Juan Samper | Lina Lefstad | Fabiola Espinoza | Kelly Dorkenoo
Getting to know your fellow POLLEN members
From next month’s newsletter forward we will continue the monthy practice of getting to know your fellow POLLEN members. If your node is keen to share your work, please do not hesitate to tell us! You can do so by sending us an e-mail to: politicalecologynetwork@acaroldoll
Promoting POLLEN collaboration
Do you write with other members of POLLEN?
To gain visibility for collaborations across our network, we invite you to consider adding something along these lines to your acknowledgments:
“This paper represents collaborative work with colleagues in the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN).”
PUBLICATIONS
Books & Book Chapters
Baruah, M. (2023) Slow disaster: Political ecology of hazards and everyday life in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Slow-Disaster-Political-Ecology-of-Hazards-and-Everyday-Life-in-the-Brahmaputra/Baruah/p/book/9780367509774
Dunlap, A. & Brock, A. (2022). Enforcing ecocide: Power, policing & planetary militarization. Pallgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-99646-8
Gemählich, A. (2022). The Kenyan cut flower industry & global market dynamics. Boydell & Brewer. https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847012951/the-kenyan-cut-flower-industry-and-global-market-dynamics/
Herbeck, J. & Siriwardane-de Zoysa, R. (2022). Transformations of Urban Coastal Network(s): Meanings and Paradoxes of Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Southeast Asia. In: Misiune, I., Depellegrin, D., Egarter Vigl, L. (eds) Human-Nature Interactions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01980-7_6
Ponte, S., Noe, C. & Brockington, D. (2022)Contested sustainability: The political ecology of conservation and development in Tanzania. Boydell & Brewer. https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013224/contested-sustainability/. OPEN ACCESS!
Selby, J., Daoust, G., & Hoffman, C. (2022) Divided environments: An international political ecology of climate change, water, and scarcity. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/divided-environments/0621F20A4464C4E05BF76980BBF25D3F#fndtn-information
Vehrs, H.P. (2022) Pokot Pastoralism: Environmental change and socio-economic transformation in North-West Kenya. Boydell & Brewer. https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847012968/pokot-pastoralism/
Journal articles
Godamunne, V. et al. (2022) Shored curfews: Constructions of pandemic islandness in contemporary Sri Lanka. Maritime Studies (21), 209-221 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40152-022-00262-5#citeas
Gonzalez-Duarte, Columba. 2022. Borders of Care: Ethnography with the Monarch Butterfly, American Ethnologist website, 18 May 2022, [https://americanethnologist.org/features/reflections/borders-of-care-ethnography-with-the-monarch-butterfly]
Kass, H., 2022. Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger. Journal of Peasant Studies (Ahead of print), 1-20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2022.2101099?src=
Selby, J. (2022) International/inter-carbonic relations. International Relations (36). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00471178221116015
Siders, A.R., 2022. The adminsitrator’s dilemma: Closing the gap between climate adaptation justice in theory and practice. Environmental Science and Policy (137), 280-289. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901122002714
Voicu, S. & Vasile, M. (2022) Grabbing the commons: Forest rights, capital and legal struggle in the Carpathian Mountains. Political Geography (98). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629822001329
Way, R., et al., 2022. Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition. Joule (6), 1-26. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S254243512200410X
Events
Hybrid Roundtable on Agroextractivism
Date: 21st of October 2022
Workshop Topic
The motivation for this roundtable is to advance the definition and understanding of agro/agrarian extractivisms. We want to have a serious debate on the different nuances and meaning of extractivism, extrativismo (from Brazilian Portuguese), and other variations of the concept that are used in theory and practice. There are four broad guiding questions that will be explored during this roundtable discussion.
- How are agroextractivisms defined?
- What are the roots (and consequences) of the different language’s uses of the extractivism concept?
- What should be included in the definition of extractivism and what should not?
- Do the resistance efforts against agroextractivisms differ from resistance and transformative alternatives to other types of extractivisms?
The roundtable features an exciting line-up! We will have an opening greeting by Anja Nygren, University of Helsinki to introduce the event.
Facilitator: Markus Kröger, Univeristy of Helsinki
Speakers:
- Sérgio Sauer, University of Brasilia
- Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes, Åbo Akademi University
- Alberto Alonso Fradejas, Utrecht University
More speakers to be announced!!
Discussants:
- Barry Gills, University of Helsinki
- Franklin Obeng-Odoom, University of Helsinki
Language: The discussion will be conducted in English and simultaneous interpretation will be available in Spanish on Zoom (on Zoom you can choose to listen in Spanish or English). The English discussion and Spanish interpretation will both be recorded and made later available on the EXALT YouTube channel.
Registration: There is no cost to attend either in-person or on Zoom, but registration is required. Please register by October 19 using this form. Please note there is limited space to attend in person.
Please do not hesitate to contact EXALT via e-mail (exalt@helsinki.fi) if you have any questions or need additional information. We look forward to seeing you on October 21, 2022.
Stories from the Anthropos-not-seen
Date: 29th of September 2022
Link: https://ppeh.sas.upenn.edu/events/stories-anthropos-not-seen
Description:
Feminist critiques of the Anthropocene suggest how this name for a new geological time risks uncritical assumption of an unmarked concept of history, humanity, and the geologic record. Native scholars in particular point out that the environmental impacts of settler colonialism have long created a present that their ancestors would have characterized as a dystopian future (Whyte 2018). Historically, countries in the Global South have the smallest carbon footprint, yet today they are on the frontlines of planetary overheating, facing extreme weather, and the increasingly frequent socio-natural disasters endemic to global warming. Black, Indigenous, and diverse communities of the Global South possess practical knowledge and lived expertise of climate change that should be shaping policy, energy transitions, and alternative economic proposals.
During the 2022-2023 academic year, this four-part conversational series brings feminist philosophers, humanists, and social scientists in dialogue with lawyers, natural scientists, engineers, policy makers, and other transdisciplinary and community-based practitioners.
Curated discussions build on what Marisol de la Cadena (2015) calls the “anthropos-not-seen”: those ways of making and doing life disappeared or marginalized by colonialism and capitalism and further perpetuated by a singular optics of Anthropocene thinking (Myers 2019). The series introduces conceptual and methodological frameworks that actively expand legal paradigms, foster transdisciplinary collaborations, nurture anti-colonial sciences, and develop participatory-action research praxes. It is designed to listen for the silences and exclusions too often perpetuated even within progressive agendas for climate justice, rights of nature rulings, and citizen science projects.
Centering ontological diversity and intersectional justice struggles, the series explores proposals and practices that pose renewed questions about the politics of solidarity and alliance-building.
Kristina Lyons, Topic Director
Bethany Wiggin, Program Director
Online book talk: Chao, In the Shadow of Palms
Date: 26th of September 2022
Link: https://stavanger.zoom.us/j/65253287040?pwd=UktqOFdkclNGYXZXQURtUmRrTEp1dz09
Description:
With In the Shadow of the Palms, Sophie Chao examines the multispecies entanglements of oil palm plantations in West Papua, Indonesia, showing how Indigenous Marind communities understand and navigate the social, political, and environmental demands of the oil palm plant. As Chao notes, it is no secret that the palm oil sector has destructive environmental impacts: it greatly contributes to tropical deforestation and is a major driver of global warming. Situating the plant and the transformations it has brought within the context of West Papua’s volatile history of colonization, ethnic domination, and capitalist incursion, Chao traces how Marind attribute environmental destruction not just to humans, technologies, and capitalism but also to the volition and actions of the oil palm plant itself. By approaching cash crops as both drivers of destruction and subjects of human exploitation, Chao rethinks capitalist violence as a multispecies act. In the process, Chao centers how Marind fashion their own changing worlds and foreground Indigenous creativity and decolonial approaches to anthropology.
Feminisms and degrowth workshop
Date: 14th-16th of October 2022
Where: Lund University
Preliminary programme: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gGRg1Q4-Xu68GaV6m1_4H0Wu_lFoMB9Qy8Jd8M8rgYs/edit
Registration: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=lICmegRhpkG0Q9S1JFH2Fw3gr-Z7Q4tIlUqc9U2LEqFUOVdTNVpZRlJYVE9SN0w3SlJMWVZGTDZZOS4u
Conference: Decolonizing geograpjy and environmental studies?
Date: 6th-7th of October 2022
Info: https://www.unil.ch/igd/decolonizing-geography-and-environmental-studies
Vacancies
Call for three (four) PhD positions in the Medical Humanities graduate programme at Uppsala University
Deadline: 7th of October 2022
The graduate programme in Medical Humanities at Uppsala University will commence in January 2023, involving five PhD studetns with interdisciplinary projects relating to Medical humanities. The PhD students will have supervisors from both the medical and humanistic/social science desciplinary domains, and will be affiliated to and receive support from the Centre for Medical Humanities through the graduate programme.
More info: https://www.idehist.uu.se/news/?tarContentId=1019894
PhD position the University of Oulu’s (Finland) Biodiverse Anthropocenes Research Programme.
Deadline: 6th of October 2022
More info: https://rekry.saima.fi/certiahome/open_job_view.html?did=5600&lang=en&id=000013883&jc=1
PhD position at the Marine Governance Group at Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (Odenburg, Germany).
Deadline: 22nd of September 2022
More info: https://recruitingapp-5442.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/1123/Description/2
Post-doc position with IRD/G-EAU (France)_Cambodia hydrosocial territories
Deadline: 30th of September 2022
More info (in French):https://www.ird.fr/post-doctorat-etudier-les-transformations-des-territoires-socio-hydrologiques-du-haut-delta-du
Tenure-track position – Associate professor in Development Geography at Mount Holyoke College.
Deadline: 1st of October 2022
More info: https://careers.mtholyoke.edu/en-us/job/493052/assistant-professor-of-geography
Social Science Researcher at University of Oregon Ecosystem Workforce Programme (Job type: Permanent)
Deadline: Until filled – Reviews started September 2022
More info: https://www.conservationjobboard.com/job-listing-social-science-researcher-eugene-oregon/4499681185
Two tenure-track Asst. Prof. in Environmental Studies positions at St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Deadline: Until filled – Reviews begin 1st of October 2022
More info:https://apply.interfolio.com/112034 & https://apply.interfolio.com/112030
Tenure-track position in Latinx Studies with a focus on Afro-Latinx issues and social movements at the Latin American Studies Program of Bucknell University
Deadline: Review of applications will begin 15th of October 2022
Calls for Papers/Applications/etc.
CfPapers: Understanding the embeddedness of individuals within the larger system to support the energy transition
Deadline: Abstract submission to katharina@biely.net by 31st of October 2022
More info:https://resource-cms.springernature.com/springer-cms/rest/v1/content/23402504/data/v1
CfPapers: Climate, justice, and the politics of emotion – A symposium at University of California, Riverside
Deadline: 1st of October 2022
More info:https://www.asle.org/calls-for-papers/climate-justice-and-the-politics-of-emotion/
CfPapers: Land and sustainable food transformations – Elementa special issue
Deadline: 14th of January 2023
More info:https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/pages/land_and_sustainable_food_transformations
CfProposals: 3rd European Rural Geographies Conference in Groningen, The Netherlands
Deadlines:
– Call for session proposals: Mid-October
– Call for papers: Mid-December
– Paper submission: Mid-January
– Acceptance of papers: Early to mid-February
Short description:
The conference themer is Rural Geographies in Transition. Rural aereas in Europe are under increasing and intersecting pressures, but many of these areas seem to be resilient. The landscapes, the actors, the uses, the challenges, and how the rural is produced and reproduced, are all changing rapidly. This brings forward new research questions and asks for new approaches, both in term sof theoretical perspectives and in terms of empirics, on topics such as Population Developments, Socio-spatial Inequalities, Governance and Policies, Economic Challenges, Quality of Life, Smart Villages, Landscape transitions, Rural Entrepreneurship, Agricultural Transformations, Rural Housing, Energy Transitions, and Climate Change Adaptation.
More info: https://www.ruralgeo2020.nl/
CfProposals: 10th East Asian Regional Conference in Alternative Geography
Deadline: 22nd of September 2022 (Very soon!)
Short description:
In this year’s conference, we invite world-class scholars as keynote speakers, including Roger Keil (York University), Tania Li (University of Toronto), Timothy Oakes (University of Colorado), Jamie Peck (University of British Columbia), James Sidaway (National University of Singapore) and Branda Yeoh (National University of Singapore). There are also a series of fascinating sessions organized from researchers arouns different disciplines and regions. The session topics include:
– Post-covid geography: Inequality of health, mobility and security
– Hong Kong after the National Security Law
– Geographies of Smart-Led Regeneration: Perspectives from the Global South
– Digital and Geo-Political transformations of cities
– Migration of “somewhere in between” in East Asia
– Redefining “Geo” in geopolitics
More info:https://sites.google.com/view/earcag2022/session-topics?authuser=0
CfProposals: 35th Annual Political Geography Speciality Group Preconference to the 2023 AAG Annual Meeting
Deadline: 10th of January 2023
More info: http://www.politicalgeography.org/pre-conference/
CfProposals: New directions in popular culture and geography at AAG
Deadline: 1st of October 2022
Short description:
Over the past several years, popular culture has made its presence increasingly felt across the field of Geography. In the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency – alongside the ascendancy of other ‘pop culture’ icons to the status of world leaders (e.g. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Imran Khan) – the role of popular culture demands ever greater attention in the field. The rising importance of deterritorialized, user-friendly platforms for content creation such as TikTok, alongside the proliferation of imaginary worlds shaped and sustained by conspiracy theories(theorists such as QAnon, are just two prevalent examples of popular culture’s impact on space, place, and power across the globe. Elsewhere, pressing geopolitical concerns of our world are increasingly present in popular media products; likewise, contemporary debates around bodies, identities, and ideologies are evermore reflected in ‘new’ geographies of existing pop-culture imaginaries, from the alt-right discourses of DC’s The Peacemaker and gender politics of Marvel’s She-Hulk to the racialization of reception of the recent iterations of the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and other fantasy/franchises. Consequently, such ‘safe spaces’ – as redoubts from the so-called ‘real world’ – are being increasingly compromised by globalized social media practices.
More info: Robert A. Saunders (robert.saunders@farmingdale.edu), Darren Purcell (dpurcell@ou.edu), and Katrinka Somdahl (somdahl-sands@rowan.edu).
CfChapters: From legacies of extraction to environmental health governance
Deadline: 10th of October 2022
Short description:
Vernon Press invites chapter proposals for the volume entitled “From Legacies of Extraction to Environmental Health Governance: Collaborative Research and Responses to the Impacts of Mining among Indigenous Communities”, edited by Thomas A. De Pree, Valoree Gagnon, and Jessica Worl.
More info: TADepree@salud.unm.edu
CfAbstracts: 18th Annual Conference of The International Association for the Study of Environment, Space and Place in Hochschule Pforzheim (Pforzheim, Germany).
Deadline: 1st of February 2023
Short description:
Human beings work with, alter, and manipulate their environments, transforming ‘natural’ or ‘neutral’ space into a place designed to meet specific needs or goals. The scale and type of manipulation of environments depend on whether the agent is an individual, family, or larger community and on goals and intentions. Over the course of time, some designed environments become obsolete, are repurposed, or are simply built over. For example, the ancient city of Trow has nine archaeological layers dating from 3600 BCE to 500 CE. Further, designs can be communal – e.g open source codes allow and encourage individuals to add to code to improve performance – or open-ended, enabling others to fill in the ‘blank’ space in a design.
More info: Jodie Hayob-Matzke at jhayob@umw.edu.
Other news items
Just Stop Oil:A long video of what seems to be the cutting edge of climate activism in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUTiAfrNn7o
Green Anarchy and Eco-socialism: A discusssion with Benjamin Sovacool and Matt Huber, facilitated by Alexandra Koves. Youtube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-yTZK2X_1M&feature=youtu.be
Documentary “The Territory”: Provides an immersive look at the tireless fight of Amazon’s Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/the-territory
POLLEN 