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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20170316
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20170317
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20161130T110224Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170315T160350Z
UID:11212-1489622400-1489708799@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Sustainability in Turbulent Times
DESCRIPTION:‘Sustainability in turbulent times: How can research\, policy and business meet global challenges?’\nCUSP/Nexus Network/CECAN conference\nVenue: Central London \nTwitter: Follow the conference at #SITT2017 \n \nOver the next few years\, the British exit from the EU\, a new US administration\, and unpredictable waves of populism and authoritarianism are likely to recast key environmental and social policies and to have profound effects on the prospects for sustainable prosperity. International frameworks of governance and collaboration will need to be redesigned\, and the legitimacy of some forms of expertise and evidence are being called into question. \n \nWith a focus on the food-water-energy nexus\, the conference\, run by the ESRC-funded Nexus Network (in which STEPS is a core partner)\, the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) and the Centre for Evaluating Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN)\, will \n\nexplore the future of environmental policy\nexamine the relationship between prosperity\, inequality and sustainability\npin-point the role of expertise and emotion in policy making\nconsider practical approaches to navigating complexity.\n\nSpeakers\nSpeakers and chairs include Achim Steiner\, Director\, Oxford Martin School and former Executive Director\, UNEP\, Tim Jackson (Director\, CUSP)\, Natalie Bennett (Green Party)\, Mike Hulme (Kings College London)\, Andrea Westall (FDSD)\, Craig Bennett (Friends of the Earth)\, Rebecca Willis (Green Alliance/Lancaster University\, Mary Creagh MP (Chair of Environmental Audit Committee)\, Michael Jacobs (UCL)\, Andy Richardson (Head of Corporate Affairs\, Volac International)\, Charlotte Burns (York)\, James Wilsdon (Director\, the Nexus Network)\, Jane Elliott (Chief Executive\, ESRC)\, Dame Athene Donald (Master\, Churchill College\, Cambridge & Chair\, HEFCE Interdisciplinary Advisory Group)\, Ian Boyd (Chief Scientific Adviser\, Defra)\, Beck Smith (Senior Policy & Advocacy Adviser\, Save the Children)\, Nigel Gilbert (Director\, CECAN)\, Clare Matterson CBE (Special Adviser\, Wellcome Trust)\, Kathryn Oliver (University of Oxford)\, Andy Stirling (Nexus Network / SPRU / STEPS Centre) and Dipak Gyawali (Director\, Nepal Water Conservation Foundation). \n\nResources\nFor a selection of our work\, projects\, events and blog posts related to the Nexus Network\, see our Nexus project page. \nFor more information on the conference\, see the event page on the Nexus Network website.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/sustainability-in-turbulent-times/
LOCATION:Central London
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160512T090000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160513T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20160414T134507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211410Z
UID:8471-1463043600-1463158800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Nexuses of the Urban (Nexus Network workshop)
DESCRIPTION:Nexuses of the Urban: Interactions between water\, energy and food provision for sustainable cities \nUniversity of Sussex\, Brighton\, UK \nThis workshop is the latest in a series of events organised by the Nexus Network. It is fully booked\, but you can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #UrbanNexus. \n \nBackground\nCities are dynamically connected with other urban and rural localities\, both distant and proximate. Most critically perhaps\, cities rely on an elsewhere to produce much of the food\, water and energy they consume. \nAnd as cities grow and extend their boundaries\, this reliance on elsewhere generally expands\, despite the emergence of activities such as peri-urban agriculture and community energy installations. \nThus we need to look beyond the boundaries of cities at processes of urbanisation to develop an understanding of social\, cultural\, environmental and economic dynamics of provisioning food\, water and energy for and by urban inhabitants. \nIn recent years\, interdependence between natural resources implicated in provisioning food\, water and energy provision has been framed as the ‘nexus’. The nexuses of the urban\, in addition\, point to the interdependence between the practices/infrastructures for provisioning of water\, food and energy with each other and with ecological processes. \nRecognition of the ‘urban nexuses’ points also to the need of inter- and trans-disciplinary perspectives that combine diverse insights/tools from beyond the social sciences\, humanities and the natural sciences. In part as a response to this need\, we see the emergence of new cross-disciplinary interventions such as the RCUK/Innovate UK Urban Living Partnerships and the ESRC’s Urban Transformations Network. \nWorkshop scope\nWorkshop participants will take stock of what kind of plural understandings of ‘urban nexuses’ are emerging\, produced by (partnerships between) activists\, communities\, think tanks\, corporations\, and multilateral organizations\, natural scientists\, humanities scholars and social scientists. \nWe will particularly reflect on the contribution that different social science perspectives might make in understanding urban nexuses\, and how social scientists might effectively participate in inter- and trans-disciplinary initiatives. \nWe will consider what kind of policy mechanisms and events might support the pursuit of the partnerships that may be required for developing new understandings. \nFormat\n40-50 people from academia\, civil society and business have been invited to take part in this event. We encourage you to take part across both days. \nDay one will involve presentations and discussions to stimulate the ‘urban nexus thinking’ debate\, which will be followed by a dinner for all participants. Day two will be for more in-depth participatory activities to build platforms and alliances for future work on ‘urban nexuses’. \nQuestions\nThe workshop will be structured around the following questions:\n1. What divergent framings and understandings of ‘urban nexuses’ are emerging and why are they important\, in what ways and to whom?\n2. What are the implications of these understandings and their foci for governance of nexus interactions by public\, private and hybrid arrangements?\n3. What implications do these understandings hold for political-economic action by\, and for alliances between\, civil society organizations\, businesses and social movements striving for sustainability and justice?\n4. What kind of relations (inter- and trans-disciplinary alliances\, engagements with the material world) underpin the making of the emerging understandings of ‘urban nexuses’?\n5. What new inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches (and concepts) do we need to further understand interactions at ‘urban nexuses’\, including the interdependent vulnerabilities associated with access to food\, water and energy in cities?
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/nexus-of-the-urban-nexus-network-workshop/
LOCATION:Sussex University campus\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Urbanisation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160428T120000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160428T140000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20160413T131424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211510Z
UID:8465-1461844800-1461852000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: Connor Cavanagh on responses to violent eviction
DESCRIPTION:Differentiated dispossession: ‘Hunter-gatherer’ responses to violent eviction from Embobut Forest Reserve\, western Kenya \nSeminar by Connor Joseph Cavanagh \nConvening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\nLibrary Road\, Falmer\, UK \n \nCritical scholarship on global land and ‘green’ grabbing has begun to examine the politics of variegation in diverse ‘responses from below’\, or the ways in which various particularities of place influence community reactions to land and resource acquisitions. These discussions are informed by a longstanding tradition of scholarship on the class dynamics of agrarian change\, or the ways in which processes of ‘dispossession from above’ via land acquisitions might intersect with processes of ‘dispossession from below’ in the form of gradual differentiation and rural class formation. In some cases\, however\, we argue that these analyses have not sufficiently historicized and disaggregated the concept of ‘community’ to reveal how variables such as gender\, land tenure\, and prevailing modes of production refract both the impacts of dispossession and the forms of resistance that emerge in its wake. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork on the case of the indigenous Sengwer community’s violent eviction from Embobut Forest Reserve in western Kenya\, we illuminate the ways in which \n\ni) dispossession for conservation entails novel consequences for communities that understand themselves as ‘hunters and gatherers’\, as opposed to agriculturalists or pastoralists\,\nii) how these consequences are themselves differentiated\, placing unique burdens on women\, youths\, and the elderly in particular. We conclude with a discussion of how such variegation in experiences of dispossession informs ongoing struggles for radically alternative modes of indigenous conservation in Embobut forest.\n\nAbout Connor Joseph Cavanagh\nConnor Joseph Cavanagh is currently a PhD Fellow in the Dept. of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences\, and a Research Fellow in Science Domain 5 – Ecosystem Services at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi. Broadly defined\, Connor’s research examines tensions and contradictions within processes of uneven conservation and development in eastern Africa\, with a specific interest on transformations in forest governance. Recent articles have appeared in Forum for Development Studies\, Antipode\, the Journal of Peasant Studies\, Forest Policy and Economics\, and Geoforum.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/seminar-connor-cavanagh-on-responses-to-violent-eviction/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160229T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160229T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20160216T134524Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211854Z
UID:8282-1456732800-1456765200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Resource Conflicts & Social Justice - Nexus Network workshop
DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, the notion of the nexus has gained traction in the domain of natural resource governance. It has become the defining vocabulary to understand the interlinkages between land\, water\, food and climate. Since the 2008 World Economic Forum pushed key players to be concerned about water\, food and energy security and their interlinkages\, the nexus has become a strong policy metaphor to address the ‘world in crises’. \nDate: Monday 29 February 2016.\nVenue: Institute of Development Studies\, Brighton\, UK \nEvent page (Nexus Network website)
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/resource-conflicts-social-justice-nexus-network-workshop/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20151204T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20151204T210000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20151203T200948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T212858Z
UID:8108-1449255600-1449262800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Asia's Giants: media briefing + drinks reception
DESCRIPTION:When: Friday\, December 4th from 7pm-9pm; short briefing and Q&A at 7.30pm \nWhere: Holiday Inn Paris Gare de l’Est\, 5\, rue du 8 Mai 1945 75010 Paris \nHow is China shifting to a low-carbon economy? Will low-carbon innovation in China affect decarbonisation pathways elsewhere? Why do Indian policymakers insist on low-carbon rather than no-carbon? What are the prospects of India’s ambitious solar programme? \nJoin us for a briefing at 7.30pm from: Adrian Ely\, Co-Investigator\, Low Carbon Innovation in China project; Isabel Hilton\, CEO and Editor\, chinadialogue; Joydeep Gupta\, Editor\, India Climate Dialogue; Sam Geall\, Research Fellow\, University of Sussex; and Yu Jie\, Climate Analyst at chinadialogue. \nThere will also be drinks\, opportunities to talk to experts\, and copies of the reports China’s Low Carbon Future Offers Global Opportunities and Hot Air: Climate negotiations and India available. \nPlease confirm attendance by email: info@chinadialogue.net \n\nAbout the reports\nChina’s Low Carbon Future Offers Global Opportunities\, by chinadialogue\, the Low Carbon Innovation in China project and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit\, illustrates the dynamism of China’s low-carbon development and asks if China’s more ambitious approach to climate change could create incentives for other countries to move in a similar direction. \nHot Air: Climate negotiations and India\, by India Climate Dialogue\, traces the evolution of India’s climate policy and its stance at climate negotiations over the last few decades; how India has championed the cause of the developing world.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/asias-giants-media-briefing-drinks-reception/
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20151127T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20151127T143000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20151013T082735Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T213257Z
UID:7876-1448629200-1448634600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: ‘Development without Growth?’
DESCRIPTION:‘Development without Growth?’ \nRay Cunningham\, Jonathan Essex\, Tom Lines \nFriday 27th November\, 13.00 – 14.30\, Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\nThis seminar is jointly held with the Resource Politics cluster at IDS.\n \nIn 2013\, the green think tank Green House published ‘The Post-Growth Project’\, which argues that economic growth\, as conventionally measured\, is over for the UK in anything but the very short term. It examines some of the many far-reaching implications of this insight\, which contradicts mainstream economic and political assumptions. The focus of the book is the implications for the UK. \nIn this seminar\, as well as outlining the core argument of the book\, we want to address the implications of the end of growth in the UK for its role in the global economy. Beyond that\, we want to open up the question of what an end to growth more widely in the ‘developed’ world will mean for the global economy and especially for ‘developing’ countries\, and indeed for our understanding of development as a concept. \nEveryone welcome! \nAbout Ray Cunningham\, Jonathan Essex\, Tom Lines\nRay Cunningham \nGreen House Coordinator\, joint editor of ‘The Post-Growth Project’\, former Director of the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society. \nJonathan Essex \nOne of the authors of ‘The Post-Growth Project’\, a chartered engineer and environmentalist. He has worked for engineering consultants and contractors in the UK\, Bangladesh and Vietnam. He is currently a sustainability consultant at IMC Worldwide\, and a borough and county councillor in Surrey. \nTom Lines \nIDS graduate with 20 years’ international consultancy experience\, specialising in trade and finance as they affect poor countries. Previously a business journalist on commodity markets\, and lecturer in international business at Edinburgh University. \nThis is a locally-sourced event. Jonathan is based in Redhill\, while Ray and Tom both live in Brighton. \n\nPlease contact Annie Lowden (a.lowden@ids.ac.uk) for further details.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/resource-politics-cluster-seminar-development-without-growth/
LOCATION:Room 221\, IDS\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20151119
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20151120
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20150924T134825Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T213349Z
UID:7799-1447891200-1447977599@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Nexus network conference: 'Scales\, levels and spaces of the nexus'
DESCRIPTION:The Nexus Network second Annual Conference will be held on Thursday 19 November 2015\, in central London. \nQuestions of scale are crucial in addressing the linked nexus challenges of food\, energy\, water and the environment. The nexus is often framed as a global security problem\, but this can obscure alternative understandings of interactions and trade-offs at local\, regional and national levels. \nRegister now using the Eventbrite form. \nFull details (Nexus Network website)
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/nexus-network-conference-scales-levels-and-spaces-of-the-nexus/
CATEGORIES:Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20151116T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20151116T143000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20151104T132606Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T213419Z
UID:7973-1447678800-1447684200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Centre Seminar “Will Africa Feed China?”
DESCRIPTION:The STEPS Centre Seminar on ‘Will Africa Feed China?” was by Professor Deborah Bräutigam and took place at the IDS Convening Space\, on 16th November 2015\, 13:00-14.30.  \nAudio recording: \n \nIs China building an empire in rural Africa? China has nine percent of the world’s arable land\, six percent of its water\, and over 20 percent of its people. Africa’s savannahs and river basins host expanses of underutilized land and water. Some believe that China is buying up African land to grow food to ship back home. \nIn her book Will Africa Feed China?\, Deborah Bräutigam probes the activities behind headlines. Challenging conventional wisdom\, she finds that Chinese farming investments and land acquisitions are surprisingly limited. China exports more food to Africa than it imports. Will this change? As Africa pushes for foreign capital\, China encourages its agribusiness firms to “go global”. International concerns about “land grabbing” are justified. Yet to feed its own population\, Africa must move from subsistence to commercial agriculture. What role will China play? Will Africa Feed China? introduces the state-owned Chinese agribusiness firms that pioneered African farming in the 1960s and entrepreneurial private investors who followed. Their fascinating stories\, and those of African farmers and officials\, ground Bräutigam’s informative\, balanced reporting. Forcefully argued and empirically rich\, Will Africa Feed China? will be a landmark work\, enlightening China’s quest for food security and Africa’s possibilities for structural transformation. \nAll welcome!  \n\nDeborah Bräutigam is the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Political Economy\, Director of the International Development Program\, and Director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. She is the author of The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa and many studies on Chinese engagement in Africa. Previously\, she served as Director of the Economic and Political Development Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Professor at American University’s School of International Service. In addition to advising over a dozen governments on China-Africa relations\, she has served as visiting scholar at the World Bank and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Her book—Will Africa Feed China?— will be published in October 2015 by Oxford University Press.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-centre-seminar-will-africa-feed-china/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20151006T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20151006T143000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20151002T094452Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T213817Z
UID:7845-1444136400-1444141800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: Ocean management - linking satellite and socio-economic data
DESCRIPTION:‘Ocean management: Linking satellite and socio-economic data to inform sustainability’  \nEleni Papathanasopoulou and Hayley Evers-King \nKNOTS meeting area\nInstitute of Development Studies\n1-2.30pm on 6 October 2015 \nOceans are playing an increasingly important role in countries’ development strategies to address issues such as food security\, unemployment and poverty. Aquaculture has been identified as one of the priority areas for these strategies and investment. However\, it is unclear where aquaculture farms should be located and what their potential socio-economic impacts will be. \nThis talk explores how satellite and socio-economic data can be linked and used to address these uncertainties for England\, Scotland and South Africa. It will describe the data and images produced by satellite systems in terms of its temporal and spatial resolutions\, ability to identify areas of high water quality\, harmful algal blooms and monitor environmental change. The benefits of superimposing socio-economic information\, such as employment and industries’ economic contributions\, onto these satellite images and their use in sustainability analyses will be presented and explored in terms of the added value in combining these datasets. The next steps in developing a web-based visualisation tool to host and provide the capability to query the project’s data will be discussed. \nAll welcome. \nAbout Dr Papathanasopoulou and Dr Evers-King\nDr Eleni Papathanasopoulou is an economist based at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory using input-output\, general equilibrium and macroeconomic perspectives to assess the impacts of changes in the environment to whole economic and social systems. She has recently applied these approaches to estimate the economic impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in England\, health cost savings of aquatic physical activities and the social implications of changes in coastal communities. She holds an ESRC-Satellite Applications Catapult fellowship (2015-16) which is funding the work being presented. \nDr Hayley Evers-King is a marine Earth observation scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory specialising in the development of novel algorithms and applications for ocean colour satellite data. Her research has involved detection of high biomass (HABs) in South Africa\, and assessments of interannual variability of these blooms in coastal regions with developing aquaculture and fishing industries. She is developing capacity for coastal water quality remote sensing using the new generation of high and medium resolution Earth observation satellites. \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/seminar-ocean-management-linking-satellite-and-socio-economic-data/
LOCATION:Room 100\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Seminars,Water
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20150911T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20150911T143000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20150903T085039Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T214053Z
UID:7732-1441976400-1441981800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Seminar: 'Resource Politics: Future Directions'
DESCRIPTION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, UK \n‘Resource Politics: Future Directions’ \nDianne Rocheleau and Kathleen McAfee \nA critical resource politics can contribute to reframing conservation sciences to bring science into the service of social and ecological justice. To this end\, many of us are challenging the fetish of economic growth and the market-centric logic that has come to dominate ‘pragmatic’ environmentalism. \nBut are better ways of knowing and acting possible? As political ecologists\, we can explore the various expressions of ‘living well’/in harmony with the living world\, to develop a useful response to the creative initiatives of social movements throughout the world. Resource politics can address ecological and cultural defense\, and alternative visions of the future\, from indigenous practices and politics to “degrowth” approaches. \nAn engaged resource politics can challenge the systematic oppression and the lethal inertia of global systems in the face of climate change\, land and resource grabbing\, and widespread contamination\, while contributing to new repertoires of knowledge and practice. \nAbout the speakers \nDianne Rocheleau is Professor of Geography and Director of the Global Environmental Studies program at Clark University. She has previously worked on forestry\, farming and development alternatives with international\, national and local organizations. She currently writes about and works with communities and movements who defend territory and complex human ecologies while building socially just and ecologically viable futures. \nKathleen McAfee (San Francisco State University\, USA) has long experience in community and global-justice activism and policy analysis (Oxfam\, UN agencies). Her academic work focuses on “selling nature to save it”\, the political economy and ecology of ecosystem services and carbon markets\, and alternatives to export-dependent\, growth-based\, market-centered development.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-seminar-resource-politics-future-directions/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20150910T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20150910T160000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20150904T154741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T214247Z
UID:7734-1441890000-1441900800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:The Politics of Nature: reimagining power\, resistance and critique from above\, below and within
DESCRIPTION:Arts C 233\, University of Sussex\, Falmer\, UK \nSpeakers:\nProf Dianne Rocheleau – Clark University\nKathleen McAfee – San Francisco State University \nThis interactive workshop is organised by the Centre for Global Political Economy and the STEPS Centre. It follows the conference ‘Resource Politics: transforming pathways to sustainability’. Attendance is free\, but registration is required. Lunch is included. \nRegistration \nIf you would like to attend\, register before 8 September 2015 by sending an email to Andrea Brock: a.brock@sussex.ac.uk
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/the-politics-of-nature-reimagining-power-resistance-and-critique-from-above-below-and-within/
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20150907
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20150910
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20150119T120133Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T214405Z
UID:6911-1441584000-1441843199@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS conference 2015: Resource Politics
DESCRIPTION:Resource Politics: Transforming Pathways to Sustainability \nWhy now? Contexts and debates \nIn the build up to the confirmation of the post-2015 sustainable development goals\, the politics of resource access\, allocation and distribution are high on global policy agendas. The limits to economic activity in the face of ‘planetary boundaries’ are being fiercely debated\, and even humanity’s survival in the age of the Anthropocene is questioned. Some suggest a ‘perfect storm’ of factors is combining to present ever growing threats\, often assumed to be at the ‘nexus’ of food\, water\, energy and climate change issues. Among the responses are advocates of ‘green economy’ strategies\, seeking transformations to more sustainable economies. \n  \nBut the ‘sustainability’ framing of these issues needs interrogating. How do these debates draw on earlier neo-Malthusian visions of ‘Limits to Growth’\, blind to social difference\, distributional implications\, and failing to disaggregate local users and politics concerning resource use\, consumption and production? What politics and power relations are hidden by the apocalyptic framings of environmental disaster? What interests are supported by particular framings of ‘scarcity’ or ‘limits’\, justifying appropriation of resources by some to the exclusion of others? \n  \nFood\, water\, fuel and minerals have become the focus of global and local political contests. Land\, water and green ‘grabs’ have re-allocated existing resources to so called ‘efficient’ and economically productive users\, causing local resource scarcities and dispossessions\, damaging livelihoods and infringing basic rights. Resources have become valued\, marketised and commodified\, with a range of unforeseen consequences. At the same time\, activism has flourished\, contesting dominant perspectives. As we seek pathways to sustainability that assure both environmental integrity and social justice\, now is a critical time to ask tough questions about the politics of resources. \nWhy a conference? \nThe STEPS Centre and its partners hope this conference can help unpack assumptions\, question simplistic prescriptions and debate alternatives about the politics of resources and pathways to sustainability. The conference will present research evidence from varied locations revealing multiple pathways of change\, linking conceptual challenges of understanding ‘resource politics’ with institutional and practical dimensions\, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is hoped this debate – with academics\, practitioners\, policymakers and activists taking part – can provide the basis for open and balanced debate about future options. \n  \nResearch challenges \nIn conceptual terms\, the focus on political ecology\, long concerned with understanding the politics of access to\, and control over\, resources from local to global\, is increasingly combined with a concern with the politics of knowledge\, emerging from fields such as science and technology studies. Resource politics should be seen in relation to complex combinations of artefacts\, people and knowledges. Resource control and ‘grabbing’ debates have reinvigorated a concern for earlier Marxist concerns with accumulation and dispossession\, while new perspectives are required to understand the commodification and financialisation of nature. Pathways to sustainability are thus constructed through this complex interplay\, with analysis of power dynamics at the core. This means engaging critically with questions of environmental and social justice and what these mean to different people in diverse contexts in both the global South and North. Increasingly a conceptual perspective on ‘pathways’ combining an understanding of material and structural forces\, the politics that underpin them and the discursive knowledge politics that frame such dynamics\, is essential. \nThe STEPS Centre’s work on resource politics \nThe STEPS Centre’s ‘pathways approach’ has been developed as a way of understanding contending and conflicting pathways of change\, in complex\, highly contested settings. Building on earlier work on ‘scarcity’ and the politics of allocation\, we have highlighted the multiple framings of and responses to climate uncertainty. Similarly\, an earlier focus on ‘institutions’ for resource control and access\, has been extended to looking at resource access in diverse settings from peri-urban India to rural China. Historical work on the politics of landscapes\, including forests or rangeland areas\, has been built on to investigate the commodification of carbon in African forests. Work on water resources has linked issues of access to notions of security\, highlighting political contestation\, for example\, dam construction in southeast Asia. And we have highlighted the variegated consequences of land\, water and green grabbing in different sites across the world. \n  \nConference themes\nSix themes will run throughout the conference\, with panels clustered within each theme. This will allow delegates to take part in fulsome discussions around particular themes. \n\nScarcity\, politics and securitization\nResource grabbing\nGovernance\, elites\, citizenship and democracy\nFinancialisation and markets\nGrowth\, waste and consumption\nGender\, race\, class and sustainability\n\nFind out more on the conference website
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/resource-politics2015/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Resource politics
ORGANIZER;CN="Harriet Dudley":MAILTO:h.dudley@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20150319T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20150319T190000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20150219T233052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T215840Z
UID:7047-1426784400-1426791600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Public Roundtable: Nature As Commodity
DESCRIPTION:Download poster (PDF)\nFishery bycatch offsetting in Canada\, catastrophe bonds in the US\, weather derivatives in Ethiopia… What is at stake with the financialisation of nature? Where do we go from here? \nPanel: \n\nMelissa Leach (Director\, Institute of Development Studies)\nHannah Mowat (Fern\, Belgium)\nLarry Lohman (The Corner House)\nAntonio Tricarico (Re:Common\, Italy)\nBram Büscher (Wageningen University)\n\nThis public roundtable discussion is organised by the Centre for Global Political Economy\, University of Sussex and the STEPS Centre\, and financially supported by Sussex University’s Doctoral School’s Researcher-Led Initiative (RLI) fund. It is linked to a conference exploring critical perspectives on the financialisation of nature. \nAll welcome – free entry \nShare this event with others \n\nFacebook event page\nDownload a printable poster (PDF)
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/roundtable-nature-as-commodity/
LOCATION:Friends Meeting House\, Ship St\, Brighton\, BN1 1AF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20150319T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20150320T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20141028T132112Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T215946Z
UID:6721-1426770000-1426870800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Critical Perspectives on the Financialisation of Nature - Theory\, Politics and Practice
DESCRIPTION:University of Sussex\, 19-20th March 2015 \nHosted by the Centre for Global Political Economy & STEPS Centre \nUpdate (2 March 2015): A public roundtable on this topic will be held in Brighton on 19 March\, with contributions from Melissa Leach\, Hannah Mowat\, Larry Lohman\, Antonio Tricarico and Bram Büscher.\n \nDownload the conference programme (PDF)  \nCarbon markets in China\, fishery bycatch offsetting in Canada\, catastrophe bonds in the US\, weather derivatives in Ethiopia\, betting on species extinction such as Norwegian sharks… \nThese are just a few examples of the commodification\, marketisation and financialisation of nature. In what ways can we best make sense of these developments? What practical\, political and theoretical innovations will allow us to better understand them\, engage with them and contest them? \nWe invite participants from any discipline to a 1.5 day intensive workshop bringing together doctoral and early career researchers to discuss\, theorise and critically reflect on the practical and political implications of the commodification\, marketisation and financialisation of nature. Papers should focus on questions including (but not limited to): \n\nWhat are the challenges\, contradictions and limits that arise from the creation of these new forms of market-based environmental products and services?\nWhat are the new materialities and commodities of nature that are created through these novel forms of governance?\nHow do these processes change the way we relate to nature\, govern nature\, live in nature and indeed are governed by nature?\nHow does the marketisation or financialisation of nature relate to other forms of accumulation and the wider political economy?\nWhat kinds of (new) power relations are (re)produced through the making of environmental markets\, and what social and environmental justice issues are brought to light or develop in response to these (neoliberal?) phenomena?\n\nParticipants will be required to submit full papers in advance of the workshop and are expected to read each other’s work beforehand to enable in-depth engagement with one another’s arguments. The sessions will be chaired by academics working in the field who will also provide feedback on papers. Moreover\, the workshop will bring together activists and academics for a panel discussion\, reflecting on the interlinkages between activism and research on the financialisation of nature. \nSpeakers \nPresenters will include: \nConfirmed speakers  \n\nProf James Fairhead (Chair in Social Anthropology\, University of Sussex)\nLarry Lohmann (The Corner House)\nHannah Mowat (FERN)\nProf Peter Newell (STEPS/Centre for Global Political Economy\, University of Sussex)\nProf Ian Scoones (STEPS/Institute of Development Studies)\n\nInvited speakers (tbc) \n\nJutta Kill\nProf John O’Neill\nCatherine Corson\n\nRegistration is free and food will be provided. We have some funding for accommodation and travel for a limited number of doctoral researchers. Details about applying for this funding will be sent out once abstracts have been selected. \nThis event is financially supported by Sussex University’s Doctoral School’s Researcher-Led Initiative (RLI) fund.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/critical-perspectives-financialisation-nature-theory-politics-practice/
LOCATION:University of Sussex\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20150317T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20150317T143000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20150311T162521Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T220104Z
UID:7135-1426597200-1426602600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:The inclusive turn of neoliberal conservation? Opportunities and threats of REDD+ in Tanzania
DESCRIPTION:Seminar by STEPS visiting fellow Andreas Scheba \nThe rise of new markets\, or market-like instruments\, in the realm of nature conservation is a key feature of global discourse and strategies around the ‘green’ economy. Innovative ways of measuring\, valuing and trading nature have emerged that enjoy increasing support among public and private stakeholders. At the same time\, critical scholarship has warned against the problematic and contradictory logic of what they call ‘neoliberal conservation’\, raising valid questions of: How does pricing nature contribute to its protection? Who benefits from the new commodities? Who loses? What has politics got to do with it? \nThis seminar will investigate these questions in the context of REDD+ in Lindi\, Tanzania. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in two remote\, forest-dependent villages\, I will discuss how and why neoliberal conservation emerges and manifest itself in a deprived rural context; and what effects it has on forest governance\, rural livelihoods and conservation practice. \nThe role of discourse\, politics and power over forest resources will be critically examined\, both currently and in a historical perspective. The findings of my analysis will lead me to argue for an ‘inclusive’ turn in neoliberal conservation that offers both opportunities and challenges for sustainable democratic futures. \nAndreas Scheba is an Austrian born\, early-career researcher who recently completed his PhD in Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester. His doctoral thesis examined the politics and development effects of REDD+ in the Lindi region of Tanzania\, for which he conducted ethnographic research in two remote\, forest-dependent villages.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/the-inclusive-turn-of-neoliberal-conservation-opportunities-and-threats-of-redd-in-tanzania/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20140502T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20140502T140000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20140424T144635Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T223429Z
UID:6255-1399035600-1399039200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: The Politics of Integrated Water Resources Management in Africa
DESCRIPTION:1.00-2.00 Friday 2 May 2014\nConvening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\nAll welcome \nSpeakers include: \n\nAndrew Tarimo (Sokoine University of Agriculture)\nEmmanuel Manzungu (University of Zimbabwe)\nBill Derman (Noragric)\nAlex Bolding\, (Wageningen University)\nBarbara Van Koppen (IWMI\, South Africa)\nSynne Movik (NIVA)\nAlan Nicol (Global Water Initiative)\n\nSince the early 1990s\, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been the dominant paradigm in water resources management. IWRM adoption has led to water reform and the rewriting of national policies in many countries in southern Africa. \nIn this seminar we draw on findings from the project Flows and Practices: The Politics of IWRM in Africa to ask: Why has IWRM been so influential in southern Africa? How do abstract ideas of IWRM which evolved in global institutions cope with plural\, overlapping and competing formal and informal legal and customary systems in southern Africa? Has IWRM succeeded in addressing issues concerning equity\, class\, race and gender and in reallocating water in an equitable way?  What does this mean for overall development and poverty reduction? \nPresenters will address these questions by drawing on ongoing research in South Africa\, Zimbabwe\, Mozambique and Tanzania.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/seminar-politics-integrated-water-resources-management-africa/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Seminars,Water
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20140115T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20140115T143000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20131217T115935Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T224516Z
UID:5889-1389790800-1389796200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Seminar: Bruce Lankford on Resource Efficiency\, Complexity and the Commons
DESCRIPTION:Resource Efficiency Complexity and the Commons: The Paracommons and Paradoxes of Natural Resource Losses\, Wastes and Wastages\nBruce Lankford\, Professor of Irrigation and Water Policy\, School of International Development\, University of East Anglia\nThe efficient use of natural resources is key to a sustainable economy\, and yet the complexities of the physical aspects of resource efficiency are poorly understood. In a recent Routledge book\, the author analyses resource efficiency and efficiency gains from the perspective of common pool resources\, applying this idea particularly to water resources and its use in irrigated agriculture. In a world of increasing scarcity\, the tracking\, amount and ownership of ‘saved’ resources while controlling for rebound (where savings lead to consumption elsewhere) will be of increasing importance as exemplified by Norris (2011) “… the United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Montana v Wyoming brings to the forefront one of the most complicated and contested facets of irrigation efficiency: who owns the rights to the conserved water?” \nThe book proposes the concept of “the paracommons”\, through which the savings of increased resource efficiency can be viewed. In effect this asks; “who gets the gain of an efficiency gain?” By reusing\, economising and avoiding losses\, wastes and wastages\, freed up resources are available for further use by four ‘destinations’; the proprietor\, parties directly connected to that user\, the wider economy or returned to the common pool. The paracommons is thus a commons of – and competition for – resources salvaged by changes to the efficiency of natural resource systems. \nDuring the presentation\, ‘liminality’ will be explored signalling the in-betweenness of systems caught between overly optimistic prefigurations of future efficiencies and disappointing outcomes. \n All welcome.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/bruce-lankford/
LOCATION:Room 221\, IDS\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Seminars
ORGANIZER;CN="Harriet Dudley":MAILTO:h.dudley@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20131101T083000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20131101T110000
DTSTAMP:20260423T211319
CREATED:20131031T163035Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T225313Z
UID:5767-1383294600-1383303600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:The Politics of Integrated Water Resources Management in southern Africa
DESCRIPTION:Special session at the 14th WATERNET Symposium\, White Sands Hotel\, Dar Es Salaam\nThis special session draws on ongoing research of the Norwegian Research Council Project ‘Flows and Practices. The Politics of IWRM in Africa’ a multi-country research consortium led by the International Environmental and Development Studies\, Norwegian University of Life Sciences See:  http://www.engopa.no/research-projects/flows-and-practices-the-politics-of-integrated-water-resources-management-in-africa \n\n\nLyla Mehta (STEPS Centre water and sanitation convenor) and Synne Movik\n\n\nThe Flows and Practices of IWRM: A Conceptual Framework  \n\nEmmanuel Manzungu\, Bill Derman\, Linda Mtali and Sijabuliso Masango\n\nThe Impact of Urbanization on Implementation of IWRM in Zimbabwe: A Case Study of the Upper Manyame Catchment Council  \n\n Takunda Hove\, Bill Derman and Emmanuel Manzungu\n\nThe Intersection between IWRM\, land reform and agrarian change in Zimbabwe: A case study of the Middle Manyame Sub-catchment  \n\n Synne Movik and Kristi Denby\n\nInstitutional Integration and Local Level Water Access in the Inkomati Water Management Area\, South Africa  \n\n Barbara van Koppen and Barbara Schreiner\n\nMoving beyond IWRM: Developmental Water Management in South Africa  \n\n Alex Bolding and Rossella Alba\n\nIWRM ‘Avant La Lettre’? Four Key Episodes in the Policy Articulation of IWRM in the Downstream Nation of Mozambique   \n\n Preetha Prabhakaran Bisht\n\nGender Invisibility in Global Water Discourses: A Feminist Critique of Integrated Water Resources Management  \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/waternet2013/
LOCATION:Tasi 1\, White Sands Hotel\, Dar Es Salaam\, Tanzania\, United Republic Of
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Water
ORGANIZER;CN="Beth Mudford":MAILTO:bethm@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR