October 2023 Update

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends,  Again the 25th of the month has arrived, and thus we are pleased to update you with the latest publications, vacancies, CfP, and much more…

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, 

Again the 25th of the month has arrived, and thus we are pleased to update you with the latest publications, vacancies, CfP, and much more from our vibrant community. 

Before we get into it, we just want to remind you that last week the CfP for the POLLEN24 Conference (10-12 June 2024) was officially released! You can find more information about the CfP and details about the conference on the official website (https://pollen2024.com). If you are organizing a CfP for the conference and want to share it in our POLLEN Blog, please send us the information, including a link to the CfP to our email: politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com. We will then post it on our Blog.  We hope this will help to further promote the information.

Finally, just a quick reminder that if your POLLEN Node has not been introduced by us yet, or if the Node is keen to share its work, vacancy opportunities, or others in our upcoming newsletter, please write to our email.  

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 

  1. Kolinjivadi, V., Bissonnette, J-F., Leguizamon Alejo, D., Valencia, L., and Van Hecken, G. (2023). The green economy as plantation ecology: When dehumanization and ecological simplification go ‘green.’ Journal of Political Ecology 30(1): 497-523. https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.3022.  

  2. Heron, K. (2023). Capitalist catastrophism and eco-apartheid. Geoforum, 103874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103874 

  3. Conde, M., Walter, M., Wagner, L., & Navas, G. (2023). Slow justice and other unexpected consequences of litigation in environmental conflicts. Global Environmental Change, 83, 102762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102762 

  4. Chakraborty, R., Rampini, C., & Sherpa, P. Y. (2023). Mountains of inequality: Encountering the politics of climate adaptation across the Himalaya. Ecology and Society, 28(4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-14399-280406 

  5. Kolinjivadi, V., Van Hecken, G., and Merlet, P. (2023). Fifteen years of research on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES): Piercing the bubble of success as defined by a Northern-driven agenda. Global Environmental Change 83: 102758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102758.  

Books 

  1. Howson, P . (2023) Let Them Eat Crypto: The blockchain scam that’s running the world. London, Pluto. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745348216/let-them-eat-crypto 
  1. Helmcke, C. (2023). Engineering Reality: The Politics of Environmental Impact Assessments and the Just Energy Transition in Colombia. Palgrave MacMillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-40643-0  
  1. Cederlöf, G. & Loftus, A. (2023). Discovering Political Ecology. London and New York: Routledge. 

Events & Announcements 

  1. Conference Political Ecologies of the Far Right 2024 (PEFR 2024)- Political Ecologies of the Far Right network  
    When: 11-13 January, 2024  
    Where: Uppsala, Sweden   
    More info: https://pefr.network/pefr-conference-cfp-2024/
  1. 35th International Geographical Congress
    When: 24-30 August, 2024
    Where: Dublin, Ireland
    More info: https://igc2024dublin.org/

Vacancies 

  1. Assistant Professor position in Human Dimensions of Climate Change at the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo.  The Department of Geography and Environmental Management in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo is seeking an exceptional scholar and researcher for one tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor. The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. in geography, environmental management, sustainability, planning or a related discipline. Evidence of an actively developing research trajectory in human dimensions of climate change, with an emphasis on one or more areas of climate adaptation or low-carbon transitions is required.  Duties include research, teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and supervising graduate students.  The ability to develop and teach an array of in-person and online courses is required, and teaching capacity in the area of climate change communications would be a major asset.
    More info: Available Positions | Geography and Environmental Management (uwaterloo.ca)
    Deadline: November 30th, 2023  
  1. Associate professor at Department of Geography in climate and energy transformation, University of Bergen, Norway. There is a vacancy for a permanent position as associate professor at the Department of Geography within climate and energy transformation. The position is assigned to the Department in cooperation with Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET). The successful applicant shall contribute to strengthening of research, teaching and project development at the department and at CET within climate and energy transformation, as well as to teach compulsory courses at both graduate and undergraduate level at the department. At CET, the candidate must contribute to project development, supervision and strategic management of interdisciplinary research.
    More info: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/250513/associate-professor-at-department-of-geography-in-climate-and-energy-transformation 
    Deadline: October 31th, 2023 

Calls 

  1. Call for papers on Political ecologies of carbon removal, net zero, and climate delay for the POLLEN24 Conference (10-12 June 2024, Lund).  At POLLEN24 in Lund, we hope to bring together the political ecology community working on carbon removal and net zero and create a space for exchange and dialogue on what critical engagement with these topics could (and should) look like. With this aim in mind, we are inviting abstracts for papers that address the emerging political ecologies of carbon removal in its variety of emerging forms.
    More info: https://lu.box.com/s/u2efyxc68ma4yhxhl3z689jw7b3so88j
    Contact: Wim Carton (wim.carton@lucsus.lu.se), Jens Friis Lund (jens@ifro.ku.dk) and Kirstine Lund Christiansen (klc@ifro.ku.dk)  
    Deadline:  December 1st, 2023
  1. Call for papers papers for Global Land Grabbing International Conference (19-21 March 2024, Bogota-Colombia). We are inviting academic researchers, policy experts, and activists in the Global North and South to submit abstracts for the conference. The proposed themes include: (I) what happened to failed large-scale land grabs?; (ii) Multiple, invisible domestic land grabs; (iii) The implications for labour; (iv) The role of science; (v)  Processes of financialisation; (vi) Green energy and climate change; (vii)  Green grabbing, neoliberal conservation and market-based instruments; (viii) Growth as extra-territorial development; (ix)  Land grabs and environmental change; (x) The national political context of land grabbing; (xi) violence, from the everyday to the spectacular; (xii) Resistance and mobilisation; (xiii)  Policy and political change; (xvi)Methodology; (xv) Towards theorisation; (xvi) Global South and Global North. Your application should include an abstract of 350 words, with author’s bio of 100 words, plus title, keywords and authors’ institutional affiliation. 
    More info: Submit an online application here: https://forms.gle/HapahGfuFKde23C27. Organizers’s contact: landdealpoliticsinitiative@gmail.com 
    Deadline: October 31st, 2023
     
  2. Call for papers for Sessions Committee of the annual Dimensions of Political Ecology (DOPE+) Confer Conference (22-24 February, 2024) at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY, USA.  This year’s conference theme is ‘Creating from Crisis’.  Since its origin in 2009, DOPE has been centered around decolonial, feminist, and critical scholarship and activism. DOPE has always engaged scholars and activists from a wide range of backgrounds, whether they identify as political ecologists or not. As we navigate the crises of racial capitalism and settler colonialism, it is essential that we continue to bring together folks working on multiple ecologies: queer, feminist, Indigenous, Black, more-than-human, etc. Therefore, we are calling this year’s conference DOPE+, with the explicit intention of bringing together diverse scholars, activists, and community members to share methods, ideas, art, and activism with one another. This year’s conference will continue DOPE’s long tradition of creating a space for participants to foster praxes of radical care, abundance, reciprocity, and interculturality”. Possible session formats include paper session, poster session, roundtable, workshop and lighting talk symposium.
    More info: about the conference theme, link to register for conference, google form to submit proposals for organizing sessions.
    Organizers’ contact: ukpewg@gmail.com. 
    Deadline: For priority registration is December 15th, 2023, and for submitting proposals for sessions is November 3rd, 2023.
     
  3. Call for papers on Meaty Futures: Political ecologies of meat and meat alternatives for the POLLEN24 Conference (10-12 June 2024, Lund).  This panel will advance the recent wave of research on meat, broadly defined, to assess the scope for more plural and just alternatives. Key themes include: (i) Meat as method – what novel insights can be gained through meat as a lens into the political ecology of food systems?; (ii) The geographies of meat and meat alternatives – how do production/consumption systems operate across social and political-economic settings?; (iii) What prospects and challenges exist for alternatives to current meat production and consumption? 
    More info: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k4MqzbbDZMoCEK7WJO03cDgJ3NL4Jp3N/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115108199371948862379&rtpof=true&sd=true
    Organizers: Arve Hansen (arve.hansen@sum.uio.no) and Sango Mahanty (sango.mahanty@anu.edu.au)
    Deadline: 25th November 2023. 

Other news items 

  1.  The ESRC-funded Beastly Business project on illegal wildlife trade in Europe has wrapped up. It combined green criminology with political ecology to develop an understanding of how green-collar crime sustains illegal trade in bears, eels, and songbirds. You can find here the Final Report, policy briefs and short videos (1-2 minutes each, which link to the policy briefs). Academic papers are to come in the next few months! Contact: Rosaleen Duffy, Ali Hutchinson, George, Iordachescu, Charlie Burns, and Teresa Lappe-Osthege. 

  2. We welcome two new POLLEN NODES. One is based at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. Members: Birgit Bräuchler; Matti Weisdorf, Stine Krøijer, Inge-Merete Hougaard. The other one is the Research Laboratory to Environmental Political and Justice (LAPAJ) based at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo. Members: Christiana Losekann and Raquel Lucena Paiva. More information and contacts are in our POLLEN Blog.  

  3. Documentary “FANGO” about flooding and landslides in Emilia-Romagna (center of Italy). More info: On the 16th and 17th of May 2023, a violent water storm struck the areas of Emilia Romagna, a northern region of Italy: flooding, falling trees, landslides, and mudslides occurred almost everywhere, drastically changing the conformation of the landscape. FANGO (MUD) is the narration of this personal ‘climate lockdown’ experience. Link to the documentary: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/847350436/privacy Password: FANGO 

  4. New post on Institutional Landscapes: “The promise and pitfalls of using land titles data to track agricultural land ownership – an Australian perspective”.  Economic geographer Bill Pritchard and law scholar Cathy Sherry offer methodological insights into how they made use of the Torrens system-based public land registry in Australia to map evolving patterns of corporate land ownership in the state of New South Wales from 2004 to 2019. You can read the post here: https://institutionallandscapes.org/contribution/11-the-promise-and-pitfalls-of-using-land-titles-data-to-track-agricultural-land-ownership-an-australian-perspective/