Category: News

Dear Pollinators,

We are pleased to announce the timeline and co-hosting arrangements for the upcoming asynchronous pre-conference workshops. Six of the seven prospective workshop arrangements are in varying stages of finalisation, while the seventh will be announced in due course. Please see the below workshop date, theme and co-host details:

POLLEN 2022/3 Pre-conference Asynchronous workshop timetable.

1.      Early July 2022 – Radical epistemologies and future natures, co-hosted by Amber Huff’s Future Natures Centre at the Institute for Development Studies, Sussex

2.      August 2022 – Political Ecology Across Boundaries, co-hosted by Francis Masse at Northumbria University, Brock Bersaglio at the University of Birmingham and Charis Ennis at the University of Manchester.

3.      Early September – Emotional Political Ecologies – Co-hosted Alice Beban at the PERC (MASSEY University), Sango Mahanty (Australian National University), and Sopheak Chann (Royal University of Phnom Penh).

4.      Late September – Political Ecology and Social Movements – co-hosted by the ‘PE and social movements collective, led by Ana Watson Jimenez at the University of Calgary and the Peruvian Node.

5.      October – Conservation and Agrarian Change – co-hosted by Sam Staddon and the University of Edinburgh node, in collaboration with Sayan Banerjee at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

6.      November – Blue ecologies – co-hosted by the ‘Blue ecologies collective’, led by Mark Lamont of the Open University and Emily Wiehe from the University of Guelph.

7.      To be announced – Political Ecology, Power and Institutions. Co-hosts TBA

As next steps co-hosts will begin to contact session organisers within their workshops. There will be a process to confirm presenters, accommodate those who submitted individual presentation proposals, and ensure that nobody has been missed out. We will need to make sure there is complete information of each of the sessions In each workshop, and then guidance for session organisers and individual presenters will be shared by the co-hosts.

Ahead of the workshops all asynchronous content will be forwarded to Lisa and Sedicka from African Agenda through the co-hosts, and the workshop webpages will added to the POLLEN 2022/3 website. Workshop details will then be shared, and the focus of the network will be on the session content for viewing and comment through the embedded discussion facility and twitter feeds in the website.

Finally, some collectives are emerging from these workshops, and we hope to build some dialogue on thematic issues towards the in person POLLEN in person conference next year. Specifically we are interested to build learnings on asynchronous conferencing for the network.

Our thanks go to the co-hosts for the enthusiasm with which they have taken these workshops on, and we look forward to engaging with you all in the asynchronous format later this year.

Adrian, Shauna and the Local Organising Committee.

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, 

Will your POLLEN node become the next host for the POLLEN Secretariat?

We are inviting expressions of interest to host the POLLEN Secretariat, commencing in Quarter 3 of 2022. As secretariat host, your node will be the epicentre of this fantastic networks of scholars and practitioners. Speaking from our experience, the hosts gain a birds-eye view of political ecology research as well as amazing networks and a chance to elevate themes and regions of interest. For instance, we have especially tried to profile the work of nodes in the Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.

Send your expressions of interest to politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com. The role involves looking after: the POLLEN website, blog posts, the twitter account, and monthly newsletters. There is also scope to go beyond this, depending on your interests. Please send your expressions of interest or any questions to the same email address.

As usual, this month we are delighted to feature the great work of another POLLEN node, the Institute for Social-Ecological Research in Frankfurt. If your node is keen to share your work in upcoming newsletters, please write to us at politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com.

We are pleased to post the latest publications, CfPs and more from our lively community. We also welcome proposals for blog posts on the POLLEN blog – please contact us at the same email address with any ideas!

With regards from your POLLEN Secretariat:
Sango Mahanty | Sarah Milne | Ratchada Arpornsilp

Getting to know your fellow POLLEN members

Each monthly newsletter includes a brief introduction to one of our many POLLEN nodes, to build connections across our community. This month we would like to introduce you to our node at the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) in Frankfurt.

Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE)

Overview

We are a group of social scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds (environmental planning, human geography, sociology, and political science) working on water issues and land use management in different countries, e.g., Germany, Namibia, Spain, and Vietnam to name a few. We are working with concepts and methods from Social Ecology as well as Political Ecology. A transdisciplinary approach is key for our studies. We are all based in Frankfurt, Germany.

ISOE is one of the leading independent institutes for sustainability research in Germany. For more than 30 years, ISOE works at the intersection of social science, ecological studies and engineering to find sustainable solutions to concrete problems such as water shortage, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and land degradation. Social Ecology as the science of societal relations with nature provides the theoretical basis for our research. 

Node members 

Dr. Markus Rauchecker
Markus Rauchecker has been a research scientist at ISOE since August 2020 and works in the research unit Water Resources and Land Use. His research focuses on environmental governance and environmental conflicts between stakeholders with regard to the subject areas (transgenic) agriculture, land use and biodiversity. He works on different countries (Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Jordan, and Namibia). His analyses are based on concepts of policy analysis, political geography and political ecology. He received his doctorate in political science from the Free University of Berlin on conflicts over pesticide use in transgenic agriculture in Argentina. Prior to that, he studied political science, geography and history at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg and at the Free University of Berlin.

Dr. Johanna Kramm
Johanna Kramm is a research scientist at ISOE in the research unit Water Resources and Land Use. Together with Carolin Völker, she has been leading the SÖF junior research group PlastX since April 2016. She studied geography, political science and sociology at the University of Bonn and at the University of Bristol and received her PhD from the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn. She works on risk perception and communication of environmental risks such as microplastics, governance of marine litter and waste in the global south, and practices in the consumer and throwaway society.

Heide Kerber
Heide Kerber is a research fellow at ISOE in the research unit Water Infrastructure and Risk Analyses since 2012. She studied Geography, Political Science and Public law at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg. Her current research focus is on marine litter governance and plastic waste issues in Asia. Her qualitative research is informed by Social Ecology, Political Ecology and concepts in human geography. Before she worked on risk perceptions of pharmaceutical residues in freshwater environments and societal dimensions in water infrastructure transformation. Throughout all projects, she has been engaged in transdisciplinary stakeholder participation processes.

Dr. Fanny Frick-Trzebitzky
Fanny Frick-Trzebitzky is a research fellow at ISOE in the research unit Water Resources and Land Use, which she joined in January 2018. She is co-lead of the junior research group ‘regulate – regulation of groundwater in telecoupled social-ecological systems’. In her research on water governance and adaptation to climate change, she is interested in linking political ecology and transdisciplinary perspectives. She received her PhD jointly from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and King’s College London. In her PhD thesis and as research assistant at the Institute of Geography at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, she investigated institutions and inequalities in access to water and adaptation to flooding in Accra (Ghana). She studied environmental planning and sustainable development in Munich, Morelia (Mexico) and London.

David Kuhn
David Kuhn is a research scientist at ISOE and works in the research unit Water Resources and Land Use. He is also a PhD student in the junior research group regulate. In his research he focuses on conflicts, power relations and inequalities in the use and regulation of groundwater. After studying political science (B.A.) at the Free University of Berlin with a focus on political theory, gender studies and conflict research, he completed the interdisciplinary Master’s program in Sustainable Development (M.Sc.) at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) with a focus on the governance of social-ecological systems. In his master thesis he investigated success factors for transdisciplinary knowledge production in water reuse. At the inter 3 Institute for Resource Management in Berlin, David Kuhn contributed to a practice book on transdisciplinary innovation management.

PUBLICATIONS 

Books

Batterbury, S.P.J and Manga, A. 2022. The sociality of cycling. In Norcliffe, G. et al. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Cycling. London: Routledge. <Routledge Companion to Cycling – 1st Edition – Glen Norcliffe – Una>.

Moseley, W.G. and Pessereau, E. 2022. Mother’s Little Helper: A Feminist Political Ecology of West Africa’s Herbicide Revolution. In Barcus, H.R., Jones, R. and Schmitz, S. (eds). Rural Transformations: Globalization and its Implications for Rural People, Land, and Economies. London: Taylor & Francis Group. <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003110095-11/mother-little-helper-william-moseley-eliza-pessereau>.

Nemadire, S., and Loopmans, M. 2020. Displacement, memories and struggle: The case of Mapari Ranch in Zimbabwe. In Linehan, D. Clark, I. D. and Xie, P. F. (eds.), Colonialism, tourism and place: Global transformations in tourist destinations. Edward Elgar Publishing. <https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789908190.00017>.

Tănăsescu, M. 2022. Ecocene politics. Open Book Publishers.<https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/1522>.

Blogs

Batterbury, S.P.J, Manga, A.T., Kowasch, M. and Lane, R. 2022. ‘Bike kitchens: the community-run repair workshops that help build a culture of cycling.’ The Conversation, 4 January, <https://theconversation.com/bike-kitchens-the-community-run-repair-workshops-that-help-build-a-culture-of-cycling-169687>.

Bori, P.J. 2022. ‘Hungary | Electoral Win for Orbán – can he keep up pro-farmer façade?’ Agricultural and Rural Actors Working Together, 5 April,
<https://www.arc2020.eu/hungary-electoral-win-for-orban-but-can-he-keep-up-his-pro-farmer-facade/>.

ephemera, ACME, Chto Delat, degrowth.info, Ecologia Politica Network, Journal of Peer Production, Radical Housing Journal, Undisciplined Environments, and Uneven Earth. 2022. ‘Alternatives to mainstream publishing within and beyond academia.’ Undisciplined Environments, 24 March.

Ethemcan, T. 2022. ‘Keeping the world alive and healthy: The radical realism of the “forces of reproduction” – An interview with Stefania Barca.’ Undisciplined Environments, 25 January.

Ghosh, A. 2022. ‘Thirst: The story of development, growth, and urban water inequality in Bangalore.’ Undisciplined Environments, 1 March. 

González, D.A. 2022. ‘Madrid’s Cañada Real: cold and darkness for the urban irregulars.’ Undisciplined Environments, 29 March.

Hamamouce, M.F. and Saidani, A. 2022. ‘Sub-Saharan migrants transiting through Algeria: Migratory farm labor in Covid times.’ Undisciplined Environments, 22 February.

Quesada, S.C. 2022. ‘Healthy fruit, sick bodies.’ Undisciplined Environments, 22 March (en Español aquí).

Mariposas, C., Casolo, J.J., Cruz, S.F., Gonda, N., and Nightingale, A.J. 2022. ‘Choosing to “stay with the trouble”: a gesture towards decolonial research praxis.’ Undisciplined Environments, 8 March.

Miles, A. 2022. ‘Colonial ecologies of Half Earth.’ Undisciplined Environments, 5 April <https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2022/04/05/colonial-ecologies-of-the-half-earth/>.

Morrison, R. 2022. ‘Putin’s war and global energy: Security and ecological imperatives converge.’ Wall Street International Magazine, 1 April,
<https://wsimag.com/economy-and-politics/68996-putins-war-and-global-energy&gt;.

Moseley, W.G. 2022. ‘Is the global food system on the cusp of a major shift?’ Committee on World Food Security. 6 March,<https://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/news-archive/detail/en/c/1493923/>.

Moseley, W.G. 2022. ‘The trouble with drought as an explanation for famine in the Horn and Sahel of Africa.’ The Conversation, 15 February.
<https://theconversation.com/the-trouble-with-drought-as-an-explanation-for-famine-in-the-horn-and-sahel-of-africa-177071>.

Parzonko, H. 2022. ‘Environmental inequalities in Cairo’s Urban Housing Sector.’ Undisciplined Environments, 12 April.<https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2022/04/12/environmental-inequalities-in-cairos-urban-housing-sector/>.

Rauchecker, M. 2022. ‘The role of plant characteristics in environmental conflicts.’ Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 14 January, <https://isoe.blog/the-role-of-plant-characteristics-in-environmental-conflicts/&gt;.

Sciancalepore, A. 2022 ‘Exposing eco-nationalists with premodern ecologies: a medievalist approach to the French far right.’ Undisciplined Environments, 17 February.

Stasja, K., and Fletcher, R. 2022. ‘Questioning ‘ethical donor tourism’ in Africa.’ Undisciplined Environments, 18 January.

Trym, D.R., Philip, G., Linnea, M.J. and Skander, M. 2022. ‘Platforming to Oblivion: How academic institutions foster merchants of doubt.’ Undisciplined Environments, 9 February.

Vidal, A.D., Freudenberg, C. and Darmon, I. 2022 ‘The unequal university will never be ‘sustainable’. Undisciplined Environments, 15 February.

Journal articles 

Apostolopoulou, E., Bormpoudakis, D., Chatzipavlidis, A., Cortés Vázquez, J., Florea, I., Gearey, M., Levy, J., Loginova, J., Ordner, J., Partridge, T., Pizarro, A., Rhoades, H., Symons, K., Veríssimo, C., and Wahby, N., 2022. ‘Radical social innovations and the spatialities of grassroots activism: navigating pathways for tackling inequality and reinventing the commons’, Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp.144–188. <https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2292>.

Espín, M., 2022. ‘Autonomous re-naturalization of cities in a context of degrowth’, Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 75–93.<https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.4820>.

Geschewski, H. & Islar, M., 2022. ‘A political ecology of aviation and development: an analysis of relations of power and justice in the (de)construction of Nepal’s Second International Airport’. Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 51–75. <https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2304>.

Gomathy, K. N., 2022. ‘Symmetrical, non-sovereign cartography as a means for conservation: insights from a participatory forest mapping exercise’. Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 94–100. <https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2371>.

Gonda, N., Prado Córdova, J. P., Huybrechs, F., & Van Hecken, G. T. 2022. ’Exploring the Love Triangle of Authoritarianism, Populism, and COVID-19 Through Political Ecology: Time for a Break-Up?’ Frontiers in Human Dynamics, vol. 4. <http://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2022.653990>.

Kerber, H. and Kramm, J. 2022. ‘From laissez-faire to action? Exploring perceptions of plastic pollution and impetus for action. Insights from Phu Quoc Island.’ Marine Policy, vol. 137. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104924>.

Kowasch, M., Batterbury, S.P.J., Bouard, S. and Wadrawane, E.W. 2022. ‘The third independence referendum in New Caledonia – a fallback to colonialism?’ Pacific Geographies, vol. 57, pp. 11-15. <http://doi.org/10.23791/571115>.

Luque-Lora, R., 2021. ‘Chile’s social uprising and constituent process: toward a more-than-human understanding.’ Interface, pp. 323-352.
<https://www.interfacejournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Interface-13-2-Luque-Lora.pdf>.

Mabele, MB., Krauss, JE and Kiwango, W. 2022. ‘Going Back to the Roots: Ubuntu and Just Conservation in Southern Africa.’ Conservation and Society. <https://conservationandsociety.org.in/temp/ConservatSoc000-6420388_175003.pdf>.

Marta, C., Gorostiza, S. and David, S. 2022. ‘Feeding the city and making the revolution: Women and urban agriculture in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).’ Antipode. <https://doi-org/10.1111/anti.12819>.

Masse, F. 2022. ‘Police power in green: Furthering political ecologies of the state.’ Political Geography, vol. 97. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102627>.

Nemadire, S. 2022. ‘Researching With Villagers: Applying Transformative and Indigenous Approaches at a Private Wildlife Boundary in Zimbabwe.’ International Journal of Qualitative Methods. <https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221088649>.

Okpanachi, E., Ambe-Uva, T. & Fassih, A. 2022. ‘Energy regime reconfiguration and just transitions in the Global South: Lessons for West Africa from Morocco’s comparative experience.’ Futures, vol. 139. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2022.102934>.

Pasgaard, M., Kim, S. K., Dawson, N. & Fold, N. 2022. ‘Agrarian modernization through “ideal agricultural subjects”: a lost cause for smallholders in Rwanda?’, Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 100–122. <https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5012>.

Rauchecker, M. 2022. ‘Transgenic soy as a political crop and a resistance crop in Argentina – The struggle around control and rent appropriation between the state, seed corp’orations and soy farmers.’ Geoforum, vol. 130, pp. 123-135. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.09.002>.

Santos Rocha da Silva, M. & Correia, J. E., 2022. ‘A political ecology of jurisdictional REDD+: investigating social-environmentalism, climate change mitigation, and environmental (in)justice in the Brazilian Amazon’, Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 123–142. <https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.4713>.

Sultana, F. 2022. ‘The Unbearable Heaviness of Climate Coloniality’, Political Geography.  <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102638>.

Vojno, N., Horst, R., Hussein, H., Nolden, T., Badawy, A., Goubert, A., Sharipova, B., Pedrero, F., Peters, S., and Damkjaer, S. 2022. ‘Beyond barriers: the fluid roles young people adopt in water conflict and cooperation’. Water International. <https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2021.2021481>.

Calls for contribution

1) General Call for Papers – 2023 “Posthumanities as Praxis”

The Journal of Posthumanism is an international multilingual peer-reviewed scholarly journal that promotes innovative work to transverse the fields ranging from social sciences, humanities, and arts to medicine and STEM. In line with the efforts of creating a broad network beyond disciplinary boundaries, the journal seeks to explore what it means to be human in this technologically-saturated, ecologically damaged world, and transcend the traditional conception of the human while encouraging philosophical thinking beyond humanism. 

Founded in 2020, Journal of Posthumanism publishes three issues a year, including general and special issues. We currently seek submissions for our 2023 issues. Submission of full-length articles, commentaries, interviews, book reviews, and artistic works may be made online via our online submission portal.

All article-length submissions will be subject to our double-blind peer-review process. All other submissions will be reviewed internally by our editorial board and selected for publication based on their overall fit with the scope and focus of the Journal of Posthumanism and our submission guidelines.

For full consideration, please be aware of the following submission deadlines and the associated publication dates:

·        31 July 2022 → February 2023 issue (Vol. 3, No. 1)

·        30 November 2022 → June 2023 issue (Vol. 3, No, 2) 

·        31 March 2023 → October 2023 issue (Vol. 3, No. 3)

Before completing your submission, we ask that you review the author guidelines and make sure your submission adheres to Journal of Posthumanism formatting guidelines. 

2)  Virtual Special Issue 2022/2023 in Political Geographyon: “The Grabbed Institution: Revisiting the Political Ecology of Resource Corruption”. Please send a proposed title and abstract to David Aled Williams at Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway, at aled.williams@cmi.no by 15 May 2022 for further details. Contributions focused on the Global North/West are particularly welcome.

3) The International Journal of Environmental Epistemology Cosmotheoros is a publication dedicated to disseminating ideas and debates about our way of thinking and inhabiting the world from the peripheries, the uncommon places, and the abysses of thought. Without precisely delimiting the borders between Western and non-Western thought – not only by decision but by recognition of its impossibility – Cosmotheoros seeks, like Foucault’s pendulum, to oscillate through different corners of thought, without this being an obstacle for the recognition of the socio-political conflicts and tensions around the world. Cosmotheoros is one of the few publications specialized in environmental epistemology in Latin America.

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the second issue of Cosmotheoros. Authors are asked to please follow the submission guidelines available here

The deadline for submissions

Full papers should be submitted to the managing editors for review by 30 June 2022 to the following email: cosmotheoros.editorial@gmail.com

For more information, please contact the editors: Carlos Hugo Sierra: carlos.ehu@gmail.com
Nicolás Jiménez Iguarán: nicolasjimeneziguaran@gmail.com

Call for participation

IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Ecología Política

Ecología política y pensamiento crítico latinoamericano: raíces, trayectorias y miradas al futuro
Ecuador | 19-21 de octubre de 2022 (salidas de campo 22 de octubre)
Página web: www.4congresoecologiapolitica.org
Correo electrónico: congreso4.ecologiapolitica@gmail.com
| Formato híbrido |

El Colectivo de Geografía Crítica del Ecuador, el Instituto de Estudios Ecologistas del Tercer Mundo y Acción Ecológica, con el apoyo del Grupo de Trabajo Ecología(s) política(s) desde el Sur/Abya-Yala de CLACSO invitan a la comunidad académica y a los movimientos sociales a participar en el IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Ecología Política.

El tema central del Congreso es “Ecología política y pensamiento crítico latinoamericano: raíces, trayectorias y miradas al futuro”. 

El congreso mantendrá un formato híbrido, con algunas actividades solamente presenciales y otras solamente virtuales, en virtud de lo inestable aún de los viajes internacionales y de las restricciones de aforos para un evento presencial en Ecuador, bajo los protocolos de Covid-19. Con esta decisión buscamos garantizar la participación de investigadorxs y estudiantes que buscan compartir los resultados de sus investigaciones con la comunidad académica de la ecología política, así como de los y las activistas y personas de comunidades en resistencia que buscan crear redes de apoyo y reconocimiento mutuo.

Modalidades de participación:
Presentaciones individuales (virtual), Paneles armados (virtual), Talleres de creación colectiva (presencial), Rodas de diálogo (presencial), Formatos artísticos (presencial).

Inscripciones a todas las modalidades aquí.
Plazo de envío de propuestas: 30 de abril, 2022
Plazo de inscripción y pago: 15 de agosto, 2022

Vacancies

Research fellow in human geography, University of Melbourne
Location: Parkville
Role type: Full time; Fixed-term 
Faculty: The Faculty of Science
Department/School: School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Salary: Level A – $73,669 – $99,964 p.a. plus 17% super

About the Role

This position is for a research fellow for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research funded project: Next generation agricultural extension: social relations for practice change. This position will support the Project Leader, Dr. Brian Cook, to manage and implement a 4-year research for development grant that investigates agricultural extension and agrarian change in North-West Cambodia. The project will offer early career researchers an opportunity to conduct research, publish, and position themselves for an academic career. The research team is diverse in terms of disciplines, backgrounds, and career-stages, which will provide the applicant with ample mentoring and skill-development opportunities. The position should be attractive to social scientists interested in agricultural development, rural development, agrarian change, and human geography. It will provide the applicant with opportunities for theoretical, methodological, and applied contributions to ‘real word’ and pressing challenges associated with rural and agricultural challenges.

Applications close: 4 May 2022 11:55 PM AUS Eastern Daylight Time
For more details and how to apply: Research Fellow in Human Geography job with UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE | 288926 (timeshighereducation.com)

Other news items

Interview and book panel: Understanding the rights of nature

In this book panel, we discuss Mihnea Tănăsescu’s recent book on the rights of nature with specialists in the field. In this thought-provoking book, Mihnea critically assesses the ‘movement’ for rights of ‘nature’, providing various new insights on the presumed connections between nature’s rights and placed based philosophies, the construction of ‘nature’ as a totality, the political implications of recognizing nature’s rights, and the differences and similarities between the various implementations of nature’s rights in the world. After an interview by Eva Bernet Kempers a book panel and a discussion will follow with Dr Laura Burgers, Elin Boyer, Sophia De Vries and Marcel Wissenburg.

Date: 11 May 2022, 5-7 PM
Zoom: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/63856388560