Category: News

Job opportunity: Professor of Climate Change and Societal Impacts

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The Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change at the Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences (University of Graz) is seeking to appoint a

Professor (f/m) of Climate Change and Societal Impacts 

(40 hours per week; permanent employment according to the Austrian Law on Salaried Employment (AngG); planned starting date March 1st 2020) 

We are looking to appoint a full professor (f/m) who will form and lead a new research group “Climate Change and Societal Impacts“. This endowed chair and the new group will be part of the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change and will be embedded in and benefit from the University´s interdisciplinary Field of Excellence “Climate Change and Sustainable Transformation”. https://jobs.uni-graz.at/content/C_PR_EN_ClimateChange.pdf

As a group leader, the professor will have the opportunity to develop an innovative line of research related to the transformation to a low carbon and climate robust society. We expect research with a strong theoretical foundation. We are seeking an outstanding scholar, with a proven track record, preferably with a background in the social sciences (e. g., sociology, psychology, political science) who has experience in working with researchers in the natural sciences or engineering (e. g., geosciences, physical climate science, life sciences). Alternatively, we are open to receive applications from researchers with a background in natural sciences who have a proven record of working in the area of social sciences. We are looking for an internationally oriented, ambitious, yet collegial scholar who shares our dedication for climate change research and will contribute to Wegener Center’s collaborative research. The selected candidate has been successful in acquiring third-party funds as well as has experience in international research collaboration. He/she is expected to initiate and strongly engage in interdisciplinary research projects. The position includes teaching and supervision responsibilities and offers possibilities for developing innovative learning formats. In addition, we expect gender mainstreaming competence.  
Should you require any further information on the perspective or background please do not hesitate to contact  karl.steininger@uni-graz.at.
Please submit your applications stating the reference numberBV/2/98 ex 2018/19 by March 13th 2019 at the latest. For information about the application procedures and other prerequisites, please visithttps://jobs.uni-graz.at/en/BV/2/98.

Job opportunity: Academic assistant, Environment and sustainable development

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The Institute of Development Policy (IOB) of the University of Antwerp wants to contribute to a more just and sustainable world through multidisciplinary academic research, education, partnerships and political engagement. More information about the institute and its activities can be found at www.uantwerp.be/iob.

The Institute of Development Policy (IOB) is seeking to fill a full-time (100%) vacancy for an

Academic assistant in the area of “environment and sustainable development”

Job description

  • Your research and societal service delivery is situated in the field of development processes, actors and policies, with particular attention to their nexus with global-to-local environmental/climate change governance processes. Your research focus matches the research line “Environment and Sustainable Development”.
  • Your research studies how the economics and politics of conservation and the environment intersect within the context of globalization, often resulting in social-environmental conflicts. You pay particular attention to the (local and global) environmental justice aspects of contemporary (market-based) environment-development policy frameworks, such as carbon and biodiversity markets, Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and/or Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES).
  • Geographically, you focus on Central/Latin America.
  • You prepare a doctoral thesis in development studies in this domain (appr. 50% of your time).
  • You contribute to the strengthening of the research line, i.a. through joint research and outreach activities and collaborating in applications for externally funded research grants.
  • You assist in teaching assignments within the framework of the IOB master programs.
  • Your research adopts a multidisciplinary perspective, includes fieldwork and uses a combination of qualitative (and, preferably, also quantitative) methods, in accordance with the IOB Research Strategy 2017-2022.
  • IOB PhD regulations allow joint or double PhDs degrees.
  • Your work includes activities of societal outreach.
  • You actively support the cooperation of IOB with its partner institutes in the South, in particular in Central America.
  • You function well in groups and you are willing to contribute to the service delivery to IOB, to the University of Antwerp and the wider society.

Profile and requirements

  • You hold a master degree in development studies or in related social science disciplines (preferably with a proven interest in political ecology, human geography and/or ecological economics).
  • Your work is preferably interdisciplinary in nature and preferably engages with a combination of methodological approaches.
  • You obtained outstanding academic results.
  • You preferably have experience with development processes in the South.
  • The focus in your teaching corresponds to the educational vision of the university.
  • Your academic qualities comply with the requirements stipulated in the university’s policy.
  • You are quality-oriented, conscientious, creative, social and cooperative.
  • You are fluent in English and Spanish. Knowledge of other relevant languages is a plus.

We offer

  • an appointment as an academic assistant for a period of two years, with the possibility of renewal twice for a further two-year period after positive evaluation;
  • the date of appointment will be 1 September 2019;
  • a full time gross monthly salary ranging from € 3.338,21 tot € 5.649,28;
  • a dynamic and stimulating work environment.

How to apply?

  • Applications may only be submitted online, until the closing date 24 March 2019.
  • The application must be completed with a PhD research proposal (appr. 1000 words) and an argument (appr. 500 words) how this proposal can strengthen the profile of the research line and of the IOB profile in general. This document must be submitted in English.
  • A pre-selection will be made from amongst the submitted applications. The remainder of the selection procedure is specific to the position and will be determined by the selection panel. The selection interview will take place on 2 May 2019.
  • More information about the application form can be obtained at vacatures@uantwerpen.be.
  • For questions about the profile and the description of duties, please contact prof. dr. Gert Van Hecken (Tel. +32 3 265 56 85; Gert.vanhecken@uantwerpen.be).

The University of Antwerp is a family friendly organization, with a focus on equal opportunities and diversity. Our HR-policy for researchers was awarded by the European Commission with the quality label HR Excellence in research.

We support the Science4Refugees initiative and encourage asylum-seeking, refugee scientists and researchers to apply for a job at the University of Antwerp.

CFP: SUSTAINABILITIES panel// DGSKA conference in Konstanz 2019, Germany

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Workshop of the RG Circumpolar Regions and Siberia:

Sustainabilities’, Or The Politics of a Many-Faced Concept

Undoubtedly, ‘sustainability’ has become a widely used buzzword not only in our daily lives, but also on both domestic and international political stages. With regard to the Circumpolar North, it has recently been suggested that “sustainability research in the Arctic has moved to the forefront of intellectual and policy realms” (Petrov et al. 2016: 166).

Historian Jeremy Caradonna remarked that the concept of ‘sustainability’ (‘Nachhaltigkeit’) emerged in the context of conflicts over resources, especially wood, induced by the proto-industrialist economies of Early Modern Europe at the beginning of the 18th century (Caradonna 2014). He did not pay, however, much attention to the political effects of this particular development. In contrast, historian Joachim Radkau argued that the articulation of ‘Nachhaltigkeit’ essentially relates to the emergence of the modern, bureaucratic state and that therefore the invocation of ‘sustainability’ has to be understood in clearly political terms (Radkau & Schäfer 1987; Radkau 2011).

In line with this rather critical stance towards ‘sustainability’, we propose to shift attention to the politics  of its invocation: What are the consequences of the introduction of the concept in specific ethnographic settings? What kinds of actors are mobilized and what types of alliances are formed (e.g. NGOs, governmental organizations etc.)? How do these actors deal with potentially different notions of ‘sustainability’? How does ‘sustainability’ relate to the emergence of intensive resource extraction and the (colonial) bureaucratic state? To what extent do invocations of ‘sustainability’ shape the discursive frames of political processes, limiting the field of potential articulations of ‘collectivity’?

The proposed workshop explicitly attempts at breaching narrow regional as well as disciplinary perspectives and therefore welcomes contributions not only from other parts of the globe, but also from related disciplines.

Please note that the “two-role” rule applies to presentations, the organisation of workshops or roundta­bles, and the role of discussant: each conference participant is allowed to take on roles in a maximum of two categories (presentation, discussant, the organisation and chairing of a workshop or roundtable); it is not possible to take on two roles in the same category.

Please send a text of max. 1.200 characters (incl. spaces) and also a short version of max. 300 characters (incl. spaces) directly to the workshop organizer(s). Deadline: 02/15/2019

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS: Andreas Womelsdorf:  aawomelsdorf@gmail.com

Panel CfP for 2019 SANA/SUNTA Conference: Relocalizing Agriculture in a Transnational World

Alex Korsunsky

Below please find a call for papers for a student proposed panel at the joint Society for the Anthropology of North America and the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology conference this May, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The conference theme is “Positive Futures.”  

Apologies if you’re seeing this a second time – had some technical issues when I tried to post it previously!

___________________________________________________

Relocalizing Agriculture in a Transnational World: Place, Markets, and Migration  

Panel Co-Organizers: Alex Korsunsky (Vanderbilt University) and Emily Ramsey (University of Georgia)

Panel Co-Chairs: Emily Ramsey and Alex Korsunsky  

Whether to address neo-Malthusian concerns of population increase, global food insecurity, or the effects of climate change, agriculture and food systems are critical sites at which to enact change that will vitally shape both human and environmental futures. Scholars, farmers, and consumers look to alternative food systems to provide promising paths forward from the problems many identify within current global agro-industrial food systems. This proposed panel at the 2019 Society for the Anthropology of North America/Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology Spring Conference asks what positive futures farmers imagine for themselves and others, the affective and cultural meanings they attach to their work, and how their projects interact with and illuminate agro-ecological and political-economic regimes at a variety of scales. How do alternative food systems and practices function as placemaking projects, and how do they gather and mobilize particular social and ecological relationships? How do interactions with particular places, movements, and markets inform the formation of identities and subjectivities? To what extent are practitioners and stakeholders active in relocalizing and perhaps even decommodifying agricultural economies in the face of capitalist agro-industry?   Despite a discursive opposition of local, alternative agriculture and globalized agribusiness, transnational connections have long been important within agriculture and food systems due to reliance on immigrant and migrant farm laborers. These connections continue to expand with the rapidly growing number of immigrant and minority farm operators in the U.S. How do these farmers and farm laborers engage with alternative food production or straddle an agro-industrial/alternative divide? In what ways might alternative food systems represent a sort of bottom-up globalization (sensu Escobar 2001), pushing the boundaries of how we define local food? And in what ways do immigrant farmers and laborers find and create cultural, affective, and strategic value in agriculture and construct their food and farming practices as spaces of hybridity and transnational practice? In examining these transnational agriculturalists, their identities, and practices, this panel also seeks to challenge and expand upon the traditional ways that the positive futures associated with alternative food systems are conceived.  

Organizers of this panel are doctoral students who work with immigrant farmers and farm laborers in the Northwest and Southeastern U.S., respectively. We invite a variety of perspectives on the ways in which identities are articulated through or remade by engagement with food systems and political and folk-ecologies across multiple scales.   Interested participants should send an abstract of no more than 250 words to both Emily Ramsey (emily.ramsey@uga.edu) and Alex Korsunsky (alexander.s.korsunsky@vanderbilt.edu) no later than February 21, 2019. In addition to the abstract, include the title of the paper, the author’s name, affiliation, and email.

Conference Logistics: The conference takes place at the Hilton Caribe in San Juan, Puerto Rico from May 2-5, 2019. Students and local residents can participate in the conference for free, while underemployed faculty members qualify for a reduced registration rate. Membership in SANA or SUNTA is not required to participate. Registration for the conference must be made by March 1st, 2019 at 3pm EST to submit an abstract and participate.  

Reference Escobar, Arturo. 2001. “Culture sits in places: Reflections on globalism and subaltern strategies of localization.” Political Geography 20: 139-174.

New collaborative works on political ecology, authoritarianism, and populism

Connor Joseph Cavanagh
** With apologies for cross-posting **
 
On behalf of the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) and our friends at the ENTITLE Writing Collaborative, we would like to draw your attention to some recent collaborative works on the subjects of Political Ecology, Authoritarianism, and Populism. We hope this work is relevant and helpful as a teaching tool particularly in the current political ‘climate emergency!’

The first is a primary output of a joint POLLEN writing initiative and part of a special issue: ‘Environmental Governance in a Populist/Authoritarian Era,’ edited by James McCarthy in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers:

Neimark B D, Childs J R, Nightingale A, Cavanagh C, Sullivan S, Benjaminsen T, Batterbury S, Koot S and W. Harcourt (2019). Speaking Power to ‘Post-Truth’: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2018.1547567

 
There are many other important pieces in the special issue, which are beginning to appear online and will be available in print in March 2019.
 
The second is a co-edited series by Amber Huff (STEPS/IDS/Uni. of Sussex, UK) and Levi Van Sant (Georgia Southern University, USA), builds off the collaborative Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) project:
 
Authoritarianism, populism and political ecology, Amber Huff and Levi Van Sant (series introduction),https://entitleblog.org/2018/11/29/authoritarianism-populism-and-political-ecology/
 
Environmental populisms – alongside and beyond (state) authority, Kai Bosworth, https://entitleblog.org/2018/12/13/environmental-populisms-alongside-and-beyond-state-authority/
 
Headless populism and the political ecology of alienation, Patrick Huff, https://entitleblog.org/2019/01/10/the-yellow-vests-a-headless-revolt-against-alienation/
 
Should political ecology be populist? Diego Andreucci, https://entitleblog.org/2019/01/24/should-political-ecology-be-populist/
 
Reflections on Authoritarian Populism: Democracy, Technology and Ecological Destruction, Alexander Dunlap, https://entitleblog.org/2019/02/07/reflections-on-authoritarian-populism-democracy-technology-and-ecological-destruction/
Please feel free to contact POLLEN to inquire about starting an academic node in the network– we are particularly encouraging new nodes from underrepresented regions in the Global South– and contribute to critical political ecology discussions on the dynamic ENTITLE Blog.
 
Best,
 
Ben Neimark, Connor Cavanagh, Amber Huff and John Childs
January updates from POLLEN

January updates from POLLEN

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Dear POLLEN members and friends (with apologies for X-posting),

Greetings and welcome to the first monthly update from POLLEN in 2019. We hope everyone had a restful break – even though it seems like a very long time ago already!

Many thanks to everyone who sent in their contributions – the number of publications, opportunities, news articles and other updates has been incredible this month. We are proud to be sending out one of the largest newsletter to date – proof that we are growing as a network! We hope everyone enjoys reading it.

A pdf version of this newsletter can be found here

BLOG POSTS

Gratitude by Mihnea Tanasescu

From our friends at Entitle:

Night of the Living ‘Things’: Zombie Archaeology by Eric Fleischmann 

Should political ecology be populist? by Diego Andreucci

Urban forests, regeneration and conflicts: the case of Prati di Caprara in Bologna (Italy) by Andrea Zinzani and Enrico Curzi

Assembling a Movement for Real Democracy in Every Community – launch statement from Symbiosis by Symbiosis Collective

Headless populism and the political ecology of alienation by Patrick Huff

Blog updates from the Political Ecology Research Centre at Massey University can be found here and here.

PUBLICATIONS

Amiero, M., T. Andritsos, S. Barca, R. Brás, S. R. Cauyela, Ç. Dedeoğlu, M. Di Pierri, L. de Oliveira Fernandes, F. Gravagno, L. Greco, L. Greyl, I. Iengo, J. Lindblom, F. Milanez, S. Pedro, G. Pappalardo, A. Petrillo, M. Portaluri, E. Privitera, A.C. Sarı, and G. Velegrakis (2019). “Toxis Bios: Toxic Autobiographies–A Public Environmental Humanities Project.” Environmental Justice. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2018.0019

Diego Andreucci (2018) Populism, Emancipation, and Environmental Governance: Insights from Bolivia. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, DOI:10.1080/24694452.2018.1506696

Bartels, Lara Esther, Antje Bruns, and Rossella Alba. “The production of uneven access to land and water in peri-urban spaces: de facto privatisation in greater Accra.” Local Environment 23.12 (2018): 1172-1189. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2018.1533932

Stefan Constantinescu and Mihnea Tanasescu (2018). Simplifying a deltaic labyrinth: anthropogenic imprint on river deltas. Revista de Geomorfologie Vol. 20 No. 20.  https://revistadegeomorfologie.ro/geo/index.php/revista/article/view/37

Dunlap, Alexander. (2018) Book Review: The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation by Simon Springer. Human Geography 11: 62-64.
Dunlap, Alexander. (2018) Book Review: Anna Feigenbaum, Tear Gas: From the Battlefield of World War I to the Streets of Today. Interface: a journal for and about social movements 10: 352-355.

Fair H. (2018). Three stories of Noah: Navigating religious climate change narratives in the Pacific Island region. Geo: Geography and Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.68

Human Ecology Review: Volume 24, Number 2. Special Issue: Addressing the Great Indoors— A Transdisciplinary Conversation. http://doi.org/10.22459/HER.24.02.2018

Hung, P.-Y. and H.-T. Hsiao (2018). Apples in Action: Territoriality and Land Use Politics of Mountain Agriculture in Taiwan. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 59(3): 349-367

Journal of Political Ecology. Special section: Performing development roles: theorizing agriculture as performance edited by Andrew Flachs. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/issue/view/1483

Koot, S. (2019). The limits of economic benefits: Adding social affordances to the analysis of trophy hunting of the Khwe and Ju/’hoansi in Namibian community-based natural resource management. Society & Natural Resources. Online availabe at: https://stasjakootblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/2019-koot-the-limits-of-economic-benefits.pdf

Massé, Francis (2018). “Topographies of security and the multiple spatialities of (conservation) power: Verticality, surveillance, and space-time compression in the bush.”  Political Geography 67:56-64.
Massé, Francis (2018). “Anti-poaching’s politics of (in) visibility: Representing nature and conservation amidst a poaching crisis.” Geoforum.

Neimark B D, Childs J R, Nightingale A, Cavanagh C, Sullivan S, Benjaminsen T, Batterbury S, Koot S and W. Harcourt (2019). Speaking Power to ‘Post-Truth’: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism. Annals of the Association of American Geographers.  DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2018.1547567

Neimark, B. Osterhoudt, S. Alter, H. and A. Gradiner. (2019). A New Sustainability Model for Measuring Changes in Power and Access in Global Commodity Chains: Through a Smallholder Lens. Palgrave Comm. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0199-0

Dana E. Powell (2018). Landscapes of Power: Politics of Energy in the Navajo Nation. Durham and London: Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/landscapes-of-power

Rai, Benjaminsen, Krishnan, Madegowda (2019). Political ecology of tiger conservation in India: Adverse effects of banning customary practices in a protected area. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 40 (1): 124-139.

Rasmussen, MB (2019) Rewriting Conservation Landscapes: Protected areas and glacial retreat in the high Andes. Regional Environmental Change

Rasmussen, MB, A French and S Conlon (2019) Conservation Conjunctures: Contestation and Situated Consent in Peru’s Huascarán National Park. Conservation and Society

Rutt RL and Loveless S (2018) Whose Park? The forty-year fight for Folkets Park under Copenhagen’s evolving urban managerialism. People, Place and Policy

Sullivan, S. (2018). Towards a metaphysics of the soul and a participatory aesthetics of life: mobilising Foucault, affect and animism for caring practices of existence. New Formations: A Journal of Culture/Theory/Politics 95: 5-21.  https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/sites/default/files/nf95_02Sullivan.pdf

Zinzani, A. 2018. Deconstructing coastal sustainable development policies: towards a political ecology of coastalscapes in Vietnam. Geography Notebooks, 1(2).  http://www.ledonline.it/index.php/Geography-Notebooks/article/view/1528

CONFERENCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Papers for fully funded work/writeshop – May 2020 in the Abbazia di San Giusto, Italy
on: Crisis Conservation: Saving Nature in Times of Extinction, Exception and Enmity. Organized by: Prof. Bram Büscher (Wageningen University, the Netherlands). Date: 10-16 May 2020. Place: Abbazia di San Giusto, Italy

Call for papers for a student proposed panel at the joint Society for the Anthropology of North America and the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology conference this May, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The conference theme is “Positive Futures.”

Call for Papers extended to 14 February: the 2019 Environmental Justice Conference ‘Transformative Connections’ will be held at University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, on 2 July – 4 July 2019. We welcome proposals for sessions (talks, panel discussion, roundtables or workshop events). We are also calling for submission of abstracts for presentations. The deadline is 14 February 2019. Submissions will be reviewed by the scientific advisory board  by 28 February 2019. Registration for the conference will open on 1 March 2019. For further information see the conference webpages or email gej.group@uea.ac.uk.

Call for Conference Papers – International Symposium Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development Goals: Balancing Economy and Environment for Inclusive and Equitable Growth
Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
March 15th and 16th, 2019

The School of Human Ecology at Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) is organising a conference titled “Entangled Natures: A Conference on Human Ecology” during 14th to 17th February 2019. The conference will have five thematic panels, speed talks, posters, photo exhibition celebrating a decade of SHE, and an open house and photography competition for undergraduate students. We have just issued a call for papers, which is available on the conference website https://www.entanglednatures.com/

RGS-IBG 2019 (28th – 30th August 2019, London) Call for Papers: TRUST IN RURAL LAND GOVERNANCE. Convenors: Sam Staddon, Clare Barnes, Rachel Hunt (University of Edinburgh)

Call for Papers Political Ecologies of Green Energy at RGS-IBG Annual Conference: Political Ecologies of Green Energy: troubling the realities of being green. Convenors: Dr Jessica Hope & Dr Ed Atkins, University of Bristol
Doctoral vacancy at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) – call attached – for a sub-project under the interdisciplinary Fiction Meets Science initiative ‘Narrating Sea Level Change as a World-making Activity.’  We welcome applicants in the environmental humanities and the social sciences. Deadline – Feb 8, 2019

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Fellow based in the Physical Activity and Public Health programme in the MRC Epidemiology Unit, a department within the University of Cambridge’s School of Clinical Medicine on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The programme is one of seven core-funded MRC research programmes.

Lincoln University is seeking an interdisciplinary-backgrounded Postdoctoral Fellow with training in social science or human-environment relations, political ecology, environmental sociology, geography or anthropology, etc.

New PhD position at ISS Erasmus University Rotterdam: Valuing nature in the circular economy

One Earth, a new journal from Cell on environmental sustainability, is looking for a social sciences editor. More information can be found at https://4re.referrals.selectminds.com/elsevier/jobs/scientific-editor-social-science-one-earth-20590

Greetings! Several of us here at McGill University have been really concerned about the recent situation in Wets’uwet’en territory in British Columbia and have felt compelled to show active support of the Wet’suwet’en people. We worked together to write a Statement of Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en People from Professors and Scholars that we now invite you to sign. We will gather as many signatures we can by Feb 15, at which point we will do a press release to Canadian media.
*This Statement was sent to the people at the Unist’ot’en camp to ensure they approve of this support effort and indeed, they do. Please click here to read and add your name to this Statement of Solidarity. And please help us by forwarding this email widely to all the Professors and other scholars that you think may want to sign!

NEW NODES – Welcome to POLLEN!

Best wishes,

Marleen Schutter, Ben Neimark, John Childs, Simon Batterbury, Patrick Bigger, James Fraser, Giovanni Bettini, Katharine Howell

POLLEN secretariat, Lancaster University

politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com

https://politicalecologynetwork.org

@PolEcoNet