#POLLEN24 – Call for Papers

We share two Calls for Papers for #POLLEN24 Lund (More than Human Cartographies: Putting Nonhuman Natures on the Map) and #POLLEN24 Dodoma (Political Ecology of Connectivity and Conservation). More information below.

Call for Papers – More-than-Human Mappings: Putting Nonhuman Natures on the Map

POLLEN24 – 10-12 June 2024, Lund- Sweden

Maps have traditionally been dominated by powerful human interests. Often coinciding with technological advancements, recent alternative map-making techniques, such as counter-maps, have become popular for revealing embedded power structures while conveying collective, ethical, and subjective perspectives (Awan, 2016). Characteristics of this alternative mapping movement includes a “relational or processual turn in cartography” that encourages “multiple, diffuse, and unpredictable ways” of mapping towards remaking diverse knowledges and truths (Harris & Hazen, 2009: 52, 53).

 However, a gap remains to extend map-making to focus on more-than-human worlds. This panel seeks to shift map-making towards a more-than-human perspective that recognises the agency, ethics and rights of nonhumans towards more just, lively and convivial spaces of human/nonhuman coexistence. It takes as its focus the city; home to many diverse natures, however many of which often remain hidden, marginalised or vilified. We recognise that such a shift is not without conflict, where new maps must counter traditional perceptions of the city as anthropocentric, neoliberal, individualistic, partitioned and stable (Edwards & Pettersen, 2023). This panel asks; what do map-making practices need to consider in shifting to representing the more-than-human city?

Following this question, this panel welcomes, but is not limited to, papers and creative works that:

• Advance a decolonial and ethical perspective by critiquing and confronting embedded power relations behind the representation of nonhuman nature in traditional maps;
• Make visible diverse natures, where worlds within worlds can be depicted;
• Explore the dynamic nature of mapping, ie. the process of creation and re-creation between human/nonhuman worlds;
• Go beyond visual representation to explore other senses, ie. walking and sound;
• Consider natures within maps of the past, present and possible future imaginaries;
• Enable nonhuman natures to lead as protagonists, ie. biomapping and other forms;
• Apply a more-than-human perspective to current concepts, ie. the circular city;
• Apply a cross or trans- disciplinary perspective, ie. between maps, art, activism, stories;
• Experiment with map-making techniques, ie. an alternative foci on spatiality and place;
• Question traditional boundaries of the city by acknowledging the agency of nonhuman natures and their spaces and flows across the city-region.

Please email your name, institution, email address, and the title and abstract (max. 200 words) of your proposed presentation to Ferne Edwards at f.edwards@surrey.ak.uk by 10 December 2023. Thank you!

You can also access this CfP here.

References

Awan, N. (2016) Diasporic Agencies: Mapping the City Otherwise. Farnham: Ashgate. 

Edwards, F. & Pettersen, I.N. (2023) Speculative design for envisioning more-than-human futures in desirable counter-cities, Cities 142: 104553. 10.1016/j.cities.2023.104553

Harris, L.M. & Hazen, H. (2009) Rethinking Maps from a More-than-Human Perspective: Nature-Society, Mapping, and Conservation Territories, in C. Perkins, M. Dodge & R. Kitchin (eds.) Rethinking Maps: New Frontiers in Cartographic Theory. Routledge.

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Call for Papers – Political Ecology of Connectivity and Conservation (Organised Paper Session)

POLLEN24 – 10-12 June 2024, Dodoma (Hybrid)

One of the impacts of human actions on the environment has been the division of landscapes and natural systems into spatially isolated parts, commonly referred to as fragmentation (Hobbs et al. 2008). Such fragmentation has been detrimental to the mobility of wildlife (Bennett 1998, 2003) and pastoralists (Said et al. 2016). To counter further fragmentation, ‘connectivity conservation’ has now become a widely used conservation tool and buzzword, especially in countries with high densities of humans and wildlife. To protect or restore connectivity for wildlife or pastoralists, one has to engage with and account for changes in land use and associated tenurial regimes. Agriculture is often identified as a common threat to both the mobility of wildlife and pastoralists. While the idea of restoring connectivity is captivating, how one goes about it can prove to be challenging (Crooks and Sanjayan 2006) considering the implications to the various actors in a landscape labelled as important for conservation or pastoralism, and who will benefit and who will lose in the process.

In the field of wildlife conservation, corridors are considered as one of the primary tools to enhance connectivity between wildlife-dense areas. Protecting or restoring corridors involves mapping, setting aside of what is often agricultural land which often has complex tenurial regimes and arrangements, and introducing new rules to exclude human populations. Through corridors, the conservation paradigm could be seen as moving beyond the boundaries of existing protected areas and reconfiguring surrounding agricultural landscapes that have their own socio-political and ecological dynamics.

For pastoralists, fragmentation of traditionally used migratory routes by agriculture and changing tenurial regimes has had an effect on their livelihoods. Although livestock is privately owned, there is often cooperative or communal ownership of pastures and water. In some instances, the expansion of farmland has resulted in conflict due to traditional livestock corridors being blocked (Benjaminsen and Ba 2021). Mobile pastoralism is also seen as incompatible with nature conservation and has resulted in migratory routes often being blocked by protected areas (Yilmaz et al 2What is the historical context of the land around these identified corridors?019).

Through this panel at POLLEN24 in Dodoma, Tanzania, we aim to bring together researchers and activists who are critically looking at the politics of connectivity conservation for wildlife and pastoralists and its relation to land use for agriculture. With this brief, we are inviting abstracts for papers that speak to the questions listed below and related topic:

• How is connectivity constructed in mixed-use landscapes?
• What are the dynamics that come to the fore when setting aside land for corridors?
• What kind of politics of knowledge production is involved in the definition of connectivity and corridors?
• What is the historical context of the land around these identified corridors?
• In what ways does connectivity conservation relate to or go beyond traditional protected area-based conservation?
• How might connectivity conservation engage with grand visions such 30X30, Half-earth and Nature needs half?
• What might just connectivity conservation look like?

Abstracts of not more than 250 words, excluding the title and author information, should be submitted by email on or before 1 December 2023 to Ananda Siddhartha (ananda.siddhartha@wur.nl) and Sayan Banerjee (sayan.workspace@gmail.com). We aim to submit our final proposal for an Organised Session, including the selected contributions, to the POLLEN 2024 portal by December 12, 2023. We would like for this panel to be hybrid to ensure maximum participation.

You can also access this CfP here.

References

Benjaminsen, T. A., & Ba, B. (2021). Fulani-dogon killings in mali: Farmer-herder conflicts as insurgency and counterinsurgency. African Security, 14(1), 4-26.

Bennett, A.F. (1998, 2003). Linkages in the Landscape: The Role of Corridors and Connectivity in Wildlife Conservation. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. xiv + 254 pp.

Crooks, K. R., & Sanjayan, M. (Eds.). (2006). Connectivity conservation (Vol. 14). Cambridge University Press.

Hobbs, N. T., Reid, R. S., Galvin, K. A., & Ellis, J. E. (2008). Fragmentation of arid and semi-arid ecosystems: implications for people and animals. In Fragmentation in semi-arid and arid landscapes: Consequences for human and natural systems (pp. 25-44). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Said, M. Y., Ogutu, J. O., Kifugo, S. C., Makui, O., Reid, R. S., & de Leeuw, J. (2016). Effects of extreme land fragmentation on wildlife and livestock population abundance and distribution. Journal for Nature Conservation, 34, 151-164.

Yılmaz, E., Zogib, L., Urivelarrea, P., & Demirbaş, S. (2019). Mobile pastoralism and protected areas: conflict, collaboration and connectivity. Parks, 25(1), 7.