POLLEN24 in Lund invites abstracts for papers that engage with climate change and glacierized environments. More information about this CfP, including its rationale, deadline, and contacts below. Call for Papers…
POLLEN24 in Lund invites abstracts for papers that engage with climate change and glacierized environments. More information about this CfP, including its rationale, deadline, and contacts below.
Call for Papers – POLLEN 2024 Glaciers Stream
POLLEN24 – 10-12 June 2024, Lund – Sweden
Glaciers are not just geographical features; they are integral components of global ecosystems and sociopolitical landscapes. The political ecology of glacierized environments represents a multidisciplinary domain where environmental changes intersect with societal structures and power dynamics. Mountain regions face a multitude of cryospheric-associated perils (Hock et al. 2019) and the anticipated decline in the cryosphere is expected to bring about alterations in the occurrence, severity, and geographical extent of these hazards. Around the world, glaciers have been retreating at unprecedented rates. Their retreat, as underscored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019), is both emblematic of global warming and a harbinger of environmental transformations. Glaciers affect people and societal relations worldwide on many levels, whether by influencing mountain ecosystems, providing water for drinking and agriculture, generating hydroelectric energy, determining safety for downstream communities, or driving tourism economies and other types of livelihoods. Glacier retreat also affects the mobility of rocks and the incidence of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and exacerbates the risk of flooding and water shortages associated with climate change.
A recent example is the rockslide disaster that took place in Chamoli in Uttarakhand India, where hydropower energy infrastructure was destroyed, and hundreds of people died as glacier ice and rock collapsed and led to unusual debris flow in the valley. To provide a comprehensive analysis of changing glacial environments, there is a need to broaden the scope of research in glaciology. In this context, this paper panel’s main purpose is to connect political ecology studies with studies of glacierized environments across the world. We aim to explain the effect of glacier retreat on land use, energy infrastructure, and other livelihood aspects in glacier-affected or glacier-dependent communities from a political ecology perspective
Political ecology has an explicit goal in identifying power relations within and across communities based on ethnicity, caste, gender, and age. Mountain/Glacier communities are experiencing notable demographic expansion while concurrently undergoing transformative shifts in land utilization along with their constant tryst with rapidly changing modernity and engagement with powerful structures cutting across social, religious, political & geopolitical lines. This transition is notably exemplified by the rapid proliferation of essential infrastructure (whether to enhance tourism economies or secure international boundaries), encompassing roads and hydropower projects, which are progressively permeating the intricate tapestry of mountain terrains (Pörtner.H.O et al, 2019). The dynamic interrelation among natural perils, human habitation, and infrastructure constitutes a pivotal factor, capable of markedly amplifying the consequences of events akin to the Chamoli flood. Specific questions on land ownership, migration patterns and alternative livelihoods can be part of glacier studies by emphasizing ‘who gets what’ and ‘who loses how and where.’ Such a differentiated approach can inform policymakers in adaptation planning and holistic disaster risk management.
Glacier-dependent communities, especially those with Indigenous and local knowledge, play a pivotal role in this narrative. Their insights into glacial behavior, adaptation strategies, and observations of environmental change offer invaluable contributions to the understanding of glacierized regions (Gagne, 2018). These communities, as stewards of these environments, are often on the frontlines of climate change impacts. Their experiences and responses form a central component of the political ecology discourse (Molden et. al, 2021). Moreover, the political ecology of glacierized environments is deeply intertwined with questions of environmental justice. The distribution of benefits and burdens, access to resources, and the ethical dimensions of resource allocation are brought to the forefront. Thus, political ecology serves as a compass for unraveling the intricacies of power structures, conflicts, and cooperation that underpin human interactions with glaciers and the broader implications for society and the environment.
At POLLEN24 in Lund, we hope to bring together the political ecology community working on these topics and create a space for exchange and dialogue on what critical engagement with climate change and glacierized environments could look like. With this aim in mind, we are inviting abstracts for papers that address these engagements. At the end of the panel, we are planning to have a special issue informing the road map toward the 2025 International year of glaciers’ preservation. Submitted abstracts could be focused on one of the following topics – but we welcome other ideas as well:
Abstracts should be around 200 words and should be submitted by email, by 15 December 2023 to Mine Islar (mine.islar@lucsus.lu.se) and Mayank Shah (shahmayankntl@gmail.com)
You can also see this CfP here.
References
Gagne, Karine. Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018
Hock, R., G. Rasul, C. Adler, B. Cáceres, S. Gruber, Y. Hirabayashi, M. Jackson, A. Kääb, S. Kang, S. Kutuzov, A. Milner, U. Molau, S. Morin, B. Orlove, and H. Steltzer, 2019: High Mountain Areas. In: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate
IPCC, 2019: High Mountain Areas. In: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer (eds.)]. In press.
Molden et. al., 2019, The Great Glacier and Snow-Dependent Rivers of Asia and Climate Change: Heading for Troubled Waters https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-5493-0_12