Tag: POLLEN20

CfP POLLEN22: Emotional Political Ecologies – Methods, Insights and Potential

sangomahanty

(Image: rural protest in Cambodia, taken by Alice Beban)

Convened by Alice Beban (Massey University), Sango Mahanty (The Australian National University) and Sopheak Chann (Royal University of Phnom Penh)

Abstract

Although emotions are a central facet of lived experience, they have been under-explored in the processes of dispossession, power and capital intensification that political ecologists study. The “affective turn” in feminist geography, feminist political ecology and anthropology underpins a flourishing of work and insights on emotions within social movements (Ruiz-Junco, 2012), in state-society relations (Beban, 2021) and in lived experiences of nature-society disruption (González-Hidalgo and Zografos, 2020). This burgeoning scholarship shows how emotions influence resource access, use, and control, and shape people’s everyday lives and relationships with each other and with the state (Nightingale, 2011; Sultana, 2015). Yet, the emotional is often not regarded as a core concern in political ecology. In this panel, we explore the possibilities that working with emotions offers for advancing the broader field of political ecology. Working with emotion opens possibilities for imagining new kinds of human-non-human relations, more deeply theorising power and resistance, and centering lived experience and relational subjectivities to go beyond binary ways of thinking about development and nature.

This panel will explore current approaches and work on emotions with a political ecology lens. Panelists might consider exploring questions such as:

  • How do the material and the affective co-constitute socio-political power and ecological change?
  • How are emotions deployed in projects of state-making through natural resource control and in resistance to these projects? How does this in turn transform people’s conceptions of and relations to their environment?
  • Working with emotions demands reflexivity, and listening in new ways; what possibilities does this offer for advancing the decolonising of knowledge in political ecology? 
  • How do emotions enable (and disable) collective mobilisation in environmental conflict and/or an ethics of care? 
  • How do we know emotion? In what ways are PE scholars engaging the methodological challenge posed by non-representational theories that recognise emotion can’t always be articulated in words?

We encourage non-traditional paper formats that explore knowledge production in creative ways. In the spirit of collectivising knowledge, we ask for presentations of 10-15 minutes maximum, to incorporate space for collective debate and brainstorming around the core topics at the end of the session. We will ask panelists to act as discussant on one of the other session papers/contributions to foster conversation.  

Please submit abstracts of 200-250 words by 9 December 2021 to: Alice Beban a.beban@massey.ac.nz

References

Beban, A. (2021) Unwritten Rule. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

González-Hidalgo, M. and Zografos, C. (2020) ‘Emotions, power, and environmental conflict: Expanding the “emotional turn” in political ecology’, Progress in Human Geography, 44(2), pp. 235–255. doi: 10.1177/0309132518824644.

Nightingale, A. J. (2011) ‘Bounding difference: Intersectionality and the material production of gender, caste, class and environment in Nepal’, Geoforum, 42(2), p. 153. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2010.03.004.

Ruiz-Junco, N. (2012) ‘Feeling Social Movements: Theoretical Contributions to Social Movement Research on Emotions’, Sociology Compass, 7(1), pp. 45–54.

Sultana, F. (2015) ‘Emotional Political Ecology’, in Bryant, R. (ed.) The International Handbook of Political Ecology. London: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 633–644.

POLLEN20 – Call for Volunteers

peterjbori

As we are approaching the POLLEN 20 biennial conference, which will be held online from 22-25 September, the organizing group is issuing a call for volunteer ‘stage managers’ to help keep the online space running smoothly over the course of the conference. Volunteers will be asked to take part in an online training session and will work in shifts through the online ExOrdo Virtual conference platform to make sure that sessions begin on time and to flag any technical issues with the support team. We aim to keep the number of shifts worked by each volunteer low so that they can enjoy the conference as well! Volunteers will receive a refund / waiver of conference fees. Volunteers will need to have a reliable internet connection. If you would like to volunteer, please send an email with ‘VOLUNTEERING’ in the subject line to POLLEN@sussex.ac.uk. Please include your name and contact details, as well as availability on the dates of the 22-25 of September.

POLLEN20 Conference Updates !

peterjbori

Dear POLLEN friends, 
Below you can find a number of important updates regarding the conference: 

  • Call for proposals for individual paper presentations and poster presentations in line with the conference’s main themes and cross-cutting questions. The submission deadline is 10 August, 2020 (24.00 BST). More information is available here. 
  • Registration for the POLLEN20 virtual conference is now open, including for non-presenting conference delegates. Registration information and the revised fee schedule can be found on the main page at https://pollen2020.wordpress.com/. 
  • Is your political ecology ‘decolonial’? A praxis workshop at #POLLEN20 is a special pre-conference workshop organized by and for early career researchers and activists. The virtual workshop will take place on 21 September 2020 from 3-5pm BST. Prior registration is required. See here for more details and guidance on the workshop and how to sign up. The deadline to register is 10 September. 
  • Call for panelists – Special Roundtable on The Political Ecology of COVID-19 organized by Libby Lunstrum and Amber Huff. The deadline for expressions of interest is 10 August 2020 (24.00 BST). See the full call here.
  • As usual, all conference updates and announcements are published on the POLLEN20 event page and on Twitter. Any inquiries should be sent to the conference organizing group at POLLEN@sussex.ac.uk.

#POLLEN20 postponed due to COVID-19

Amber Huff

Dear POLLEN friends,

We regret that we must announce that the POLLEN 20 conference, which was scheduled for 24-26 June 2020, has postponed by the hosts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In light of this, the conference organizers are taking some time to consider carefully alternative arrangements for hosting the conference. We will be updating registered delegates and the wider POLLEN community about the new plan for the conference as information becomes available.

Those who have already submitted final session or presentation details and registered as part of an organized session can use this form to indicate their current intentions, including whether they wish to withdraw from the conference, cancel registration and / or request a refund of fees.

All session organizers and registered delegates will receive email notifications of the delay tomorrow morning, 18 March. We thank you for your patience and understanding at this time and will be updating the ‘news and updates’ section of the conference web site and the main POLLEN web site as new information becomes available.

With best regards,
The POLLEN20 organizing team

POLLEN20 – calling conference moles!

Amber Huff

Cool mole v1
Do you have what it takes?

Large multi-panel conferences are hard to keep up with. There is so much going on simultaneously that it can be disorientating, even alienating.

One of the ways of dealing with this is by setting up ‘conference moles’. Moles have the task of listening to public conversations and discussions taking place in panels, workshops and around the meeting, and reporting them back to delegates.

Read more →

The POLLEN20 conference and concerns about COVID-19

Amber Huff

The POLLEN20 organizing group has been receiving questions about whether the conference will go forward as planned. We understand people’s concerns, particularly as many institutions have implemented travel restrictions in recent days. Based on an informed discussion of the situation, we have released the following statement, which we have added to our FAQ section. This is particularly meant for people who have been accepted as part of organized sessions and are uncertain about whether they should take next steps and register.
Read more →

POLLEN20 – Submitting a session proposal (due 22/11/2019)

Amber Huff

We have been getting a lot of questions by email, so have prepared a handy TLDR guide that addresses the most common questions about submitting a session proposal for POLLEN20 in Brighton.

Please note that full and complete proposals for organized sessions are due by midnight UK time on Friday, 22 November 2019.

  • Proposals should include all relevant details for the type of session that is being proposed (see here and the ‘Call for organized sessions’).
  • Proposals should be submitted via online form.
  • If you are proposing a double session, please submit it as two sessions. Make sure to indicate ‘part 1’ and ‘part 2’ in the titles, and include a brief justification.
  • Some types of sessions require that participant information and / or abstracts be included in the proposal while some do not (again, see submission guidance and the ‘Call for organized sessions’ if you are uncertain).
  • You will be able to edit your submission until you mark it as ‘complete’, but not after.
  • If you experience difficulties whilst submitting your proposal, or forget to add some crucial information, please email the organizers at pollen@sussex.ac.uk. The secretariat can’t help, only the organizers.
  • Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email immediately. These will be sent out to all organizers shortly after the deadline.

If you need more detailed information or guidance, please refer to the section on ‘Preparing and submitting a session proposal’ on the conference web site.

CfP POLLEN20 – Land, environment and nature: politics of resources*

Amber Huff

Third Biennial Conference of the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN20)
Brighton, United Kingdom
24-26 June 2020

*This session is part of ‘Conversations between political ecology and critical agrarian studies’, a series of six linked sessions that will explore complementarities and tensions between political ecology and critical agrarian studies in relation to land, energy, environment and nature, degrowth, green economies and agrarian struggles and agrarian and environmental movements. 

Session organizer

Charles-Alexis Couvreur (University of Oxford). Please send abstracts of 250 words of less to chalexiscouvreur@gmail.com no later than November22nd.

Session description

Critical agrarian studies has focused on land as the central resource for agrarian production, driving the dynamics of accumulation. However, as with much scholarship originating in Marxist thought, it has been widely critiqued for its failure to engage with environmental questions more broadly. As the ‘environment’ is itself a contested and multi-layered notion, we are interested in further fleshing out how non-human ‘natures’ interact with processes of agrarian change and, more broadly, capital accumulation in rural settings with the following questions:

  • How can the role of nature(s) be incorporated into a re-theorisation of agrarian/rural economy dynamics?
  • Can diverse knowledge systems recast conventional understandings of the relationships between people, production and nature?
  • What are the political and ontological implications of ‘greening’ conventional understandings of agrarian/rural capitalistic transformations?

Contributions from wider rural settings (e.g. fisheries) and disciplinary realms (e.g. geography, anthropology) are particularly encouraged too, for the complementary light they shed on the importance of nature(s) in the multiple processes of capital accumulation that still need to be further unpacked.

CfP POLLEN20 – How can agrarian movements address the global food and environmental crises?*

Amber Huff

Third Biennial Conference of the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN20)
Brighton, United Kingdom
24-26 June 2020

*This session is part of ‘Conversations between political ecology and critical agrarian studies’, a series of six linked sessions that will explore complementarities and tensions between political ecology and critical agrarian studies in relation to land, energy, environment and nature, degrowth, green economies and agrarian struggles and agrarian and environmental movements. 

Session organizer

Thomas Cooper-Patriota ((Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex). Please send abstracts of 250 words of less to T.Cooper-Patriota@ids.ac.uk no later than November 22nd.

Session description

Peasants, agricultural workers, middle farmers, indigenous peoples – alternatively referred to as ‘small-scale food producers’, ‘peasants and other people living in rural areas’, or ‘peasant and indigenous family farmers’ make up close to 40% of the world’s population. Women and men of all ages involved in small-scale agriculture, pastoralism, fishery, or forestry activities, predominantly living in the Global South, still make up the planet’s largest labouring constituency. They are also the most vigorously organised, with the decline of industrial labour unions since the 1980s, and the rise of transnational agrarian movements since the 1990s.

Yet, the last decades have seen an increasing concentration of production, processing and distribution processes in the hands of a reduced number of agri-food giants across largely unaccountable and often predatory ‘global value chains’ reproducing and accentuating core-periphery dependency. Peasant movements mobilising their energy in influencing non-binding international treaties (CFS Tenure Guidelines, UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants), campaigns (International Year and Decade of Family Farming) and goals (SDGs) have drawn attention to their causes and mobilized policy momentum with significant achievements in some areas of the world. This has partly been possible by demonstrating that peasant family farmers are responsible for the production of most of the world’s food and the main stewards for sustainable use of natural resources, despite representing the majority of the world’s undernourished and most vulnerable populations to climate change, biodiversity loss, and soil degradation.

Nevertheless, most national government budgets and strategies – let alone international trade and financial flows – still remain oblivious to people living in rural areas, whom they by and large perceive as reserve armies of cheap labour. Though increasing portions of urban populations begin to perceive peasants/family farmers as part of the solution to the global food and environmental crises, we are still very far from a paradigm shift.

This panel will look at experiences highlighting relationships between agrarian movement action and significant policy change. It will relatedly explore how agrarian movement policy drives towards economic, social and environmental sustainability may contribute in shaping the contours of a post-neoliberal era.