Category: News

CFP POLLEN 2023: Rights, sovereignty, and emerging technologies in global environmental governance

kelly.dorkenoo

Dear all,

We are excited that POLLEN 2023 will be held in person in Durban and are looking forward to seeing many people there. In the time between our original submission and now, interests and availabilities have evolved, so we are looking for a couple of panelists to round out our panel below. Please feel free to circulate widely, and interested individuals should send a expression of interest, including a title and 250 word abstract to the organizers via this google form by March 27th.

Panel for POLLEN 2023, June 27-29, 2023

Creating Change through Colonial institutions? Rights, Sovereignty, and Emerging Technologies in Global Environmental Governance

Co-organizers: Catherine Corson and Kevin Surprise, Department of Environmental Studies, Mount Holyoke College

United Nations (UN)  treaties, laws, regulations, and norms for environmental governance, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, are spaces where colonial-capitalist systems are reproduced but also spaces where these systems are increasingly challenged by Indigenous groups, environmental activists, agrarian social movements and advocates for radical, decolonial reforms to the global political economic system. Actors mobilizing human rights-based approaches seek to use the tools and legitimacy of the UN to protect environments, livelihoods, and ways of life, with varying degrees of success. Yet, these UN mechanisms are themselves rooted  in neo-liberal and -colonial forms of power that continue to perpetuate the harms these strategies aim to prevent. One central  area of concern is the development of emerging environmental technologies – from artificial intelligence, to blockchain, to geoengineering – that pose novel questions for rights, sovereignty, and social transformation. Particularly when connected with mega- and innovative-finance, such techno-fixes tend to foster the consolidation of environmental elites – from multinational investment banks, private companies, big technology firms, governments, and large nongovernmental environmental organizations – who see opportunities for new markets or new rationales for territorial expansion. This session aims to explore how mechanisms embedded in capitalist and colonial histories, namely rights, sovereignty, and technology, perpetuate socio-environmental harms and injustices in global environmental governance (GEG), and how these mechanisms have been mobilized to challenge those same systems, with topics including but not limited to:

  • Human rights-based approaches in GEG
  • International environmental agreements as colonial projects
  • Indigenous social movement theories and strategies in GEG
  • Politics and policies of emerging environmental technologies and finance
  • Theories of rights, law, and sovereignty in GEG
  • Corporate capture and elite consolidation in global environmental institutions
  • Alternative forms, epistemologies, and practices of environmental governance 

Catherine Corson and Kevin Surprise

POLLEN 2022/2023: Final Call for Papers, announcement of plenary indabas and registration

kelly.dorkenoo

The 4th Biennial Conference of the Political Ecology Network Political Ecology: North, South, and Beyond.
27-29th June 2023

Organised by: The Discipline of Geography and the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Support is provided by the South African National Convention Bureau (SANCB), the South African National Research Foundation (NRF)
Conference organiser: African Agenda.

The POLLEN 22/3 Local Organising committee is pleased to announce a final supplementary CFP, the first two plenary ‘Indabas’ of the conference, and the continuation of the registration process.

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS
As those who have been following the conference know, we have had a torrid time organising the event amidst COVID-19 enforced format changes, and have seen a significant degree of uncertainty over participant numbers. We did our best to accommodate participants who were unable to travel into six preconference asynchronous workshops in 2022, and we are now at a point where we are moving forward with the 2023 in-person conference.

What this has means is that we now have a better idea participant numbers, and still have some limited space to run a final, supplementary Call for Papers and Session Proposals. We thus invite prospective individual presenters and session organisers to get in touch about participation at the event. The conference theme and full details can be found at the following link https://pollen2022.com/conference-themes/ and we request interested parties email nela@ukzn.ac.za with abstracts and session proposals by the 31st of March to initiate the process.  Applications will be dealt with on a first come first served basis and subject to available capacity. We do wish to note that we unfortunately cannot accommodate a full hybrid format, and that the Travel bursary applications closed during the initial CFP phases. We do look forward to seeing more of you at the in-person event.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF FIRST TWO PLENARY ‘INDABAS’
An indaba is a traditional South African meeting or gathering for listening to news or concerns that affect individuals or community and also to discuss matters of common interest. This format lends itself to roundtable, open discussion and networking activities rather than individual keynotes. As such the POLLEN23 conference plenaries will draw on the insights of facilitators and key participants, to open dialogue amongst conference participants on pertinent themes for the POLLEN network. We are happy to announce the first two of three plenaries that will be held during the conference:

1st Indaba: ‘Political Ecology From South Africa’
The host city for the conference, Durban, was developed as a colonial city in the nineteenth century where social contestation, marginalization, and discrimination continue to characterize elements of social life in the city. Its built form and environment was shaped by colonial and, later, apartheid era practices of racial separation, as well as a post-apartheid ‘vortex’ of transition and rapid urbanization amidst flows of capital, goods, people, diverse cultures, traditions and knowledge. There are diverse learnings from the experiences and challenges Durban, and South Africa more broadly, face as they grapple with their history, and contemporary socio-economic-political-environmental and global realities. This indaba session is hosted by the UKZN Centre for Civil Society, and its aim is to present diverse accounts of the political ecology of, and provoke debate and to raise questions what it means to do political ecology from, South Africa.

Facilitators: Danford Chibvongodze and Andries Motau (CCS)
Speakers:
Patrick Bond (University of Johannesburg)
Catherine Sutherland (UKZN)
Desmond D’sa (South Durban Community Environmental Justice Alliance)
Bobby Peek (Groundwork)
Nonhle Mbuthuma (Amadiba Crisis Committee)
Discussant: Sarah Bracking (Kings College London)

2nd Indaba: Political Ecology: North, South and Beyond
Following the conference theme, this Indaba plenary seeks to engage with the doing of Political ecology across the Global North and South. Drawing reflections from speakers representing diverse Political Ecology networks and groupings, the session seeks to (re)visit political ecology’s growth, and to engage with and where necessary disrupt received wisdoms and persistent dichotomies, not limited to North and South, but including the spatial, social, ecological, political, economic etc. categories with which we work. The Indaba is supported by the Journal of Political Ecology.

Speakers:
Tracey Osborne (CAPE, DOPE, PPEL)
Panagiota Kotsila (Undisciplined environments)
Felipe Milanez (Latin American Congress of Political Ecology)
Amber Huff (POLLEN)
Simon Batterbury (Journal of Political Ecology)

REGISTRATION
The registration period for accepted participants is well underway, and we would strongly urge participants to register before the end of the month. This will help us to move forward with our programming and logistics for the event. Please do note that the POLLEN23 conference format is predominantly for program participants, and those interested in attending should consult the CFP above.

REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE > > https://pollen2022.com/registration/
Many thanks and we look forward to seeing you in Durban

Adrian Nel obo the POLLEN 2022/3 Local Organising committee
POLLEN23 secretariat – African Agenda

Tel: +27 (0)21 683 2934
info@pollen2022.com
www.pollen2022.com

February 2023 Update

kelly.dorkenoo

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends,

Thanks again for sharing and spreading the word and work of political ecologists.

Has your POLLEN node NOT been introduced by us? 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 blog posts on the POLLEN blog – please contact us at the same email address with any ideas!  

We are pleased to post the latest publications, CfPs and more from our lively community.  

With best regards from your POLLEN Secretariat  

Torsten Krause, Kelly Dorkenoo, Mine Islar and Wim Carton  

IMPORTANT! To get the best view of this newsletter, please enable the media content at the top of the e-mail. 

Publications 

Journal articles 

  1. Ochieng, A., Koh, N. and Koot, S. (2022). Compatible with conviviality? Exploring African ecotourism and sport hunting for transformative conservation. Conservation and Society. https://www.conservationandsociety.org.in/temp/ConservatSoc000-1839258_050632.pdf  
  1. Thakholi, L. and Koot, S. (2023). Black belonging, White belonging: Primitive accumulation in South Africa’s private nature reserves. Antipode. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12913 
  1. Mabele, MB., Kasongi, N., Nnko, H., Mwanyoka, I., Kiwango, WA and Makupa, E. 2023. Inequalities in the production and dissemination of biodiversity conservation knowledge on Tanzania: A 50-year bibliometric analysis. Biological Conservation 279: 109910 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109910 
  1. Moseley, W., & Ouedraogo, M. (2022). When Agronomy Flirts with Markets, Gender, and Nutrition: A Political Ecology of the New Green Revolution for Africa and Women’s Food Security in Burkina Faso. African Studies Review, 65(1), 41-65. https://doi:10.1017/asr.2021.74  
  1. Trauger, A., (2022) “The vegan industrial complex: the political ecology of not eating animals”, Journal of Political Ecology 29(1), 639–655. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.3052 

Books & book chapters 

  1. Minthorn, R. & Craig, A. (2023). Embodying an Indigenous-Centered Approach to Mentorship in Doctoral Programs. In A. Wilkerson & S. Samuels (Eds.), Best Practices and Programmatic Approaches for Mentoring Educational Leaders (pp. 1-15). IGI Global. https://www.igi-global.com/gateway/chapter/318994  
  1. Miller, D. C., Scales, I. R., & Mascia, M. B. (Eds.). (2023). Conservation Social Science: Understanding People, Conserving Biodiversity. John Wiley & Sons. 

Events & Announcements 

  1. PhD Course – Extraction Ethnographies 
    When: 17 to 21 April, 2023 
    Where: Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway 
    his course invites applications from PhD candidates interested in combining conceptual approaches with field-based research on extractive activities. This can encompass research on the mining of minerals or biological resources as well as on data mining: the extraction of materials, substances, information, and digital data from the geo- and biospheres. More information: https://www.nmbu.no/en/faculty/landsam/department/noragric/news/node/46623
    Deadline: February 28, 2023 
  1. PhD Course – Political Ecology of Land and Food Systems 
    When: 30 May-02 June 2023 
    Where: Bergen, Norway 
    Organizers: Department of Geography, University of Bergen + several Norwegian POLLEN nodes 
    Keynotes: Michael Watts and Nancy Peluso (UC Berkeley) 
    Course website: https://www.uib.no/en/course/GEO903 
    Registration form: https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=13951063 
    Deadline: March 1, 2023 
  1. Conference on Environmental justice and violence: Resistances, articulations, and intersections 
    When: 4-6 October 2023 
    Where: San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico 
    More info: https://enjust.net/conference-mexico-2023/  
  1. For those in Netherlands or close by, this amazing event is happening 23-25 February, in Amsterdam (Stedelijk Museum and OT301): Towards a Post-Extractive Culture, an encounter of mutual learning, deep listening, and solidarity-weaving across cultural workers, artists, activists, designers, indigenous knowledge keepers, radical researchers, community organisers and storytellers, for a world of many worlds.
    More information: Full program here. 
    Dates: February 23-25.
  1. A message from the newly formed Enviornmental Justice Studies mailinglist: 
    “Dear colleagues, 
    Following recurring discussions with several of you over the years, I am excited to announce the launch of EJList, a mailing list specifically devoted to the field of environmental justice studies. EJList is meant to become the go-to international email discussion group promoting the development and dissemination of environmental and climate justice research and scholarship – something which was long overdue in the field! The list may be used for the discussion of any topic related to environmental justice and climate justice activism, regulation, and research, including (but not limited to) reports on research and publications; calls for papers and proposals; notices of meetings, conferences, reading groups; job announcements; etc.  
    If, like me, you are interested in staying up to date with the latest developments in the field and/or in easily reaching out to the environmental justice research community, join the list by clicking on the Subscribe link from the list webpage. The list is open to everyone, even though the target audience is environmental/climate justice scholars. It is hosted by UCLouvain in Belgium and uses the mailing list service Sympa, a free and open-source software.Please also do forward this announcement to your own environmental justice colleagues, students, and networks; the more the merrier.  
    All the best,  
    Brendan C.  
    EJList” 

Vacancies 

  1. Postdoc position and PhD position at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies.  We are looking for candidates to work with us on an exciting project on glaciers and human-nature relations. We have a  fully-funded PhD position and a postdoc position in Sustainability Science at LUCSUS/Lund University for the research project entitled NATURICE- Exploring plural values of human-nature relationships in glacierized environments.  Project’s main objective is to assess and examine how values and human-nature relationships are affected by climate related challenges through a trans-regional study of glaciers in Scandinavia and the Himalayas.  Positions are funded by Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS) and will be supervised by Principal Investigator Dr. Mine Islar, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) in collaboration with Dr. Anna Sinisalo (GRID-Arendal), Prof. Erik Gomez-Baggethun (The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research-NINA) and Dr. Emma Li Johansson (LUCSUS).
    More information: PhD position – https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:577512/?lang=en ; Postdoc – https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:577483/?lang=en
    Deadline: March 1st, 2023
  1. Research Fellow at Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences and Centre for Global Development at Northumbria University.  The department is seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Researcher for 24 months as part of the UKRI/GCRF Living Deltas Hub (www.livingdeltas.org) and related to global development research. Working with Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Professor Louise Bracken and Dr Oliver Hensengerth, the person will collaborate with partners to undertake research on young people, climate and development through work on young people’s experiences of changing delta living, and civic action in relation to changing delta environments, focusing particularly on India and Bangladesh. They will also work with partners and stakeholders to evaluate learning, disseminate findings and develop impact from Living Deltas research.
    More information: https://work4.northumbria.ac.uk/#en/sites/CX_1001/requisitions/preview/450/?lastSelectedFacet=CATEGORIES&selectedCategoriesFacet=300000008190037
    Deadline: March 6th, 2023.  
  1. Tenure track professorship on Conservation and Development at Humboldt University Berlin.  We are looking for candidates rooted in conservation science who have worked interdisciplinary (e.g., using methods/concepts from natural and social sciences) on issues related to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, and who have experience in working in developing countries. This should be an exciting opportunity for a young conservation scientist! Candidates should not have completed their PhD more than 6 years ago (for candidates with kids this period is longer). As many departments, we are trying to internationalize and close our gender gap at the level of professors – so we would be particularly excited about female applicants.
    More information: https://hu.berlin/ConservationDevelopment  |  https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/63188.
    Deadline: March 8th, 2023 
  1. Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate Crisis, Risks, and Responses at the Brandeis University Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies and Environmental Studies.  This is a two-year position, beginning Fall term 2023 and is subject to budgetary approval. We seek a scholar whose work focuses on the effects of climate change and/or responses to them, in Latin America, the Caribbean or for Latinx groups in the United States. Topics could include climate science, broadly construed, in Latin America and the Caribbean; environmental and climate justice in the region and in the diaspora; green/climate-extractivism; effects of climate risks, such as migration, political conflict, health, and poverty; risks and burdens of maladaptation; responses of indigenous and Afrodescendant groups to climate change and their active engagement in the processes of policymaking and development of climate action; and Latinax climate movements. We are open to multiple disciplines and quantitative, qualitative or mixed methodologies. 
    More information: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/24255. 
    Deadline: March 8th, 2023.
  1. PhD positions (x2) at the Anthropology Department, Stockholm University.   The two positions are linked to the BIOrdinary program, which is centered on biodiversity in ordinary places. The first position is open with regard to the aims of the project while the second deals more specifically with the afterlives of marine species migration through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea. We are looking for PhD candidates with interest in environmental/more-than-human anthropology (or similar disciplines) who enjoy collaboration, have exciting research ambitions and can enrich our team. The positions are fully funded and start in September.
    More information: https://www.su.se/english/about-the-university/work-at-su/available-jobs/phd-student-positions-1.507588?rmpage=job&rmjob=20100&rmlang=UK and https://www.su.se/english/about-the-university/work-at-su/available-jobs/phd-student-positions-1.507588?rmpage=job&rmjob=20102&rmlang=UK  
    Deadline: March 24th, 2023.
  1. PhD position at the department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway.   Fixed-term position of 4 years, of which 25% will be dedicated to teaching, supervision, and administrative tasks in the Department. The position is linked to the Department of Geography´s Human Geography research group. Applications are particularly encouraged from candidates who can contribute to the human geography group’s activities in the fields of planning, local and regional development, and green transformation. More Information: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/240468/phd-position?fbclid=IwAR1vm1BeavUDt_G1hiyVAwNvr3YxiMVKSKlNEXEHb7Dnb3ceQSZPh94tNQM . Deadline: April 10th, 2023.

Calls 

  1. Call for Papers
    Groundwater Geographies: (In)visible flows, (un)traceable past, (un)certain future. We hope for your contributions to our lightning session at Deutsche Kongress für Geographie in Frankfurt a.M./Germany (19–23 Sep 2023). Organized by: Fanny Frick-Trzebitzky, Robert Luetkemeier, Dženeta Hodžić, David Kuhn (ISOE, Frankfurt a.M.), Anne Jäger (Uni Koblenz Landau), Linda Söller (Goethe Uni, Frankfurt a.M.). All fields and perspectives within geography are invited to contribute. This includes critical and radical perspectives that address e.g. groundwater conflicts, knowledge politics, inequalities or non-/more-than-human agency from political-ecology, postcolonial, feminist, new and “old” materialist, intersectional or other power-sensitive positions within and at the frontiers of geography. Contact: kuhn@isoe.de 
    More information: https://dkg2023.de/sitzungen/groundwater-geographies-invisible-flows-untraceable-82630
    Deadline: March 13th, 2023  
  1. Call for Papers
    On Relationalities: Politics, Narrative, Sociality 
    The theme of relationality is now centre stage in contemporary political and social thought. From relational ontology to post-foundational ethics and black feminisms, relationality has far-reaching implications for debates in politics, ethics, and aesthetics. For this symposium we invite engagements with, revisions of, and challenges to relationality as well as interventions about its role in the humanities and arts today. Relationality is a transdisciplinary topic that questions the academy, and compels us to rethink the conventions of an event like this. Our institutional and disciplinary practices normalise a certain politics of relationality while foreclosing others. For that reason, we are particularly open to interdisciplinary contributions from across the humanities, social sciences, and beyond. Colleagues working in (but not limited to) sociology, gender studies, history, black studies, queer theory, literary studies, politics, decolonial studies, cultural geography, disability studies, visual cultures, anthropology, neurodiversity studies, indigenous thought, environmental studies, and philosophy are invited to participate. 
    More information: https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/cappe/2022/12/08/call-for-papers-on-relationalities-politics-narrative-sociality/
    Deadline: February 24th 2023 
  1. Call for Proposals
    Special Issue on Political Ecology by the Ecology, Economy and Society
    The INSEE Journal – One of the relatively new academic traditions to emerge in the 1980s, political ecology has emerged in recent decades as a powerful analytical tool to explain how capitalist development processes affect the environment, how international conservation organizations influence national governments, and how environmental changes threaten local livelihoods. Political ecology, as an interdisciplinary field, often brings together political economy and cultural ecology, with an emphasis on multi-scalar analysis that elucidates linkages between local/everyday events and regional/national/global/planetary processes.  It illuminates ‘the political’ in ecological questions through the examination of power relationships and elucidation of forms of power, cross-scale links in political processes in view of which environmental decisions are made by communities, and the dynamics of the market and priorities of the nations.  
    EES is proposing a special issue on Political Ecology for Volume 6(2), to be published in July 2023.
    We are inviting: Original research papers – not exceeding 8000 words; and Insights from the field – not exceeding 2000 words Detailed submission guidelines are available on the journal website. 
  1. Call for Papers  The Great Convergence? Agricultural Modernization and its Others in Global Perspective 
    With this panel, we want to discuss focal points for convergence as well as divergence among discourses on agricultural modernization (and its others) and how they shape local realities. In how far do the politically dominating narratives of agricultural modernity in different parts of the world converge despite their apparent differences? How do these narratives manifest in agrarian policies, practices, and imaginaries? Where do these ideas originate from, and how do they shape realities on the ground? And finally, what other visions of agriculture exist, where do they originate from, and in what might they converge globally, too? 
    More information: https://dkg2023.de/sitzungen/the-great-convergence-agricultural-modernization-81592
    Deadline: March 13, 2023
  1. Call for Proposals
    Antipode’s “Right to the Discipline” grants.
    More information: https://antipodeonline.org/a-right-to-the-discipline/ 

Other news items 

  1. Report on Confronting Gender-Based Violence in Fieldwork: Potential Sites of Intervention, produced by the Network of Women Doing Fieldwork (NWDF) in collaboration with the Bartlett Development Planning Unit. The report will be be presented on the 8th of March in Room 403 – Senate House, Malet Street (WC1E 7HU) for those in London. Link to the report: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/development/events/2023/mar/confronting-gender-based-violence-phd-fieldwork-instigation-implementation-and 
  1. EXALT dialogue on “Insurrection in Energy Research: Pluriversal Encounters with Energy Transition & Renewability”. EXALT dialogue is a quadrennial online event series that fosters critical thinking and discussion on extractivisms and transformative alternatives and which also aim to deconstruct and disrupt thinking that perpetuates dominant power structures, colonialities and growthism. Link to recording of first event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YaMtf_R9Sg&ab_channel=EXALTHelsinki  

December 2022 & January 2023 Updates

juanantoniosamper

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, 

We wish you a 2023 full of joy. Let´s keep spreading the word and the work of political ecologists.

Has your POLLEN node NOT been introduced by us? 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 blog posts on the POLLEN blog – please contact us at the same email address with any ideas! 

We are pleased to post the latest publications, CfPs and more from our lively community. 

With best regards from your POLLEN Secretariat 

Torsten Krause, Juan Samper, Mine Islar and Wim Carton 

IMPORTANT! To get the best view of this newsletter, please enable the media content at the top of the e-mail. 

Publications

Journal articles 

  1. Carton, W. Hougaard, I. Markusson, N. & Lund, JF. (2023) Is carbon removal delaying emission reductions? doi.org/10.1002/wcc.826 
  1. Debates in Post-development & Degrowth Vol. 2: https://politicalecologynetwork.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/04853-degrowthvolume2.pdf  
  1. Dunlap A and Riquito M. 2023. Social warfare for lithium extraction? Open-pit lithium mining, counterinsurgency tactics and enforcing green extractivism in northern Portugal. Energy Research & Social Science 95(1): 1-21. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629622004157  
  1. Iddrisu AY, Ouma S and Yaro JA (2022) When agricultural commercialization fails: ‘Re-visiting’ value-chain agriculture and its ruins in northern Ghana. Globalizations: 1–21. 
  1. Marks, D. 2023. Unequal and unjust: The political ecology of Bangkok’s increasing urban heat island” and the link to it is here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980221140999. 
  1. Loureiro, M., et al. (2023) Governance Diaries: An Approach to Researching Marginalized People’s Lived Experiences in Difficult Settings. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221150106 
  1. Rita Calvário & Annette Aurélie Desmarais (2023) The feminist dimensions of food sovereignty: insights from La Via Campesina’s politics, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2153042 
  1. Special issue: Introduction on infrastructural harm, providing a nice overview of infrastructural research, revealing gaps, raising questions and outlining the contributors: 
    Kallianos Y, Dunlap A and Dalakoglou D. 2022. Introducing Infrastructural Harm: Rethinking moral entanglements, spatio-temporal modalities, and resistance(s). Globalizations: 1-20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14747731.2022.2153493 
  1. Special Issue on Territory and decolonisation: debates from the Global Souths: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtwt20/6/4-6  
  1. Sullivan, S. and Ganuses, W.S. 2022 !Nara harvesters of the northern Namib: a cultural history through three photographed encounters. Journal of the Namibian Scientific Society 69: 115-139, Special Issue “Gobabeb@60” 

Books & book chapters 

  1. Stacey, Paul. (2023) Global Power and Local Struggles in Developing Countries. https://brill.com/display/title/60893  
  1. Sutherland, William (2022) Transforming conservation: A practical guide to evidence and decision-making. https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0321 Open access. 

Events & Announcements 

  1. A message from the newly formed Enviornmental Justice Studies mailinglist: 
    “Dear colleagues, 
    Following recurring discussions with several of you over the years, I am excited to announce the launch of EJList, a mailing list specifically devoted to the field of environmental justice studies. EJList is meant to become the go-to international email discussion group promoting the development and dissemination of environmental and climate justice research and scholarship – something which was long overdue in the field! 
    The list may be used for the discussion of any topic related to environmental justice and climate justice activism, regulation, and research, including (but not limited to) reports on research and publications; calls for papers and proposals; notices of meetings, conferences, reading groups; job announcements; etc.  
    If, like me, you are interested in staying up to date with the latest developments in the field and/or in easily reaching out to the environmental justice research community, join the list by clicking on the Subscribe link from the list webpage. 
    The list is open to everyone, even though the target audience is environmental/climate justice scholars. It is hosted by UCLouvain in Belgium and uses the mailing list service Sympa, a free and open-source software. 
    Please also do forward this announcement to your own environmental justice colleagues, students, and networks; the more the merrier.  
    All the best,  
    Brendan C.  
    EJList” 
  1. Climate Change and the Politics of Land 
    Online seminar by Prof. Saturnino “June” M. Borras, Jr., Fellow at the Transnational Institute 
    11 January 2023, 18:00-19:30 (GMT+9) 
    Registration link: https://www.kasasustainability.org/environmental-change-workshop  
    Organized by KASA Sustainability, and supported by the Sophia University Graduate Program of Global Studies, and the Institute of Comparative Culture. 
    For any concerns, please contact we@kasasustainability.org. 
  1. Workshop 4 Water Ethics (W4W), the Swiss Chinese Law Association (SCLA) and Globethics.net are hosting this International Conference on Water Management and Water Ethics in the Chinese context, in celebration of the recent publication of the Chinese translation of Blue Ethics: Ethical Perspectives on Sustainable, Fair Water Resources Use and Management and Water Ethics: Principles and Guidelines on 07 December 2022,11:00-12:50 CET(Click Here to Register) 
  1. PhD Course – Political Ecology of Land and Food Systems 
    When: 30 May-02 June 2023 
    Where: Bergen, Norway 
    Organizers: Department of Geography, University of Bergen + several Norwegian POLLEN nodes 
    Keynotes: Michael Watts and Nancy Peluso (UC Berkeley) 
    Course website: https://www.uib.no/en/course/GEO903 
    Registration form: https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=13951063 
    Application deadline: 01 March 2023 
  1. Environmental justice and violence: Resistances, articulations, and intersections 
    When: 4-6 October 2023 
    Where: San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico 
    More info: https://enjust.net/conference-mexico-2023/  

Vacancies 

  1. Phd Position at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies: 
    The successful candidate will work within the 4-year research project entitled “Environmental Human Rights Defenders – Change Agents at the Crossroads of Climate change, Biodiversity and Cultural Conservation”, funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS). In a collaborative and ambitious research environment, participating researchers will collaborate to produce high level and cutting-edge research at the nexus of academia, society and policy. 
    Environmental human rights defenders (EHRD) are increasingly being recognized as pivotal actors in transformations towards sustainability, biodiversity protection and climate action. In addition, EHRD often defend the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities and other marginalized groups.  However, they may also be facing intimidation and violence for their efforts. Rarely are the struggles for political, cultural, social, economic and environmental rights made visible in international policy arenas. In this inter-disciplinary project, we seek to investigate how and to what extent are EHRD confronting these challenges, and acting as agents of change for cultural and biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation. 
    Deadline: 16 of feb 2023 
    More info: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:577514/  
  1. Adjunct Professor Environmental Studies at Dickinson College 
    Candidates should submit the following via QUEST (online application system) at https://jobs.dickinson.edu: Letter of interest; Contact details for two references (at least one speaking to teaching ability); Teaching statement that references the candidate’s teaching philosophy, experience and ability to teach an upper level course in their area of expertise; Current CV. Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2023 and continue until the position is filled. 
  1. The Department of Geographical Sciences at University of Maryland, College Park, is seeking a Post-Doctoral Associate in Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. This position will be part of a large multi-year international research project, “Operation Pangolin: Unifying Diverse Data Streams to Redefine Species Conservation,” including other conservation criminology-related research as well as new research proposed by the applicant.  
    Position open until filled. 
    More info: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/101049  
  1. Project Researcher in Urban Governance (Södertörn University, Sweden) 
    We are looking for a motivated and qualified researcher to join our project team and collaborate on the development and delivery of project outcomes targeting practitioners, planners, and policymakers in the frame of contemporary aims and ambitions for more participatory and inclusive urban governance.  
    The School of Natural Sciences, Technology and Environmental Studies of Södertörn University is located at Flemingsberg Campus, Stockholm Region. We offer an international, collaborative, and highly interdisciplinary working environment. Our ambition is to recruit a talented researcher who has a strong interest in social and environmental justice and equity, the positioning of less-represented groups in relation to contemporary urban challenges. 
    Deadline: 24 Feb 2023 
    Please see the call text here: https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/meet-sodertorn-university/this-is-sodertorn-university/vacant-positions?rmpage=job&rmjob=6236&rmlang=UK 

Calls 

  1. Call for contributions: 
    Review of African Political Economy special issue, titled ‘The climate emergency in Africa: crisis, solutions and resistance’ 
    Themes: Extraction and the exploitation of fossil fuels // War, repression and climate change // Renewable energy sources and labour // Climate disaster in Africa and its impacts // Solutions 
    More info: https://roape.net/2022/10/06/roape-special-issue-call-for-contributors-the-climate-emergency-in-africa-crisis-solutions-and-resistance/ 
  1. Call for Abstracts:  
    International Conference “Sustainable Food and Biomass Futures. Localised approaches to agricultural change and bioeconomy”, June 22-24, 2023, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany 
    More info here: https://www.transect.de/call-for-papers-international-conference-on-sustainable-food-and-biomass-futures 
  1. Call for Papers: On Relationalities: Politics, Narrative, Sociality 
    The theme of relationality is now centre stage in contemporary political and social thought. From relational ontology to post-foundational ethics and black feminisms, relationality has far-reaching implications for debates in politics, ethics, and aesthetics. For this symposium we invite engagements with, revisions of, and challenges to relationality as well as interventions about its role in the humanities and arts today. Relationality is a transdisciplinary topic that questions the academy, and compels us to rethink the conventions of an event like this. Our institutional and disciplinary practices normalise a certain politics of relationality while foreclosing others. For that reason, we are particularly open to interdisciplinary contributions from across the humanities, social sciences, and beyond. Colleagues working in (but not limited to) sociology, gender studies, history, black studies, queer theory, literary studies, politics, decolonial studies, cultural geography, disability studies, visual cultures, anthropology, neurodiversity studies, indigenous thought, environmental studies, and philosophy are invited to participate. 
  1. Call for Proposals for a Special Issue on Political Ecology by the Ecology, Economy and Society – The INSEE Journal 
    One of the relatively new academic traditions to emerge in the 1980s, political ecology has emerged in recent decades as a powerful analytical tool to explain how capitalist development processes affect the environment, how international conservation organizations influence national governments, and how environmental changes threaten local livelihoods. Political ecology, as an interdisciplinary field, often brings together political economy and cultural ecology, with an emphasis on multi-scalar analysis that elucidates linkages between local/everyday events and regional/national/global/planetary processes.  It illuminates ‘the political’ in ecological questions through the examination of power relationships and elucidation of forms of power, cross-scale links in political processes in view of which environmental decisions are made by communities, and the dynamics of the market and priorities of the nations.  
    EES is proposing a special issue on Political Ecology for Volume 6(2), to be published in July 2023. We are inviting: 
    Original research papers – not exceeding 8000 words; and 
    Insights from the field – not exceeding 2000 words 
    Detailed submission guidelines are available on the journal website. 
  1. CfP ECAS – Disrupting “modernity” – Towards alternative bioeconomic futures in Africa – deadline Jan 23rd. 
    Organizers: Leiyo Singo (University of Bayreuth), Dr. Richard Mbunda (University of Dar es Salaam) 
    This panel discusses alternatives to the mainstream bioeconomy narrative. Its core idea — an economy that respects environmental limits and provides enough resources for a fulfilling life — contains space for a plurality of interpretations, which we seek to showcase with a view from Africa. 
    Long Abstract: 
    The policy field of “bioeconomy” has emerged in the Global North as an attempt to unify the goals of climate change mitigation and sustaining economic growth. It envisions an economy that deploys only renewable resources. Although policies based on it have been directed at economies of the Global North, it is obvious that a transformation of the resource base from fossils to renewables will have tremendous impacts on economies of the Global South, including land-rich economies in Africa.  
    Scholars and activists from the Degrowth movement in the Global North have been criticizing the ethical and epistemic presuppositions of the mainstream bioeconomy narrative and its underlying notions of modernity and progress. However, the voices of African stakeholders remain scarce. 
    This panel intends to present views from Africa on alternatives to the mainstream bioeconomy narrative. Its core idea — an economy that respects environmental limits and provides enough resources for a fulfilling life — contains space for a plurality of interpretations for which we use the notion “bio_economy”. The goal of the panel is to identify and discuss African variants of this plurality. 
    Particularly, we invite contributions that present voices from members of social groups in Africa which find themselves at the margins of public or political debates about their conceptions of desirable land-use, agriculture, or other areas relevant for a bioeconomy; their attitudes to agricultural technologies, GMOs, notions of productivity; their conceptions of a fulfilling life; strategies for politicization of marginalized visions of land-use, agriculture, pastoralism etc. 
    Submit an abstract: https://ecasconference.org/2023/programme#12589 
  1. CfP: The Great Convergence? Agricultural Modernization and its Others in Global Perspective 
    With this panel, we want to discuss focal points for convergence as well as divergence among discourses on agricultural modernization (and its others) and how they shape local realities. In how far do the politically dominating narratives of agricultural modernity in different parts of the world converge despite their apparent differences? How do these narratives manifest in agrarian policies, practices, and imaginaries? Where do these ideas originate from, and how do they shape realities on the ground? And finally, what other visions of agriculture exist, where do they originate from, and in what might they converge globally, too? 
    More info: https://dkg2023.de/sitzungen/the-great-convergence-agricultural-modernization-81592 
     

Other news items 

November 2022 Updates

juanantoniosamper

November 2022 Update 

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, 

Winter finally arrived to Sweden in mid-November. In Lund, where the Secretariat is now based, it snowed and the snow even stayed for a few days! Once the snow melted away, the darkness took over as “saving the planet” was promoted to the top of the list of depoliticized issues by becoming the only cause internationally accepted for the eventwashing of repressive authoritarian regimes. The need for critical and emancipatory political ecology scholarship and action couldn’t be bigger these days…

Has your POLLEN node NOT been introduced by us? 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 blog posts on the POLLEN blog – please contact us at the same email address with any ideas! 

We are pleased to post the latest publications, CfPs and more from our lively community. 

With best regards from your POLLEN Secretariat 

Torsten Krause, Juan Samper, Mine Islar and Wim Carton 

IMPORTANT! To get the best view of this newsletter, please enable the media content at the top of the e-mail. 

Publications 

Journal articles 

  1. Ali Rafaeifar et al., (2022). Decarbonize the military – mandate emissions reporting. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03444-7  
  1. Bluwstein, J., & Cavanagh, C. (2022). Rescaling the land rush? Global political ecologies of land use and cover change in key scenario archetypes for achieving the 1.5° C Paris agreement target. The Journal of Peasant Studies, Ahead-of-print, https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2125386. 
  1. Luque-Lora, Rogelio (2022) The trouble with relational values. Environmental Values, Fast Track https://doi.org/10.3197/096327122X16611552268681  
  1. Lyons, K. (2022) ‘Nature’ and territories as victims: Decolonizing Colombia’s transitional justice process. American Anthropologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13798  
  1. McConnell, K. (2022) ‘The Green New Deal’ as partisan cue: Evidence from a survey experiment in the rural U.S. Environmental Politics. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2022.2090655 
  1. Pas, A., & Cavanagh, C. (2022). Understanding ‘night grazing’: Conservation governance, rural inequalities, and shifting responses ‘from above and below’ throughout the nychthemeron in Laikipia, Kenya. Geoforum, 134, 143-153. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718522000926 
  1. Special Issue Acme Journal: Monumentality, memoryscapes, and the politics of place. https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/issue/view/131  

Books & book chapters 

  1. Cammack, P. (2022) The politics of global competitiveness. Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/book/38762?login=true  
  1. Fabricant, N. (2022). Fighting to breathe: Race, toxicity, and the rise of youth activism in Baltimore. California Series in Public Anthropology. University of California Press. 1st Edition. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520379329/fighting-to-breathe   
  1. Fletcher, R. (2022). Failing forward: The rise and fall of neoliberal conservation. University of California Press. 1st Edition. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520390690/failing-forward 
  1. Ramnath, K. (2023). Boats in a storm: Law, migration, and decolonization in South and South East Asia, 1942-1962. Stanford University Press. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=34914 
  1. Rodrigues Machaqueiro, R. (2023) The carbo calcultation: Global climate policy, forests, and transnational governance in Brazil and Mozambique. The University of Arizona Press. https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/the-carbon-calculation  

Events 

  1. Climate and land (in)justice: inequalities, intersections, and opportunities for justice in Southeast Asia. 
    When: Nov 30, 2022 
    More info: https://www.kasasustainability.org/environmental-change-workshop  
  1. DIALOGUES IN RADICAL GEOGRAPHY Third Edition: The Cost of Living under Intensified Austerity 
    Featuring Professor Mia Gray & Tilly Mason 
    Friday 16th December, 15.00-16.30 GMT 
    Live at the RGS-IBG building in London and synchronously online 
    Tickets are free and open to all: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dialogues-in-radical-geography-tickets-466220717717  

Vacancies 

  1. The Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland is accepting applications for our Fall 2023 Ph.D. Program. Applications are due by December 15th, 2022 and requirements are posted here: https://geog.umd.edu/graduate/application-requirements. The Department of Geographical Sciences at UMD offers generous funding, benefits, and tuition remission packages https://geog.umd.edu/graduate/assistantships-and-fellowships. Contact Dr. Leila De Floriani (deflo@umd.edu) or Dr. Rachel Haber (rberndts@umd.edu) for application or program questions. We hope to receive your application this season! 
  1. Adjunct Professor Environmental Studies at Dickinson College 
    Candidates should submit the following via QUEST (online application system) at https://jobs.dickinson.edu: Letter of interest; Contact details for two references (at least one speaking to teaching ability); Teaching statement that references the candidate’s teaching philosophy, experience and ability to teach an upper level course in their area of expertise; Current CV. Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2023 and continue until the position is filled. 
  1. The Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Faculty of Landscape and Society (LANDSAM) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has a vacant 4-year PhD–position in International Environment and Development Studies with one year of project work included. 
    We invite candidates to develop their research ideas on the links between land dispossession, elite capture and growth of jihadist groups in the West African Sahel. Recent research has pointed at land dispossession and elite capture in explaining why many people in the Sahel decide to join armed insurgency groups. This PhD position will be part of a new five-year project funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) entitled LANDRESPONSE, which will study conflict and migration in the Sahel as parallel processes with potentially similar causes. 
    More info: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/234930/phd-within-international-environment-and-development-studies-violent-resistance-and-land-governance-in-the-sahel  
  1. The Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Faculty of Landscape and Society (LANDSAM) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has a vacant 4-year PhD–position in International Environment and Development Studies with one year of project work included. 
    We invite candidates to develop their research ideas on migration from West Africa to Europe with a focus on land dispossession as a potential driver. This PhD position will be part of a new five-year project funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) entitled LANDRESPONSE, which will study conflict and migration in the Sahel as parallel processes with potentially similar causes. 
    More info: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/234936/phd-scholarship-within-international-environment-and-development-studies-migration-from-west-africa  
  1. The Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Faculty of Landscape and Society at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has TWO VACANTS position as researcher for 39 months related to a new five-year project funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) entitled LANDRESPONSE. This research project will study conflict and migration in the Sahel as parallel processes with potentially similar causes. 
    Vacant 1 more info: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/234950/researcher-within-international-environment-and-development-studies-land-use-conflicts-in-the-sahel  
    Vacant 2 more info: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/234954/researcher-within-international-environment-and-development-studies-migration-from-west-africa  
  1. The University of Manchester is seeking to appoint two Research Associates for the Sustainable Forest Transitions (SFT) project. SFT is a five-year, £1.7 million project funded as part of a UKRI Research Frontier grant based within the Global Development Institute in the School of Environment, Education and Development. The SFT project will conduct ground-breaking research to better understand how reforestation drivers affect forests and the communities that depend on them. Over the next five years, SFT will study the changing nature of forest cover and human development at unprecedented scale and detail. The SFT project will start working in Mexico, Brazil, India, and Nepal and very possibly expand to other countries. These two posts offer the opportunity for outstanding individuals to make a significant contribution to an exciting international sustainability research programme based at the University of Manchester. For a clearer sense of SFT’s research agenda, please see the publications pages of the project’s website (https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/sftresearch/). 
  1. Three PhD studentships on the social and environmental outcomes of reforestation processes at the University of Manchester. 
    More info: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/programme/three-phd-studentships-on-the-social-and-environmental-outcomes-of-reforestation-processes/?p5859  
    Deadline: 5th of January, 2023 
  1. Two Doctoral Students: Intersectional Political Ecologies of the Commons at the University of Laussane. 
    More info: https://career5.successfactors.eu/career?career%5fns=job%5flisting&company=universitdP&navBarLevel=JOB%5fSEARCH&rcm%5fsite%5flocale=fr%5fFR&career_job_req_id=20469&selected_lang=en_US&jobAlertController_jobAlertId=&jobAlertController_jobAlertName=&browserTimeZone=Europe/Zurich&_s.crb=j3u6SlZI8utLaBZsfW7knm%2fxBt1nR9WkdnQB13BzWds%3d  
    Deadline: December 10, 2022 
  1. Postdoctoral Researcher SNSF (80%) in Intersectional Political Ecologies at the University of Laussane. 
    More info: https://career5.successfactors.eu/career?career%5fns=job%5flisting&company=universitdP&navBarLevel=JOB%5fSEARCH&rcm%5fsite%5flocale=fr%5fFR&career_job_req_id=20549&selected_lang=en_US&jobAlertController_jobAlertId=&jobAlertController_jobAlertName=&browserTimeZone=Europe/Zurich&_s.crb=xVWRjLJpvrGYe%2bsPgKFYSwFEpDw2%2fB4gL08CLGMtIik%3d  
    Deadline: December 10, 2022 
  1. 3-year vacancy for a PhD Candidate in STS at NTNU. 
    The PhD candidate will work within the area of Sustainability Transitions research focusing on transformative policy mixes for cross-sectoral interactions and societal acceptance of Hydrogen. The current development of the hydrogen economy in Norway is built on a multi-level logic where regional, national and international dynamics interact, and where interests across sectors need to be aligned to succeed. This project uses the concept of transformative policy mixes for cross-sectoral interactions to understand the interactions between levels and sectors, to advance community acceptance, policy acceptance and market acceptance for hydrogen in Norway and beyond. 
    Deadline: December 5, 2022 
    More info: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/232563/phd-candidate-in-science-and-technology-studies  
  1. One Faculty Positionin Feminist Political and/or Economic Geographies in/of Asia Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) or Associate Professor (With Tenure) at the National University of Singapore. 
    Deadline: December 5, 2022 
    More info: https://fass.nus.edu.sg/geog/2022/10/03/faculty-position-in-feminist-political-and-or-economic-geographies-in-of-asia/  

Calls 

  1. Call for contributions: 
    Review of African Political Economy special issue, titled ‘The climate emergency in Africa: crisis, solutions and resistance’ 
    Themes: Extraction and the exploitation of fossil fuels // War, repression and climate change // Renewable energy sources and labour // Climate disaster in Africa and its impacts // Solutions 
    More info: https://roape.net/2022/10/06/roape-special-issue-call-for-contributors-the-climate-emergency-in-africa-crisis-solutions-and-resistance/ 
  1. Call for Abstracts:  
    International Conference “Sustainable Food and Biomass Futures. Localised approaches to agricultural change and bioeconomy”, June 22-24, 2023, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany 
    More info here: https://www.transect.de/call-for-papers-international-conference-on-sustainable-food-and-biomass-futures 
  1. Call for Proposals: 
    Antipode’s “Right to the Discipline” grants 
    More info: https://antipodeonline.org/a-right-to-the-discipline/ 
  1. Call for Papers: 
    Contesting human-wildlife interactions in the context of commons 
    More info: https://beastlybusiness.org/2022/11/17/cfp-iasc-2023-contesting-human-wildlife-interactions-in-the-context-of-commons/  
    Deadline: 12th of december, 2022 
  1. Call for Papers: 
    Environment and Society: Advances in research. Thematic focus: Reforestation.  
    Deadline for abstracts: December 5, 2022 
    More info: https://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/air-es/ares-cfp-2022-v15.pdf  
  1. Call for Proposals: 
    Ecology, economy, and society – The INSEE Journal is an open access, peer reviewed journal of Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE<https://ecoinsee.org/>), a registered society since 1999. It is indexed in Scopus<https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101049095> and recognized by the UGC-CARE<https://ugccare.unipune.ac.in/Apps1/Home/Index>. EES offers authors a forum to address socio-environmental issues from, across and within the natural and social sciences, with an aim to promote methodological pluralism and inter-disciplinary research. 
    EES is proposing a special issue on Political Ecology for Volume 6(2), to be published in July 2023. 
    Deadline for abstract submissions: December 31, 2022 
    More info: Write to insee.ees@gmail.com<mailto:insee.ees@gmail.com> or kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au<mailto:kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au> 
     

Other news items 

  1. An ecosocialist strategy to win the future by Sabrina Fernandes: https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/49515/an-ecosocialist-strategy-to-win-the-future  
  1. The ESRC STEPS Centre has updated its free online course on Pathways to Sustainability, with a series of six video lectures and reading lists. It’s being made available open access, and we hope it will be of interest as background material for students and teachers on courses related to sustainability, political ecology and international development. 
    https://steps-centre.org/online-course-pathways-to-sustainability/ 
    The course introduces a set of ideas, approaches, cases and methods for critical research and action on sustainability. Sections include: 
    The Pathways Approach  
    Uncertainty  
    Technology & Innovation 
    Resource Politics 
    Policy Processes  
    Methods and Methodologies  
    *There is no fee or time-limit for individuals who wish to take the course, and all the videos and most reading suggestions are Open Access. 
  1. What are the ties between farming and finance? More info: http://institutionallandscapes.org/  

Political Ecology, Power and Social Movements session 3 (OCT 10th )

juanantoniosamper

ENVIRONMENTAL CARE AND DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES

PRESENTATION: “INTERPRETATION MACHINES IN NATURE CONSERVATION” by Larry Lohmann

Larry Lohmann works with The Corner House, a Dorset-based solidarity and research organization. He is a founding member of the Durban Group for Climate Justice and chairs the advisory board of the World Rainforest Movement, with which he has been associated for 25 years. He spent much of the 1980s with Thailand’s Project for Ecological Recovery and more recently has been working with social movements in Ecuador and other countries. Among his books are Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations in the Global Paper Economy (1996, with Ricardo Carrere), Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Privatization and Power (2006), Mercados de carbono: La neoliberalizacion del clima (2012), Energy, Work and Finance (2014, with Nicholas Hildyard) and Cadenas de bloques, automatizacion y trabajo: Mecanizando la confianza (2020). His articles have appeared in academic journals in political economy, environment, geography, accounting, Asian studies, law, science studies, socialism, anthropology and development and have been translated into many languages. Most are available at www.thecornerhouse.org.uk.    

Video Link: https://youtu.be/kunjLOYcw6M    

GUEST PANEL: “LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES: POLITICAL ECOLOGY AND ALTERNATIVES TO DEVELOPMENT”

Chair: Miriam Lang, Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar Ecuador.  

This session features the research of five young Latin American scholars who are part of the first generation of students of the Masters in Political Ecology and Alternatives to Development, created in 2020 at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Quito, Ecuador. This Masters Program provides a transdisciplinary base for young scholars with an activist background to strengthen specifically southern and Latin American perspectives on political ecology. It additionally draws from different recent strands of Latin American critical knowledge production, e.g. on alternatives to development, critical geography, decoloniality or subaltern feminist approaches. The students come from a variety of Latin American countries and disciplines. In this panel, biologists from Uruguay and Ecuador come together with a Venezuelan expert in industrial relations, an anthropologist from Colombia and an Ecuadorian engineer in ecotourism. Their research focuses on the ongoing disputes between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic territorialities and modes of living, perspectives on the economy, societal nature relations and democratic decision-making, which characterize socio-ecological conflicts in Latin America today.  

1.         Introduction by the chair (Miriam Lang, Ecuador): Video Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpoX-NIW8yg    

2.         Case 1: Approaches to a Political Ecology of Bottled Water in Bogotá, Colombia Anyi Castelblanco: Video Link:  https://youtu.be/U4060hNrVJE    

3.         Case 2: Community Tourism as a Local Alternative to the Globalized Neoliberal Tourism Model Lina Noboa Video Link:  https://vimeo.com/756012300    

4.         Case 3: Impacts of Dumps on Rural Livelihoods Héctor Jesús Pérez Zamora: Video Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enSqZw6Dp3o&t=11s    

5.         Discussion Melissa Moreano Video Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqzRHHGUggI

Upcoming events this week in the Emotional Political Ecology Symposium:

juanantoniosamper

Kia Ora koutou, hello to all of you! 

Thanks to all our panelists in the first day’s live session. We had a great discussion about how we can know emotions in our research. The recording is now up on the Panel 1 webpage. 

We have three more live events to finish up the symposium this week. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Wednesday 7 September, Live session for Panel 2: Care, commoning and restoration

(Wednesday 10am UTC, 6am NY, 11am Edinburgh, 3:30pm Bengaluru, 5pm Jakarta, 8pm Canberra, 10pm Auckland) 

Presenters: Maureen W. Kinyanjui, University of Edinburgh, UK Sony RK, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore Karen Kinslow, University of Kentucky, Lexington Discussant: Sango Mahanty Chair: Sopheak Chann

Zoom lnk: https://massey.zoom.us/s/3350407554

Thursday 8 September: Postgrad Events!

8am UTC: Postgrad Workshop and Discussion, followed by 930am UTC postgrad discussion 

(Starting at 8AM UTC, 8PM Auckland, 10am Amsterdam, 6PM Canberra, 3PM Jakarta)

Calling all postgrads – Please join us! First, Professor Sango Mahanty and Dr. Lisa Trogisch will host an interactive workshop about empathy and other emotions in relation to research methodology. Come ready to share your reflections and challenges. This will be followed by an informal post-grad discussion, where postgrad researchers from different disciplines and countries can meet each other and discuss the multidimensional role of emotions in political ecology and socio-ecological research.

Zoom lnk: https://massey.zoom.us/s/3350407554

Friday 9 September: Live session for Panel 3: Emotional Political Ecology in Ruptured and Uncertain Worlds

(Friday 10am UTC, 6am NY, 11am Edinburgh, 3:30pm Bengaluru, 5pm Jakarta, 8pm Canberra, 10pm Auckland) 

Presenters: Anna Sturman and Blanche Verlie, University of Sydney, Noémi Gonda, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; and Andrea J. Nightingale,

University of Oslo, Sango Mahanty, Australian National University; and Sopheak Chann, Royal University of Phnom Penh; Discussant: Laura McKay; Chair: Alice Beban

Zoom link: https://massey.zoom.us/s/3350407554

All pre-recorded panel presentations are also open for viewing and discussion! All links are on our symposium website: https://perc.ac.nz/wordpress/emotional-ecologies/.  

Best wishes,

Alice 

On behalf of the symposium convenors (Alice Beban from Massey University, New Zealand; Sango Mahanty from ANU, Australia; Sopheak Chann from Royal University of Phnom Penh; Cambodia). This event is part of the POLLEN 22 series of online workshops.  

All are welcome – this event is free and open to all (no registration required to attend).

Live discussion session on “Methodological questions in emotional political ecology”

Torsten Krause
Kia Ora.

What a wonderful first week of our Emotional Political Ecology symposium. If you didn’t catch the opening keynote panel live, you can view the recording on the main page of our symposium site (https://perc.ac.nz/wordpress/emotional-ecologies/). Thanks so much to Professor Andrea Nightingale, Dr. April Bennett, and Dr. Sochanny Hak, for their insights. Andrea put forward some provocations for us to continue thinking through during the symposium; I have reproduced her notes at the bottom of the keynote recording and I encourage you to leave your responses. 

Our first (of three) live panel discussions will be held on Monday next week! Come join us for what promises to be a fascinating discussion:

Monday 5 September, 8pm UTC. Live discussion session for Panel 1: “Methodological questions in emotional political ecology”
(Mon 10pm Amsterdam/Berlin; Mon 4pm  NY; Tues 6am Canberra; Tues 8am Auckland 

Zoom lnk: https://massey.zoom.us/s/3350407554

Please listen to the Panel 1 presentations before the discussion if you can, as the presenters will not be repeating their presentations. Instead, they will briefly spend 3 minutes introducing one key idea from their work, and then we will open the floor for discussion. Come along with questions, all are welcome! 

All pre-recorded panel presentations are also open for viewing and discussion! All links are on our symposium website: https://perc.ac.nz/wordpress/emotional-ecologies/.  

Best wishes,

Alice

On behalf of the symposium convenors (Alice Beban from Massey University, New Zealand; Sango Mahanty from ANU, Australia; Sopheak Chann from Royal University of Phnom Penh; Cambodia). This event is part of the POLLEN 22 series of online workshops.  

All are welcome – this event is free and open to all (no registration required to attend).

Next in the POLLEN 2022 Virtual series: Emotional Political Ecology

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The next workshop in the POLLEN 2022 Virtual Conference series is coming soon! 

Massey University’s Political Ecology Research Centre, The Australian National University and Royal University of Phnom Penh are convening the Emotional Political Ecology Symposium from 29 August to 9 September 2022. 

Explore how emotions influence resource access, use, and control, and shape people’s everyday lives, and relationships with each other and the state through an exciting series of papers, commentaries and real time discussions. 

Online and open access – see this link for further details and to register: https://bit.ly/emotionalecology

INTRODUCING THE NEW POLLEN SECRETARIAT!

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A special note from your POLLEN secretariat hosts, Sango Mahanty, Ratchada Arpornsilp and Sarah Milne, at ANU’s Resources, Environment and Development Program.

This week, we are handing over the secretariat to our wonderful colleagues at the Lund University Center for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) in Sweden. We have really enjoyed interacting with all of you over the last couple of years, and keeping our network connected during the pandemic. Although the secretariat is going to a new home at Lund, we look forward to staying in touch with all of you and contributing to POLLEN in a different capacity.

The Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies has more than 40 international researchers and teachers from a range of countries and academic backgrounds. LUCSUS’ focus is on understanding and explaining pressing sustainability challenges through an inter- and transdisciplinary approach that addresses social and environmental sustainability. Political Ecology is central to the work of many researchers at LUCSUS, who are delighted to host the secretariat for the next two years, contribute to the further development of the network and look forward to meeting current and prospective members of POLLEN.

The next newsletter will be shared at the end of September. Please send any updates on publications, events and other news to politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com by 20 September.