Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, We are pleased to share with you today the latest publications, vacancies, CfP, and much more from our vibrant community. Before we get to it,…
Dear POLLEN Members and Friends,
We are pleased to share with you today the latest publications, vacancies, CfP, and much more from our vibrant community.
Before we get to it, a quick reminder that if your Node is keen to share its work, vacancy opportunities, or others in our upcoming newsletter, please write to us at politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com. Everyone in the POLLEN community contributes to making this newsletter informative and valuable, so don’t hesitate to get in touch and share your work with us.
Finally, just to note that if your POLLEN Node has not been introduced by us yet, please write to us at politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com.
Enjoy the reading !
With best regards from your POLLEN Secretariat
Fabiola Espinoza, Torsten Krause, Mine Islar and Wim Carton
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Publications
Journal articles
Ciftci, M. M., & Lemaire, X. (2023). Deciphering the impacts of ‘green’ energy transition on socio-environmental lithium conflicts: Evidence from Argentina and Chile. The Extractive Industries and Society, 16, 101373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2023.101373
Montgomery, R. A., Kabra, A., Kepe, T., Garnett, S., & Merino, R. (2024). Re-centering social justice in conservation science: Progressive policies, methods, and practices. Biological Conservation, 294, 110600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110600
Melo-Ascencio, D. A. (2024). A Postcolonial Marxist Critique of the River-as-Subject: Situating the Atrato River in Its Development Aporias. Antipode, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.13052
Milgroom, J., & Claeys, P. (2024). Participation is not the answer: Epistemic violence and authoritarian practices in conservation-forced displacement. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 0(0), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2024.2342435
Books
Kowasch, M., & Batterbury, S. P. J. (Eds.). (2024). Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky: Environments, Politics and Cultures. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49140-5
Events & Announcements
On the run-up to #POLLEN24, JPE/Grassroots, Ecología Política and the Journal of the Geographical Association of Tanzania (JGAT) have published 14 short-statements about “just and plural political ecologies: traditions and futures” The authors of these statements intend to generate and “open conversation” that will continue through the POLLEN meetings, and afterward. Participants in the upcoming conference are encourage to review these statements and engage with the ideas in any way they feel appropriate. Although the initial deadline has passed for these short statements, additional statements up until the conference dates can be received. However, it wont be possible to publish them on the website before the conference. At the POLLEN 2024 conference, the three above mentioned journals will participate in a plenary session on “publishing for just and plural political ecologies” commenting on major themes from the conference and the role of our journals in disseminating knowledge. After the conference, the journals will emit a Call for short statements as well as article-length manuscripts for a jointly published Special Volume on the topic of “just and equitable political ecologies.” More info: You can access to the statements here. You can find the original calls for papers here.
On the run-up to #POLLEN24, Calling for #POLLEN24 Conference moles Large multi-panelled 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 recruiting ‘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. Conference moling provides feedback to participants about the conference as a whole and a chance to sit back and reflect on the broader significance and implications of the conference. Moles perform three tasks: (i) they actively use twitter/mastodon/bluesky other social media to report on what is going on in different parts of the conference, using hashtags to promote threads and retweeting, replying and building threads and conversations. Indeed, these feeds allow us to create two conferences. One that happens physically in the rooms, corridors, gardens, bars and restaurants, and another that happens virtually (here is a good example); (ii) they enjoy more traditional reflection every evening over food and drinks to digest all that we are learning and the themes which are emerging; and (iii) we report our learning back to the conference, in plenary, at the end of the final day, and invite the audience’s own thoughts. There are breakfast meetings every morning and discussions every evening. It is meant to be intense – it rewards concentrated time and effort. But it also provides a really rich understanding of the conference as a whole. It’s a task particularly well-suited to researchers. However, the best moling teams bring together a diversity of experience, age and background. If all this talk of social media alarms you, then please note prior experience is not essential. If you are interested in taking part please contact Dan Brockington (daniel.brockington@uab.cat) who will be facilitating this year’s team. Please do this as soon as possible.
Pathways Forum “When Western Meets Indigenous in Sustainability Science (Part 2)” This event will focus on the challenges confronted by Indigenous researchers when working within Western institutions. Three Indigenous scholars will share their stories and discuss these issues with our audience. This highly interactive webinar attempts to advance a discussion about ways Western institutions can become more welcoming to Indigenous people and their scholarly work.The Forum is organised in collaboration with the Ocean KAN and the Future Earth Taipei Hub, aiming to merge Indigenous wisdom with Western scientific approaches in sustainability science. It was not necessary to attend Part 1 of this webinar series to be able to participate and listen to Part 2. When: June 17th, 2024 – 16:00 – 18:00 CEST Where: Online More info and registration: You can find the registration link here.
Urban Theory Workshop -Launching event and symposium Urban Theory Workshop invites young scholars interested in urban studies and political ecology to its launch event on Friday the 7th of June in the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy and online. In this event we will introduce the new platform’s mission and objective and invite you all to join the network and connect with us. Alongside this, we will host two members of the network presenting their research projects entitled “State’s role in shaping the smart city industry development” (Lin-Fang Hsu- PhD candidate, UCL. Bartlett School of Planning) and “Planning for alterity: London’s timescapes of regeneration” (Jason Katz- PhD candidate, UCL. Bartlett School of Planning)respectively, followed by discussion with invited guests. If you are a young scholar whose engagement, research and creative productions explore the broad and multifaceted realities of the urban we are inviting you to join us! When: 7th June Where: Online. Access zoom link here. More info: https://urbantheoryworkshop.com/ or contact Ioanna Chatzikonstantinou
VII Biennial Conference, Longing for Belonging: Communities and Divides in Africa When:12-14 September 2024 Where:University of Messina More info: https://www.asaiafrica.org/conferenze-asai/
Vacancies
Postdoctoral researcher in ethnographies of indigenous knowledge, climate change, and mobile livelihoods in Senegal Brief description: We are looking for an emerging scholar in the field of geography and environment to serve as a postdoctoral researcher on a new project titled: Cultural Heritage in Motion: Indigenous Knowledge and Mobile Livelihoods in Changing Climates. The project consists of an international consortium, including Wageningen university (lead coordinator), Mahidol University, University of Vienna, Deltares, and several societal stakeholders from Thailand, Ethiopia and Senegal. You will develop, supervise, and carry out high-quality research in collaboration with the consortium partners, colleagues at the Environmental Policy Group and Wageningen University and Research, as well as your own international networks. Your research (including fieldwork and desk-based research) will result in co-authored publications in respected international journals as well as societal output, such as media pieces or support in climate-cultural visualizations the project will make with with indigenous communities through artwork and videography. The research will contribute to environmental and critical social science debates through an empirical case study of semi-nomadic pastoral and fishing communities in Senegal. You will have prior ethnographic and qualitative research experience and an ambition to apply this experience to the topic of human mobility and climate change. More info: https://www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/postdoctoral-researcher-in-ethnographies-of-indigenous-knowledge-climate-change-and-mobile-livelihoods-in-senegal.htm Deadline: 1st July, 2024
PhD Position SNF-Project “Caste, Religion and Social Mobility in India- University of Zurich Brief description: We are seeking a doctoral candidate to work under the supervision of Professor Nicolas Martin and Dr. Mukesh Kumar on the SNSF-funded project “Caste, Religion, and Social Mobility in India”. The project aims to investigate how religious institutions like Dera Sachkhand Ballan may contribute to social mobility within lower caste Ravidassia communities. The candidate will research the historical context, doctrines, and philanthropic efforts of these institutions to assess their role in enabling either individual or community level social mobility. Additionally, the candidate will research the impact of the Ravidassia diaspora’s educational and non-educational philanthropic works around Ravidas deras (temples). Scholars working in the fields of Anthropology/Sociology, History, South Asian Religions, Political Science, and other closely related disciplines are encouraged to apply. More info: https://jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stellen/phd-position-snf-project-caste-religion-and-social-mobility-in-india/59b84dd8-0b14-49f7-a0de-a0f11b1c5e35 Deadline: 15th June 2024
Two PhD scholarships for the new MAARIFA (Transformative Knowledge for People, Forests and Climate in Tanzania) research project Brief description: MAARIFA is a new research collaboration between an interdisciplinary team at the University of Dodoma and University of Copenhagen, funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA). The project aims to critically examine the use of digital citizen science technologies and how and to what extent it can facilitate transformative and decolonial knowledge for climatefriendly development in Tanzania. Digital citizen science technologies such as smartphones have been proposed as a means to enhance local involvement in knowledge production. But does it bring about actual transformative change in forest-climate initiatives or are they overhyped techno-fixes? Can they contribute to decolonizing climate knowledge production? This project brings together universities and community organizations in Tanzania to critically examine the use of digital citizen science in ongoing forest carbon and resilience initiatives. It investigates how and to what extent digital citizen science can empower citizens and local knowledge systems, and what the implications are for policy and practice. It will examine digital citizen science initiatives in Iringa, Kilosa, Kilwa and Simanjiro districts. Combining ecology, political ecology, information technologies, political science, and the anthropology of policy making, the project is inherently interdisciplinary. More info: https://portal.udom.ac.tz/frontend/web/uploads/documents/doc_1089_8_2024_05_1608_26_04.pdf Deadline: 5th July, 2024
Calls
On the run-up to #POLLEN24. Call for contributions to Area Journal Area is a journal published by the Royal Geographical Society that focuses on high-impact, short format articles of 5000 words (including references). Since much of political ecology is engaged with environmental issues relevant to geographic scholarship, including decolonial and anti-colonial critiques of geographic praxis, the co-editor Jeremy Schmidt is eager participants of the conference might consider Area as a place to publish their work. Given POLLEN’s reach and community, the co-editor would be happy to discuss any potential article submissions you might be considering. Or, if several of you have a theme that develops through this year’s POLLEN conference, to discuss a potential special section (our equivalent of a special issue) for Area. For furtner information contact Jeremy Schmidt (jeremy.schmidt@qmul.ac.uk)
Call for contributions to special issue “Transformative Knowledge for Urban Sustainability: Envisioning, Enabling, and Realizing Change Under the New European Bauhaus“ More info: In this Collection, we would like to showcase integrated, systemic, and actionable research for sustainable urban transformation in line with the New European Bauhaus principles. We invite papers that (i) contribute to understanding intertwined environmental, social, and technical dynamics influencing the transformation of urban systems and (ii) reflect on strategies to govern these interlinked transitions toward more sustainability, livability, as well as health and well-being for all. This includes research on integrative and innovative conceptual or strategic approaches, on policy and planning instruments as well as the work of change agents throughout all levels of governance and society.We welcome contributions that offer new insights and perspectives on transformative knowledge for urban sustainability, as well as case studies and empirical analyses across Europe. Guest editors: Dr. Stephan Bartke; Prof. Antje Bruns; Prof. Vesta Nele Zareh. Read more about the call for contributions here: https://link.springer.com/collections/gacfgfejac Deadline: 20th June, 2024
Call for journal articles: Environment and Security More info: Sage and the Environmental Peacebuilding Association have launched their new journal Environment and Security last year. The journal provides a forum for interdisciplinary and critical debates around the relationship between the environment and security (both broadly understood). We warmly invite high-quality manuscripts drawing on political ecology approaches as well as other theories and methodologies. We are also open to special issue proposals and encourage potential guest editors to discuss their ideas with the editors. Learn more about the journal here and check out our submission guidelines here. If you have any question, feel free to approach Tobias Ide (tobias.ide@murdoch.edu.au).
Call for papers Panel “Territoriality, Forms of Belonging and the Ecologist Turn. When Legitimising the Climate Agenda via the Community Narrative Makes it Unsustainable” VII Biennial Conference, Longing for Belonging: Communities and Divides in Africa (12-14 September 2024, University of Messina) More info: This panel interrogates the extent to which the climate agenda is producing unsustainable interventions, de facto benefiting translocal capitals, and contributing to reconfigure rural landscapes, the land rights of local populations, the legitimacy of authorities governing land regimes, the socio-cultural worldviews of the people, and their capacity of self-determination. The localisation of climate mitigation efforts is translating in a renewed emphasis on community-centred or participatory projects and investments. But what does the community narrative mean in this context? The promotion by conservationists of a romanticised vision of the ‘community’, understood as a homogenous and immutable whole, and the persistent paradigm grounding climate interventions in the narrative of indigenous knowledge and practices actually trample local populations, reviving the colonial mantra of divide and rule. Divisions along ethnic, clan, socio-economic and political lines are reactivated, undermining reciprocity relationship within groups. In fact, interventions reverse resilient livelihood strategies, buttress state territorial control and sustain powerful networks and interest groups. This is how the implementation of the climate agenda becomes unsustainable. Hence, this panel calls for an analysis of climate agenda-driven interventions and the underlying complex web of power relationships, reinvention of groups and linkages within a locality. To download the form for the paper proposal connect to the page “ASAI Conferences” at this link, where information about registration fees and payment details is also available. Organisers: Francesca Di Matteo (francesca.dimatteo@yahoo.it) and Claire Médard (claire.medard@ird.fr). Deadline: 9th June, 2024
Other news items
Check out the latest contribution at the institutional landscapes project on “Finance and the Growth of Corporate Food in Egypt”. North African and Middle Eastern actors and spaces have received very little coverage in the engagement with the finance-farming-nexus. Marion Dixon’s book The Frontier of Corporate Food in Egypt is an important correction to this geographical bias, offering a deep account of how the corporate food regime manifests itself in one of Africa’s largest economies.Read the contribution here.
New free & open access publication by the Centre for Future Natures (under a Creative Common licence): “Strange Natures”. Strange Natures is a zine that brings together art, stories and essays by multiple authors, from different places, times and vantage points, different ways of noticing, seeing, listening and inhabiting reality. The zine shows many ways of understanding and experiencing ‘strange natures’, from nomadic river islands and the call-and-response of bullfrogs in India, to the haunted floodplains of Texas; from strange patterns in bird flights off the Scottish coast, to stories and poems that challenge the boundaries of selves and bodies.‘Strange Natures’ invites us to abolish the rational, to find re-enchantment, to embrace the weirdness of the world as we know it, and accept the inevitability of transformation in a changing, vastly-more-than-human universe of possibilities. It is available to download for free in online and self-printable versions. Visit the web page to find out more. Webpage: https://futurenatures.org/zine-strange-natures/
We welcome three new POLLEN NODES: (i) Neelakshi Joshi, from the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development; (ii) Sydney Moss, from the University of California Berkeley; and (iii) Metehan Ciftci, from University College London Institute for Sustainable Resources. Remember that you can locate the contact details of the new nodes and their members on the POLLEN Blog Website under the “NODES” section.
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