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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20180514T173000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20180514T190000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20171031T112941Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180517T133405Z
UID:12253-1526319000-1526324400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Annual Lecture: Kate Raworth
DESCRIPTION:Economics as if we wanted to survive the 21st century \nThe economist Kate Raworth\, author of the bestselling book Doughnut Economics\, gave the 2018 STEPS Annual Lecture at the University of Sussex. This is the only public event of the STEPS Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow446ym9Tjc[/embedyt]\n\nAbout Kate Raworth\nKate Raworth is a renegade economist focused on exploring the economic mindset needed to address the 21st century’s social and ecological challenges\, and is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries. \nShe is a Senior Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute\, where she teaches on the Masters in Environmental Change and Management. She is also a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. \nHer internationally acclaimed idea of Doughnut Economics has been widely influential amongst sustainable development thinkers\, progressive businesses and political activists\, and she has presented it to audiences ranging from the UN General Assembly to the Occupy movement. Her book\, Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist was published in April 2017.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-annual-lecture-kate-raworth/
LOCATION:Jubilee Lecture Theatre\, University of Sussex\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9SL\, United Kingdom
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20180501
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20180502
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180430T130741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T110032Z
UID:12770-1525132800-1525219199@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Workshop: Maps\, Measures and Narratives for Transdisciplinary ‘Grand Challenge’ Research
DESCRIPTION:Tuesday 1st May\nUCL Institute for Global Prosperity\, London \nThis full-day workshop will consider the capacity of research communities\, such as but not limited to those supported by The Nexus Network\, to deliver inter- and transdisciplinary research. \nThe workshop offers an opportunity for those engaged in such research to explore and pilot innovative methods for evaluating their own researcher capabilities\, and the capacities of their research networks. \nThe workshop is convened by the ESRC Nexus Network\, in which the STEPS Centre is a partner. STEPS co-director Prof Andy Stirling is among the participants in the workshop. \nMore information: The Nexus Network
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/workshop-maps-measures-narratives-transdisciplinary-grand-challenge-research/
CATEGORIES:Research methods
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20180410T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20180410T234000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180215T110835Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180215T110835Z
UID:12586-1523354400-1523403600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Emancipatory rural politics II: resisting\, mobilizing and creating alternatives
DESCRIPTION:The second Panel Conference at The American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2018. \n  \nABOUT THE EVENT\nThe current political conjuncture has given rise to new forms and manifestations of ‘authoritarian populism’ (Hall 1979\, 1998) with wide-reaching implications (Scoones et al. 2017). In this session\, we ask what alternative politics – and political-economic practices – also emerge at this conjuncture. What are ‘emancipatory’ possibilities or ‘alternative’ rural politics in practice in settings that may simultaneously seem to have been left behind by globalized capitalism\, yet represent the new (last?) frontiers of enclosure\, extraction and financialization? Informed by insights from political ecology\, alongside other approaches and methods from critical social science and radical practice\, presentations in this session explore relationships between historical and contemporary rural struggles\, forms of resistance and mobilization\, and practices of imagining and creating alternatives\, encouraging a comparative conversation. How are new alliances being built between urban and rural movements\, within and outside mainstream political formations? How and why do informal\, unruly styles of politics intersect with or reject more formal organized movements and electoral and institutional politics? How have conflict and violence both closed down and opened up new spaces for the development of new forms of resistance\, mobilization\, and practices of imagining and creating emancipatory alternatives? How are power\, class\, the state\, participation\, citizenship\, institutions and democracy conceptualized or contested? This session is part of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI). \n  \nSPEAKERS\nLevi Van Sant\, Sayoni Bose\, Eloisa Berman-Arevalo\, Sara Black\, Loka Ashwood\, \n  \n\nRELATED EVENTS \nThis panel follows  a session on Emancipatory rural politics I: contextualizing authoritarian populism and emancipatory rural politics chaired by STEPS member Amber Huff . \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/emancipatory-rural-politics-ii-resisting-mobilizing-creating-alternatives/
LOCATION:Bacchus Room\, New Orleans Marriott\, 555 Canal Street\, New Orleans\, LA\, 70130\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20180410T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20180410T214000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180215T110825Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180215T110825Z
UID:12583-1523347200-1523396400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Emancipatory rural politics I: contextualizing authoritarian populism and emancipatory rural politics
DESCRIPTION:STEPS Member Amber Huff will chair a Panel Conference at The American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2018. \n  \nABOUT THE EVENT\nDeepening inequalities\, socioeconomic exclusion\, persistent poverty\, fractured identity and loss of esteem are all features of rural areas today. All of these characteristics have been associated to differing degrees with the crises of ostensibly ‘progressive neoliberalism’ (Fraser 2017) and the rise of regressive and often contradictory forms populism (Scoones et al. 2017). ‘Authoritarian populism’ (Hall 1979\, 1998) describes a broad politics\, resonant with appeals to ‘the people’ and characterised by the rise in prominence of discourses of aggressive protectionism and nationalism\, growing concern over the ‘other’ and a radical deregulation of private industry\, while at the same time utilising state powers to privatise resources and services and increase surplus for a minority. Using conceptual tools of political ecology alongside other approaches from critical social science and radical practice\, papers presented in this session explore the historical and political-economic roots the current conjuncture\, the emergence of and responses to authoritarian populism in different forms and rural settings throughout the world. In different ways\, presenters address key questions: How are political cultures produced\, contested and resisted in diverse rural spaces? Amidst these politics\, how do tensions play out along the intersecting axes of social difference like race\, class and gender? How are rural landscapes and experiences shaped by and also shaping these wider politics? How is ‘emancipation’ envisioned? What is lost in dominant media narratives? This session is part of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI). \n  \nSPEAKERS\nAmber Huff\, Christopher Neubert\, Justa Mayra Hopma\, Karina Benessaiah\, Wendy Wolford \n  \nRELATED EVENTS\nThis Session is followed by a second panel session Emancipatory rural politics II: resisting\, mobilizing and creating alternatives.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/emancipatory-rural-politics-i-contextualizing-authoritarian-populism-emancipatory-rural-politics/
LOCATION:Bacchus Room\, New Orleans Marriott\, 555 Canal Street\, New Orleans\, LA\, 70130\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20180321T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20180321T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180308T121548Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180308T132613Z
UID:12652-1521633600-1521640800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:When the Wolf Guards the Sheep: Green extractivism and confronting the industrial machine
DESCRIPTION:As part of the Politics of Nature reading group\, Dr Alexander Dunlap\, co-hosted by the CGPE and STEPS centre\, presents a seminar on the merits of an anarchist political ecology in assessing extractive projects and charting new directions in (re)imagining ecological\, unruly and dignified futures. \n  \n \n \nDrawing on case studies of Europe’s largest opencast coal mine\, the Hambach mine in Germany\, and wind parks in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region (Istmo) of Oaxaca\, Mexico\, the seminar examines corporate/state strategies of greening resource extraction and repression. This seminar calls for scholars to challenge their statist and industrial subjectivities\, while developing strategies to deal with corporate/state counter-mobilizations to undermine the current trajectory of ‘progress’. This means working to maximize ecological and social harmony\, while aiming for total liberation against the imposition of market-based environmentalism\, ‘green extraction’ and corporate-state projects of social control\, ecocide and social death.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/wolf-guards-sheep-green-extractivism-confronting-industrial-machine/
LOCATION:Room G22\, Jubilee Building\, University of Sussex\, Brighton\, BN1 9RH\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Governance & policy,Resource politics,Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20180317T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20180318T183000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20171004T141837Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180323T121547Z
UID:12217-1521273600-1521397800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:International conference: 'Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World'
DESCRIPTION:17-18 March 2018\nInternational Institute of Social Studies (ISS)\nThe Hague\nNetherlands \nAuthoritarian populism is on the rise\, boosted by support from rural areas. This conference examines why\, and explores the alternatives: the social and political processes in rural spaces that are resisting or responding to regressive\, authoritarian politics. \nOrganised by the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) \n\nArticle series: Jump straight to a list of articles published in openDemocracy by speakers at the conference\nVisit the conference website (ISS.nl)\n\nProgramme\nDownload programme (PDF) \n\nNews and updates\nTo receive news on the outcomes from this event\, sign up to our e-newsletter. \n \n\n\n\n\n* indicates required\nName *\n\n\nEmail Address *\n\n\n\nEmail Format  \n\nhtml\ntext\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nBlog posts\nConfronting authoritarian populism: building collaborations for emancipatory rural resistance\nSergio Coronado\, 23 March 2018 (ISS Blog) \nVideo: Live stream\nSelected plenary sessions at the event will be livestreamed on the ISS.nl website. \nView the livestream \n\nSocial media\nTwitter: For the event\, use the hashtag #ERPI2018 and follow @TheERPI \nFacebook: Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative \n\nConference papers\nIn preparation for the conference\, the organisers have compiled a number of papers and essays submitted by researchers and scholars across the globe. \n\nConference papers: Asia-Pacific\nConference papers: Europe \nConference papers: Americas\nConference papers: Americas (2)\nConference papers: Africa\nConference papers: International\n\n\nAbout the event\nThe Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) focuses on understanding the rise of ‘authoritarian populism’ in rural settings across the world\, as well as the forms of resistance occurring and the alternatives being built. New exclusionary politics are generating deepening inequalities\, jobless ‘growth’\, climate chaos\, and social division. The ERPI is focused on the social and political processes in rural spaces that are generating alternatives to regressive\, authoritarian politics. \nIn debating these themes\, this international conference will contribute to ERPI’s aim to provoke debate and action among scholars\, activists\, practitioners and policymakers from across the world who are concerned about the current situation\, and hopeful about alternatives. \nThe organisers aim to bring together around 300 researchers and activists from across five continents. ERPI small grant holders will present research insights\, and debates will focus on mobilizing alternatives\, generating new research-activist networks across the world. \n\nArticles\n\nArticles by speakers and organisers on the online magazine openDemocracy explore the issues around the conference. \nConfronting authoritarian populism: the rural dimension\nIan Scoones\, Saturnino M. Borras Jr.\, Lyda Fernanda Forero\, Ruth Hall\, Marc Edelman\, Wendy Wolford\, and Benjamin White\n29 January 2018 \nHindu authoritarianism and agrarian distress\nAchin Vanaik\n5 February 2018 \nWhy #DefendAfrin? Confronting authoritarian populism with radical democracy\nAmber Huff\, Salima Tasdemir\, and Patrick Huff\n12 February 2018 \nSacrifice zones in rural and non-metro USA: fertile soil for authoritarian populism\nMarc Edelman\n19 February 2018 \n Islamophobia gastronomica – on the food police\, rural populism and killing\nRaj Patel\n26 February 2018 \nAuthoritarian elitism and popular movements in Brazil / Élites autoritarias y movimientos populares en Brasil\nWendy Wolford and Sergio Sauer\n5 March 2018 \nThe demise of emancipatory peasant politics? Indonesian fascism and the rise of Islamic populism\nLaksmi Savitri\, Devi Adriyanti\, Hanny Wijaya\, Ciptaningrat Larastiti\, Abdul Rahman\, and Benjamin White\n9 March 2018 \nHow populism directed against minorities is used to prop up Myanmar’s ‘Democratic’ revival\nKhin Zaw Win\n12 March 2018 \nAfter the peace agreement\, authoritarian extractivism persists as rural development in Colombia\nLyda Fernanda Forero and Danilo Urrea\n14 March 2018 \nState\, corporate and chiefly power is being contested from below in South Africa\nRuth Hall\n14 March 2018 \n\nSpeakers\nPlenary speakers include: \nBurak Gürel (Koç University)\nLaksmi Adriani Savitri (Samadhya Institute)\nEduardo Gudynas (Latin American Center of Social Ecology)\nNatalia Mamonova (The Institute of International Affairs\, Sweden)\nAndries du Toit (PLAAS\, University of the Western Cape)\nZack Exley (Justice Democrats/Left Right Forward)\nAchin Vanaik (Transnational Institute)\nDzodzi Tsikata (University of Ghana)\nKhin Zaw Win (Tampadipa Institute)\nRebecca Tarlau (Pennsylvania State University)\nJohn Gaventa (Institute of Development Studies)\nStha Yeni (Tshintsha Amakhaya)\nSofia Monsalve (FIAN International)\nKarin Nansen (REDES/Friends of the Earth Uruguay)\nRaj Patel (University of Texas at Austin)\nHilary Wainwright (Red Pepper)\nBecky Bond (The Big Organizing Project)\nMarc Edelman (City University of New York)\nHenry Saragih (Serikat Petani Indonesia/La Via Campesina\, tbc) \n\nAbout the ERPI\nThe Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) was launched during 2017 as a response to the rise of authoritarian populism in different parts of the world. Our focus is on the rural origins and consequences of authoritarian populism\, as well as the forms of resistance and variety of alternatives that are emerging. \nParticipating institutions include the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)\, Cornell University\, the City University of New York (CUNY)\, the Institute of Development Studies\, the ESRC STEPS Centre\, PLAAS\, and the Transnational Institute (TNI).
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/international-conference-authoritarian-populism-rural-world/
LOCATION:Institute of Social Studies\, The Hague\, Netherlands
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture
ORGANIZER;CN="Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI)":MAILTO:emancipatoryruralpolitics@gmail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20180306T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20180306T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180228T141631Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180301T104905Z
UID:12631-1520323200-1520355600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation in Urbanising India
DESCRIPTION:National Agriculture Science Complex\, Pusa\nDelhi\, India \nThis event in Delhi explores how urban authorities and other parts of civil society can improve their approaches to ecosystems and the services they provide in urbanising contexts. The event involves people involved in decision-making\, research and practice related to urbanisation and ecosystems. \nThe organisers aim to share good practice and evidence on approaches to urbanisation that take account of poverty and the importance of ecosystems\, particular in Indian and South Asian contexts. The event is convened by ICLEI-South Asia and supported by the Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. More details about the event are on the ICLEI-South Asia website. \nEcosystem services are vital for peri-urban and urbanising areas\, and the people who live within them. In contexts of rapid urbanisation\, these services are under threat from redevelopment\, pollution and overconsumption\, and there are gaps in the policies and structures that should protect them. Despite these challenges\, there are opportunities for local authorities and citizens to work together and join up policy with action on the ground. \nContact: F.Marshall [at] sussex.ac.uk \n\nThis event includes the launch of a new ESPA briefing ‘Making the most of ecosystem services’ which draws on research from the Risks and Responses to Urban Futures project affiliated to the STEPS Centre. It will feature contributions from researchers connected to the South Asia Sustainability Hub.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/ecosystem-services-poverty-alleviation/
CATEGORIES:Urbanisation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20180215T093000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20180216T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180208T161954Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180208T161954Z
UID:12558-1518687000-1518795000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:A Crisis of Expertise? Legitimacy and the challenge of policymaking
DESCRIPTION:STEPS Co-Director Andy Stirling  will deliver the Keynote address on the final day of The 2018 Melbourne School of Government’s conference\, talking about expertise and democracy: from adversarial crisis to mutualistic renewal. \n\nABOUT THE EVENT\nThe economic\, social and environmental governance challenges facing contemporary societies are growing in severity\, scope and complexity; yet trust in experts and established institutions is in decline. The role and legitimacy of expertise in policymaking is increasingly being called into question. \nRecently\, populist and anti-globalisation movements in a number of countries\, and on both ‘right’ and ‘left’\, have achieved electoral success\, in part by playing on these doubts and by rejecting the claims of experts to specialised knowledge and authority. These sentiments are even evident among many mainstream politicians. ‘People in this country have had enough of experts’ was the view of leading UK politician Michael Gove in 2016. US President Donald Trump has called global warming ‘bullshit’ and a ‘Chinese hoax’. In Australia we have seen some parliamentarians assert that vaccination causes autism\, or that climate change is a fabrication\, despite strong evidence to the contrary. We have seen a special commissioner appointed to investigate ‘Wind Turbine Syndrome’ despite no expert believing such a syndrome exists. \nIt is time to think anew\, and self-critically\, about our assumptions regarding experts and expertise. In this two-day conference our focus is on policymaking which is controversial\, contested and complex; which is sociotechnical and not simply technical or purely scientific. In particular\, we will explore three themes and how they manifest in practical policymaking. \n  \nSPEAKERS\nProfessor Andy Stirling\, Professor Sheila Jasanoff\, Professor Robyn Eckersley\, Professor Lars Coenen\,
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/crisis-expertise-legitimacy-challenge-policymaking/
LOCATION:Forum Theatre\, Level 1\, Arts West  The University of Melbourne\, Parkville campus\, Forum Theatre\, Level 1\, Arts West The University of Melbourne\, Parkville campus\, Melbourne\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180110T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180110T100000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20180109T122459Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180109T122459Z
UID:12442-1515574800-1515578400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:How are the pathways to resilience in pastoralist areas of Eastern Africa evolving?
DESCRIPTION:Webinar panel discussion organised by the Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University from 9 – 10am EST\, 10 January 2018. \nRegister here (Tufts website) \nAnother ongoing and severe drought in East Africa has reopened debates on the viability of pastoralism\, alternative livelihoods\, and ways to support resilience. The Feinstein International Center has been studying these issues for more than 20 years and has documented changes over time in this report. \nJoin researchers from Feinstein\, Emory University\, and the Institute for Development Studies for a webinar presentation on Wednesday\, January 10\, 2018 at 9am (EST). The panelists will offer preview of this report and a conversation about what makes pastoralists resilient in Eastern Africa. The panelists will discuss: \n\nHow commercialization has driven a gradual redistribution of livestock from poorer to wealthier households\nHow access to markets and productive rangeland determine different pathways to resilience\nHow population and urban growth affect pastoralist livelihoods\nChallenges to supporting diversified and alternative livelihoods for increasing numbers of people within and outside of pastoralist areas\n\nPanelists: \n\nAndy Catley\, Research Director at the Feinstein International Center\, Tufts University\nPeter Little\, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Director of the Program in Development Studies at Emory University\nIan Scoones\, Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies\nGreg Gottlieb (Chair)\, Director of the Feinstein International Center\, Tufts University\n\nTo register for the webinar click here.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/pathways-resilience-pastoralist-areas-eastern-africa-evolving/
LOCATION:Forum Theatre\, Level 1\, Arts West  The University of Melbourne\, Parkville campus\, Forum Theatre\, Level 1\, Arts West The University of Melbourne\, Parkville campus\, Melbourne\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Pastoralism
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20180109T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20180109T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20171220T123242Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180307T232251Z
UID:12436-1515502800-1515508200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: Ian Scoones - Can pastoralists help us respond to global uncertainties?
DESCRIPTION:Seminar by Ian Scoones\, Director\, ESRC STEPS Centre and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies.  \nWatch video of this event \nTuesday 9 January 2018 13:00 to 14:30\n IDS Convening Space\nAll welcome\n \nPart of the Complexity and Development seminar series  \nUncertainties are everywhere: climate change\, financial crises\, migration flows\, infrastructure development\, disease outbreaks and more. Yet contemporary institutions and policy processes are poor at responding to and embracing uncertainties\, where we don’t know about either the likely outcomes or their probabilities. Too often political\, procedural and professional pressures force us to ignore uncertainties\, constructing problems and solutions in terms of manageable risk. \nIn this presentation\, I will argue that this is highly problematic\, and that we can learn much from those who live daily with uncertainty and make use of it as a productive resource. \nPastoralists – people living largely from livestock in dryland\, montane and Mediterranean regions – have long experience of responding to intersecting uncertainties. Perceptions\, cultures and practices; markets and economic relations; and institutional arrangements and governance systems have co-evolved with environmental\, economic and political uncertainties. Can we learn from these experiences for other contexts\, such as financial systems\, disease outbreak response\, migration policy and critical infrastructure management\, where the challenges of responding to uncertainty are real\, and growing? Without arguing that lessons are directly transferrable\, the presentation will ask what core principles might be relevant for refashioning policies\, practices and institutions in order to confront heightened uncertainties in today’s world? \nThe presentation launches a new European Research Council Advanced Grant\, involving research on pastoral systems in Chinese Tibet\, East Africa and Sardinia\, encouraging a conversation with those in other fields grappling with uncertainties. The ERC grant is led by the STEPS Centre at Sussex and involves collaboration with the Global Governance Programme at EUI\, Florence\, amongst others. \nAbout the speaker\nIan Scoones is a professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. He has worked for 30 years on livelihoods\, land and environmental/agrarian change\, mostly in Africa. On pastoralism\, he co-edited ‘Rangelands at Disequilbrium’ (1993)\, ‘Living with Uncertainty’ (1995) and ‘Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins’ (2012). He is a recent recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant\, Pastoralism\, Uncertainty and Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins (PASTRES). \nAbout the Complexity and Development seminar series\nThis seminar is the third in a series that aims to share cutting-edge thinking and research being done at IDS and the University of Sussex around practically how we capture and account for complexity across a variety of sustainable development contexts. \nFor other related events\, see the IDS website.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/can-pastoralists-help-us-respond-global-uncertainties/
LOCATION:Convening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20171215T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20171215T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20171123T160611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20171123T160611Z
UID:12402-1513342800-1513348200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Seminar - Channing Arndt: ‘Faster Than You Think: The Global Energy Revolution and Developing Countries’
DESCRIPTION:STEPS Centre seminar with Channing Arndt\, Senior Research Fellow\, International Food Policy Research Institute \nInstitute of Development Studies\, Room 221\, 15 December 2017 \nAn energy revolution is underway. Driven by an enormous and unexpected downward shift in the full cost of renewable generation technologies\, global investment in renewable electricity generation has exceeded investment in conventional technologies by a factor of two for the past two years. The large majority of new installed generation capacity is renewable\, notably solar and wind. This ongoing energy revolution has potentially profound implications. An incomplete list includes rural electrification\, solar pumping\, stranded fossil fuel assets\, the future of biofuels\, the composition of electricity build plans\, the value of regional power pools\, and the pace and magnitude of global temperature rise. This talk will review salient features of the energy revolution\, consider some broad implications for developing countries\, and present preliminary modeling results for energy use and electricity generation build plans for South Africa. \nChanning Arndt has more than 25 years of experience in development economics with seven years combined resident experience in Morocco and Mozambique. He has published more than 70 articles in leading academic journals. His recent books include Growth and Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa; Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries; and The Political Economy of Clean Energy Transitions. He has taken leadership roles in major policy documents such as the design of a carbon tax for the National Treasury of South Africa\, the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change for the World Bank\, and the Second\, Third and Fourth National Poverty Assessments for the Government of Mozambique. \nEveryone welcome!
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-seminar-channing-arndt-faster-think-global-energy-revolution-developing-countries/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:h.dudley@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20171031T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20171031T190000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170704T113237Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20171004T150358Z
UID:12111-1509472800-1509476400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Precaution in the Governance of Technology
DESCRIPTION:STEPS co-director Andy Stirling will give the Centre for Law and the Environment’s 2017 Annual Lecture\, entitled ‘Precaution in the Governance of Technology’. \nDetails: \nTuesday 31 October 2017\, 18:00 – 19:00\nUCL Roberts 106 LT\, Roberts Building\, Torrington Place\, London WC1E 7JE \nSpeaker: Professor Andrew Stirling (University of Sussex)\nChair: Professor Maria Lee (University College London) \nBook a place\nFree entry – book a place (UCL Faculty of Laws website) \nAbout the lecture\nWorldwide policy debates over governance of technology are pervaded by apparent tensions. One of the most intense and protracted sites for controversy surrounds the role of ‘the precautionary principle’ in research\, regulation and international standard setting. A common – often loudly propounded – position in influential quarters of business\, government and academia\, is that precaution is somehow ‘unscientific’ or even ‘anti-technology’ in its implications. Such interests strongly assert the sufficiency of ‘risk-based’ decision making\, treating choices among alternative directions for innovation in particular fields as if they were effectively purely technical – independent of political values\, economic interests or democratic process. \nIt is clear that (as in any politically-salient field of scholarship or law)\, there exist many expedient misrepresentations or misapplications of precaution. In particular\, precaution is best understood not as a notionally-definitive decision rule\, but as a principle that points towards specific qualities of process. In making this case\, this talk will argue that the above kinds of high-profile rhetoric around precaution are not only mistaken\, but undermining both of science and democracy in governance of science and technology. \nCrucial to understanding why this is so\, is to appreciate that the full breadth and depths of incertitude in this field are far more profound and intractable than are routinely acknowledged in established forms of risk assessment. It is not necessarily ‘critical’ – but simply a matter of realism and rigour – to recognise that there exist many institutional pressures to suppress the typical scope and gravity of incertitude and treat it as a reduced notion of risk. The cumulative effect of this is to generate a kind of ‘organised irresponsibility’\, under which consequences of neglected aspects of ‘uncertainty’\, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘ignorance’ are effectively externalised onto the least privileged (often most vulnerable) social groups and their environments. \nSeen in this light\, the diverse implications of precaution are not simply about being more rigorous about different aspects of uncertainty. They are also about being more open in seeking to balance the routine effects of powerful interests within processes of technology governance. Precaution also entails a more realistic understanding of innovation as a branching evolutionary process. Here\, discouragement of one particular powerfully-backed trajectory in any given can be recognised not to be inherently ‘anti-technology’\, but typically to have the effect of encouraging alternative preferable innovation pathways. \nIt is on these grounds that carefully deliberate application of precaution in some of its many variant forms\, can help enable technology governance at the same time not only to be more rigorous about the realities of uncertainty and innovation\, but also more respectful of the imperatives of social justice and democracy.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/andy-stirling-lecture-precaution-governance-technology/
LOCATION:UCL Roberts 106 LT\, Roberts Building\, Torrington Place\, London\, WC1E 7JE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Technology & innovation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20171025T123000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20171025T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20171024T093612Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20171024T094749Z
UID:12240-1508934600-1508940000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Can we all learn about how to respond to global uncertainties from pastoralists at the margins?
DESCRIPTION:European University Institute\, Fiesole\, Florence\, Italy \nLecture by Ian Scoones at the European University Institute as part of the ERC-funded project Pastoralism\, Uncertainty and Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins. Find out more about this project \n\nUncertainties are everywhere: climate change\, financial crises\, migration flows\, infrastructure development\, disease outbreaks and more. Yet contemporary institutions and policy processes are poor at responding to and embracing uncertainties\, where we don’t know about either the likely outcomes or their probabilities. Too often political\, procedural and professional pressures force us to ignore uncertainties\, constructing problems and solutions in terms of manageable risk. In this presentation\, it will be argued that this is highly problematic\, and that we can learn much from those who live daily with uncertainty and make use of it as a productive resource. Pastoralists – people living largely from livestock in dryland\, montane and Mediterranean regions – have long experience of responding to intersecting uncertainties. Perceptions\, cultures and practices; markets and economic relations; and institutional arrangements and governance systems have co-evolved with environmental\, economic and political uncertainties. Can we learn from these experiences for other contexts\, where the challenges of responding to uncertainty are real\, and growing? Without arguing that lessons are directly transferrable\, the presentation will ask what core principles might be relevant for refashioning policies\, practices and institutions\, across diverse fields\, in order to confront heightened uncertainties in today’s world? \nThe presentation launches a new ERC Advanced Grant\, involving research on pastoral systems in Chinese Tibet\, East Africa and Sardinia\, and engaging with those in other fields grappling with uncertainty. The grant is held at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex\, UK and involves collaboration with the Global Governance Programme at EUI. \nEvent details (EUI website) \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/can-learn-respond-global-uncertainties-pastoralists-margins/
LOCATION:European University Institute\, Sala Triaria\, Villa Schifanoia\, Via Giovanni Boccaccio\, Fiesole\, Florence\, 50133\, Italy
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture
ORGANIZER;CN="Anna Triandafyllidou%2C European University Institute":MAILTO:anna.triandafyllidou@eui.eu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20171013T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20171016T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170615T141341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170615T141341Z
UID:12066-1507881600-1508173200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:4th BICAS Conference: New Extractivism\, Peasantries and Social Dynamics\, Moscow 2017
DESCRIPTION:New Extractivism\, Peasantries and Social Dynamics:\nCritical Perspectives and Debates \nBRICS Initiative in Critical Agrarian Studies fourth conference\nMoscow\, 13-16 October 2017 \nA call for abstracts has been published\, with a deadline of 15 June 2017. \n\nAbout the conference\nOver the past two decades\, agrarian economies and food systems have been undergoing a profound restructuring in the wake of large-scale land investments and the increasing financialisation of capital and land. These have reinforced old and created new forms and sites of capital accumulation by local and foreign elites\, and supported both old and new forms of extractivism and agroextractivism. This restructuring has contributed to the unsettling of global geopolitics in this period\, the context within which the BRICS grouping of countries was established as a vehicle to pursue their collective and individual agendas. \nRecently\, uncertainties in global power relations have been exacerbated by the rise of variegated nationalist-populist political projects\, movements or governments. Many of these are authoritarian and reactionary – as part of the reaction to\, and reflection of\, the failure of neoliberal globalization and its version of ‘development’. Such projects sometimes involve chauvinistic appeals to land and nation\, and xenophobic violence against outsiders\, however defined. Typically\, the divisions of class relations are downplayed or hidden by these ideologies and practices\, despite their undoubted centrality to the underlying dynamics. On the other hand\, new forms of resistance and struggles by oppressed groups\, including peasants and traditional communities\, are also emerging. Often these involve emancipatory forms of politics\, but in some cases they are rife with tensions over class\, gender and other social differences. Politics in all its guises thus continues to be a fundamental factor within processes of socio-economic transformation\, including agrarian change. \nThis conference will explore these emerging realities from the perspective of critical and engaged scholarship\, in alliance with active social forces. We will seek answers to difficult questions within three main clusters of subthemes – all informed by perspectives derived from agrarian political economy\, sociology\, and agro-ecology: \n(a)  The rise of – and current troubles within – the BRICS countries and middle-income countries (MICs)\, and the implications for agrarian/rural transformations as key aspects of broader social changes\, inside these countries and regionally/internationally. \nRelevant questions include: \nWhat are the dominant directions of transformation and social change\, and are there any countervailing directions? What endogenous and exogenous forces are driving change in agrarian structures\, including financialisation as a key driver of change? What are the roles of the state in the agrarian and agro-food transformations? How are state policies implicated and how do they affect the prospects for accumulation by different forms of capital? In turn\, how do the interests and accumulation strategies of different forms of capital\, including financial capital\, shape state policies? What are the roles of other actors\, including NGO and grassroots initiatives in expressing the interests of different social groups within these processes of transformation\, with what impacts on the accumulation of capital? \n(b)  The renewed interest in what some call ‘new extractivism’ and/or ‘agro-extractivism’ – in and in relation to the BRICS countries and middle income countries and beyond – and the role of the state as part of broader agrarian and environmental transformations\, and the implications for food sovereignty. \nRelevant questions include: \nWhat are the current processes and actors involved driving change and the emergence of new forms of agro-extractivism? How are local and national processes of agrarian transformation shaped by global and trans-national processes of investment\, trade and inter-state relations? What new forms of agri-business capital are emerging and with what effects? What are the implications for rights to land\, food sovereignty and social movements that promote food sovereignty? \n(c)  The rise of diverse forms of nationalist and populist movements and governments\, within and outside the BRICS countries and middle- income countries\, and the involvement in and reactions to such nationalist-populist projects by peasants and other rural classes. \nRelevant questions include: \nCan today’s forms of nationalist-populism be defined as a form of reactionary and even authoritarian politics that appeals to ordinary people while creating new exclusions\, and be explained in part as a reaction to processes of social and economic change in the rural world driven by global capital? Is nationalist-populism likely to influence and shape popular and policy responses to recent forms of new extractivism\, financialisation and accumulation? What effects will nationalist-populism have on efforts to promote agrarian social movements in the countryside? What are the prospects for resistance by peasants (family farmers/small scale farmers and traditional communities) and rural movements in particular? \nExplorations into these sub-themes and answers to some of the proposed questions will be rooted in engaged and rigorous research and practice\, and in friendly but critical debates amongst colleagues and comrades. \nThe challenges to advocacy work by civil society and social movement groups in relation to the issues dicussed above are enormous. A conversation on this will be an important part of the conference\, anchored by the Transnational Institute (TNI\, www.tni.org). \nSpeakers\nThe list of keynote and plenary speakers is currently very partial and tentative\, and is evolving; it includes: Teodor Shanin (Russia)\, Dzodzi Tsikata (Ghana\, tbi)\, Jayati Ghosh (India\, tbi)\, Ian Scoones (IDS Sussex)\, Marc Edelman (CUNY\, USA)\, Jan Douwe van er Ploeg (WUR\, Netherlands)\, Henry Bernstein (SOAS\, UK). \nExpanded Organizing Committee:\nTeodor Shanin (Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences)\, Alexander Nikulin (RANEPA\, Moscow)\, Irina Trotsuk (RANEPA\, Moscow)\, Ben Cousins (PLAAS\, South Africa)\, Ruth Hall (PLAAS South Africa)\, Sergio Schneider (UFRGS\, Brazil)\, Sergio Sauer (U of Brasilia)\, Ye Jingzhong (China Agricultural University\, Beijing)\, Jun Borras (ISS\, The Hague)\, Transnational Institute of TNI (Lyda Fernanda\, Pietje Vervest\, Jennifer Franco). BICAS secretariat (Juan Liu/ICTA Barcelona\, Ben McKay/U of Calgary\, Gustavo Oliveira/Swarthmore College\, USA). \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/4th-bicas-conference-call-abstracts-extractivism-rural-social-dynamics-brics/
LOCATION:Bacchus Room\, New Orleans Marriott\, 555 Canal Street\, New Orleans\, LA\, 70130\, United States
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Resource politics
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://steps-centre.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/BICAS-logo-feature.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170830T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170901T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170615T103947Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T105259Z
UID:12059-1504080000-1504285200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Transformations 2017: Transformations in Practice
DESCRIPTION:Members of the STEPS Centre\, along with colleagues from the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium\, will be attending the Transformations 2017: Transformations in Practice conference in August. \nThe Transformations conference is hosted by the Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience (CECHR) at the University of Dundee. It is the third in a biennial series of international interdisciplinary conferences that focuses on transformations towards sustainability. The organisers describe its aim as “addressing contemporary challenges and creating conditions for enhancing people’s wellbeing\, today and in the future\, while strengthening the Earth’s support system”. \nThere is a strong presence at the conference for the PATHWAYS Network\, a project co-led by STEPS which explores socio-ecological transformations in six sites worldwide – in India\, Argentina\, China\, the UK\, Kenya and Mexico. Sessions related to this project include: \nWednesday 30 August \n\n10.30 – 11.30 Urban Transformations in India: Emerging Pathways and Sustainable Alternatives – Pravin Kushwaha\, Pranav N. Desai and Dinesh Abrol (Room: 2S13)\n10.30 – 11.30 Alternative pathways to more sustainable food and agricultural systems – Anabel Marin\, Patrick van Zwanenberg and Almendra Cremaschi (Room: 2S16)\n\nThursday 31 August \n\n10.15 – 11.15 Promoting spaces for social-ecological transformation: The Transformation-lab in Xochimilco social-ecological system – Lakshmi Charli-Joseph\, Hallie Eakin\, Jesús Mario Siqueiros-García and Manuel-Navarrete (Room: 2S15)\n10.15 – 11.15 Whose voice matters? An empirical study on green transformation in China – Chulin Jiang (Room: 2S17)\n\nFriday 1 September \n\n11.15 – 12.15 Sustainable Agri-Food Systems – Connecting Local\, National and Global Transformations – Adrian Ely\, Elise Wach and Rachael Taylor (Room: 2S12)\n11.15 – 12.15 Transforming sustainable energy access – David Ockwell and Joanes Atela (Room: 2S14)\n12.30 – 13.30 Being good citizens: a political discourse analysis in China’s green transformation – Lichao Yang and Chulin Jiang (Room: 2S12)\n14.30 – 15.30 Transforming from the inside out: Gaining traction in entrenched sustainability challenges in Mexico City – Hallie Eakin\, Luis A. Bojorquez-Tapia\, David Manuel-Navarrete and Andres Baeza-Castro (Room: 2S13)\n\nOther STEPS contributions\nOther contributions from STEPS members and partners include Lyla Mehta\, who is co-author of a paper on ‘Examining interactions between uncertainty and transformation’\, and Shibaji Bose\, Upasona Ghosh and Shilpi Srivastava\, who have submitted the paper ‘Transformation in Practice: Using photovoice to open up spaces for lived experiences and social change in India’ – drawing on the project on Climate change and uncertainty from above and below. \n\nMoRE details\nThe latest version of the programme can be downloaded from the conference website.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/transformations-2017/
LOCATION:Forum Theatre\, Level 1\, Arts West  The University of Melbourne\, Parkville campus\, Forum Theatre\, Level 1\, Arts West The University of Melbourne\, Parkville campus\, Melbourne\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Research methods,Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20170820T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20170823T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170816T104505Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170816T104645Z
UID:12163-1503216000-1503500400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Resilience 2017: Resilience Frontiers for Global Sustainability
DESCRIPTION:STEPS Centre members and our partners from the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium will be taking part in the Resilience 2017 conference in Stockholm on 20-23 August 2017. \nThe conference will discuss resilience as a key lens for biosphere-based sustainability science. It will reflect back on the scientific progress made\, and aim to set out exciting future directions for research. A main focus will be on global sustainability challenges and opportunities\, which today are heavily influenced by the speed\, scale and connectivity of the Anthropocene. \nThe conference includes the following contributions from members of the STEPS Centre and Global Consortium: \n\nTransdisciplinary research as transformative space making: Co-productive capacities and the redistribution of transformative agency for pro-poor adaptive governance of environment and health issues in urbanising India (Fiona Marshall\, SPRU/STEPS\, Ritu Priya\, JNU/STEPS South Asia Sustainability Hub and Jonathan Dolley\, SPRU)\nWhat does it take to create space for the marginalised in messy transdisciplinary engagement? (Marina Apgar\, IDS/STEPS)\nMarina Apgar is also one of the authors of the presentation ‘Reflecting on multi-level governance from the experience of rights-based community conservation’\, along with Simone Lovera (Global Forest Coalition).\nPromoting spaces for social-ecological transformation: The Transformation-lab in Xochimilco social-ecological system (Lakshmi Charli-Joseph\, J. Mario Siqueiros-García\, Hallie Eakin\, David Manuel-Navarrete)\nMethods for social-ecological systems: Accounting for the complex (Andy Stirling and others)\nTransformative spaces for rethinking and redirecting agricultural system trajectories in Argentina: an application of the idea of T-Labs (Anabel Marín\, Patrick van Zwanenberg and Almendra Cremaschi)\nPer Olsson of the Stockholm Resilience Centre will also be chairing and speaking at a number of sessions. SRC are hosts of the conference.\n\nSee the Resilience 2017 conference website for more information\, including a full programme.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/resilience-2017-resilience-frontiers-global-sustainability/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170524T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170524T140000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170412T091915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170503T160817Z
UID:11661-1495630800-1495634400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative: Launch Event
DESCRIPTION:Seminar & launch event with Ruth Hall (Institute for Poverty\, Land and Agrarian Studies) and Ian Scoones (Institute of Development Studies/STEPS Centre). All welcome – registration is not required.\n \nDeepening inequalities\, failed livelihoods\, mass (under)employment\, climate chaos\, and racist anti-immigrant attacks characterise many settings across the world. Forms of ‘progressive neoliberalism’ have failed to stem disillusionment\, disenfranchisement and marginalisation. The rise of populist\, nationalist movements has been one very visible response. These may aim to ‘take back control’ in favour of ‘the people’\, or put one ideology ‘first’\, while excluding others\, generating tensions across society. All are responses to crises in contemporary capitalism\, yet they are rooted in specific histories\, institutional and social structures and political dynamics. \nYet the reactions to exclusionary politics are incredibly diverse\, across and indeed within countries. In the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI)\, we are interested in changes ongoing in rural areas that both give rise to a particular form of politics\, but also offer alternatives. ERPI seeks to foster a debate about regressive\, authoritarian politics as well as alternatives\, documenting\, analysing and theorising these in order to advance new emancipatory politics that challenge exclusionary\, violent and populist visions. In this launch event\, we will discuss briefly the 3 core themes of the Initiative – understanding the current conjuncture: rural roots and consequences; resisting\, organising and mobilising for an emancipatory rural politics; and understanding\, supporting\, creating\, deepening and scaling up alternatives. ERPI builds on the successful Land Deals Politics Initiative (LDPI)\, and will initiate a small grants programme to encourage research and action\, linking to a number of planned events in the coming year. \nFor more information about ERPI\, see the Institute of Social Studies website. \nRuth Hall is a professor at the Institute for Poverty\, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape\, South Africa\, and has worked on land reform\, land rights and land governance in South Africa and beyond. Ian Scoones is a Professorial Fellow at IDS\, and co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. Both are founding members of LDPI and ERPI.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/emancipatory-rural-politics-initiative-launch-event/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170515T173000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170515T190000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170301T095856Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170525T125536Z
UID:11541-1494869400-1494874800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Annual Lecture: Achim Steiner
DESCRIPTION:DOOMED TO FAIL OR BOUND TO SUCCEED? Sustainable Development and the Green Economy Agenda – Revisited \nAchim Steiner delivered the 2017 STEPS Annual lecture at the University of Sussex on 15 May. \nSteiner is former Executive Director of UNEP and now director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. In April 2017 it was announced that he would serve as the next Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). \nVideo\n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajQwBH27hJY[/embedyt]\nLecture slides\n  \n STEPS Annual Lecture 2017: Achim Steiner – Doomed to fail or bound to succeed? Sustainable Development and the Green Economy Agenda – Revisited  from STEPS Centre\n\n\n\nabout the lecture\nThe Annual Lectures are the only part of the STEPS Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability that is open to the public. You can also view materials from past Annual Lectures. \nSummary\nThe lecture will explore whether the ‘sustainable development’ and ‘green economy’ agendas remain relevant in terms of what happens next. Assessing the seemingly contradictory signals of the past 3 years – from recent multilateral breakthroughs\, such as the SDGs/Agenda 2030 or the Paris Agreement on the one hand\, to an increasingly negative narrative on their actual impact and implementation and the relevance of  multilateralism in global problem-solving on the other – may give rise to a new policy discourse on sustainable development and globalisation. \nInequality and sustainability are at the heart of current critiques of economic policy and globalisation. Can the transition towards an inclusive\, green economy succeed in driving the necessary changes required to meet the SDG target or the timelines of the Paris Agreement?
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-annual-lecture-achim-steiner/
LOCATION:Fulton A Lecture Theatre\, University of Sussex\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RH\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Governance & policy
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170512T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170512T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170503T110626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170503T110626Z
UID:11873-1494594000-1494599400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Seminar: Charles Tonui on the co-management of mangrove forest in Gazi Bay\, Kenya
DESCRIPTION:‘The Role of Community Based Organisations and Associations in Co-management of Forests in Kenya: The case of Mikoko Pamoja Community Based Organisation (MPCBO) and Gogoni-Gazi Community Forest Association (GOGACFA) in the Co-management of Mangrove Forest in Gazi Bay\, Kenya’ \nSTEPS Seminar with Charles Tonui\, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)\, Kenya. All are welcome to attend and no registration is necessary. \nThe Constitution of Kenya provides for people to contribute to the national tree cover target of 10%\, and the forest policy and legislation (Act 2005; Draft Act 2016) acknowledges that forests provide essential raw materials for domestic and industries and a variety of non-wood forest products. It acknowledges further that community based organisations and associations play important roles in sustainable management\, conservation and utilization of forests in Kenya. \nThe mangrove forest in Gazi Bay on the southern coast in Kenya is suffering from degradation and deforestation. Mikoko Pamoja Community Based Organisation (MPCBO) and Gogoni-Gazi Community Forest Association (GOGACFA) and partners including the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KEMFRI) have responded by not only co-managing and co-conserving the mangrove forest through the Mikoko Pamoja project in Gazi Bay\, but also by generating income through a carbon offsetting programme. They have achieved some success but also faced several challenges which have hindered effective and efficient co-management of the mangrove forest. Leveraging of institutional\, policy\, finance\, and capacity building support to communities will improve their participation in the co-management of the mangrove forests in the Southern coast in Kenya. \n\nCharles Tonui currently works as a research assistant at the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS). Charles’s academic background is in environmental planning and management. He participates actively in action research\, policy analysis\, planning and implementation of community-based adaptation and low-carbon development initiatives in the East Africa region. Charles is also a member of the research team on the STEPS Centre project Market-based mangrove afforestation and reforestation in Kenya and India.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-seminar-charles-tonui-co-management-mangrove-forest-gazi-bay-kenya/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Resource politics
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170510T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170510T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170406T121407Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170406T123808Z
UID:11652-1494421200-1494426600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar - Ruth Hall: The Reinvention of Land Reform in South Africa: State\, Market and Citizens
DESCRIPTION:Institute of Development Studies seminar with Ruth Hall\, Institute of Poverty\, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)\, South Africa \nThis event will be accompanied by a live audio stream and online discussion. \nLand reform\, one of post-apartheid governments’ main transformatory programmes\, has itself been transformed over the past twenty years\, reflecting changing policy agendas and ideological positions. Initially defined by a focus on multiple livelihoods for the rural poor\, land reform was soon transformed into a plan for the limited deracialisation of commercial agriculture rather than a process of restructuring to overcome agrarian dualism. In recent years this has been moderated by a retreat from allocating private title while still pursuing the capitalisation of black farmers under state leasehold – itself a return to prior models of state trusteeship. \nThe imposition of state control over farm size and production models has been revived\, with a new insistence on ‘production discipline’. In the midst of these changes\, land reform has succumbed to dualistic thinking and exhibits long historical continuities in official government thinking about land allocation\, tenure and the modernisation of African agriculture. While discursively framed as part of a radicalisation of the reform process\, the redistribution process appears to be narrowing\, shaped by a combination of state control\, state neglect and elite capture. \n\nRuth Hall is a professor at the Institute for Poverty\, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape\, South Africa\, and has worked on land reform\, land rights and land governance in South Africa and beyond. She is a regional coordinator of the Future Agricultures Consortium\, in partnership with IDS and others.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/seminar-ruth-hall-reinvention-land-reform-south-africa-state-market-citizens/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170502T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170502T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170502T075440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T105344Z
UID:11846-1493730000-1493735400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Seminar: Todd Crane - Interdisciplinary science and subjectivities in research for development
DESCRIPTION:‘Interdisciplinary science and subjectivities in research for development: What are the implications of methods and measures?’ \nSTEPS Seminar – all welcome \nSocio-ecological research continues to grapple with how to represent social and biophysical phenomena in integrated and balanced ways. Methodological choices\, especially regarding representation of the social\, have important implications for the robustness of the science\, subjectivities that emerge from different modes of representation and for the politically situated nature of the scientific endeavour. \nTodd Crane has recently published several papers addressing these issues\, but he will not give any definitive answers because he doesn’t have them. Instead\, seminar participants are invited to think through these issues with him\, especially in terms of how to integrate these considerations in research practice\, both reflexively and analytically. \nTodd Crane is a Senior Scientist at the Sustainable Livestock Systems group at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi\, Kenya. Trained as an anthropologist\, he specializes in climate change adaptation and mitigation issues in sub-Saharan Africa\, including cross-scale governance\, adaptation as socio-technical process\, and low-emissions dairy development. His work in research for development often involves collaboration with biophysical scientists. It also involves working with institutional actors looking for simple solutions and easily measured indicators for complex problems.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-seminar-todd-crane-interdisciplinary-science-subjectivities-research-development/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Food & agriculture,Research methods
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170424T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170424T183000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170313T101924Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170510T154954Z
UID:11582-1493029800-1493058600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Rapid Transitions: how did we do that?
DESCRIPTION:Join in on Twitter: #RapidTransitions \nIn the face of environmental crises and global inequality\, how can we work together for more sustainable futures? What can we learn from great transitions and transformations of the past? \nThis event brought together activists\, academics and practitioners to explore what we can learn from history and how we accelerate change in the present\, and launched a new booklet\, How did we do that? The possibility of Rapid Transition. \nVideo\nIn the video playlist\, we asked speakers to share their views on rapid transitions\, including Caroline Lucas\, Rob Hopkins\, Richard Murphy\, Andrew Simms\, Andy Stirling\, Pete Newell\, Paul Allen and Molly Conisbee. \n[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PLI8qkz1i11OR1rUcO55Wd0VQNzhkxaRPZ[/embedyt]\n\nDownload the booklet (PDF\, 1 MB)\nBooklet: How did we do that? The possibility of Rapid Transition\nby Andrew Simms and Peter Newell\nSTEPS Centre & New Weather Institute\, 2017 \nIs rapid transition possible? Sometimes events or new knowledge throw up reasons why we must make change happen quickly. At the present moment\, climate change and chronic social inequality seem to demand radical change – but what kind of changes will work\, and how can they be achieved? \nThis booklet collects stories of rapid transitions and different kinds of transformations to show what we can learn from history and the present day about how people adapt to rapid change. \nDownload the booklet (PDF\, 1 MB) \n\nMore about the event\nSpeakers: \n\nCaroline Lucas\, co-leader\, Green Party of England and Wales\nPaul Allen\, Centre for Alternative Technology\nRob Hopkins\, Transition Network\nRuth Potts\, Schumacher College\nMolly Conisbee\, University of Bristol / Bread\, Print & Roses\nAndrew Simms\, New Weather Institute\nPeter Newell\, University of Sussex/ESRC STEPS Centre\nLeo Murray\, 10:10\nPhil Johnstone\, SPRU\, University of Sussex\nRichard Murphy\, Tax Research UK\nBradon Smith\, The Open University\, Stories of Change project\nChris Rowland\, OVESCO\nKayla Ente\, Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-op (BHESCo)\nRuth Potts\, Schumacher College / Bread\, Print & Roses\nSarah Woods\, playwright & artist\n\n\nAbout the Transformations series\nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details. \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/rapid-transitions-how-did-we-do-that/
LOCATION:Brighton\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Technology & innovation
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170403T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170403T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170313T090049Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T105410Z
UID:11580-1491224400-1491229800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Seminar: Where are the missing co-authors? Authorship practices in participatory research
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a STEPS Seminar with Louise Fortmann (University of California at Berkeley)\, on 3 April 2017 at the Institute of Development Studies.\n \nThe increase in publications based on participatory research has raised questions about crediting the contributions of non-academic collaborators. \nUsing qualitative and quantitative methods\, trends and patterns in authorship and acknowledgment practices were analyzed for a sample of 262 journal articles in English reporting on participatory research on rural livelihoods published from 1975-2013. Six percent of the researchers recognized the intellectual contributions of their non-academic collaborators with co-authorship and 51 percent with acknowledgment.  Researchers who did co-author with their collaborators were motivated to do so in order to recognize intellectual contributions\, practice research ethics and work towards epistemic decolonization.  Co-authorship can be an important component of epistemic justice in participatory research. Participatory researchers should always discuss authorship with their non-academic collaborators. Non-academics’ contributions to scientific knowledge need to be taken into account in understandings of the practice of science. \nLouise Fortmann is Professor Emerita of Natural Resource Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. Her work has focused on property\, gender\, community-based natural resource management\, and the democratization of science in east and southern Africa and the US. She is the editor of Participatory Research in Conservation and Rural Livelihoods: Doing Science Together. Her inability to milk a cow has been a persisting source of amusement to villagers.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-seminar-missing-co-authors-authorship-practices-participatory-research/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Research methods
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20170317T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20170317T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170313T094226Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170313T143534Z
UID:11581-1489744800-1489770000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Transforming Innovation: Addressing Nexus Challenges with Radical Change
DESCRIPTION:What kind of innovations are needed to address the interconnected ‘nexus’ of challenges related to water\, food\, energy and other resources in a changing world? \nThis event in central London is organised by the Nexus Network\, an ESRC funded initiative to support thinking about the interdependencies\, tensions and trade-offs between nexus resources and issues. It is also linked to the STEPS Centre’s series of Transformations events (see below for details). \n \nThe final workshop for the Nexus Network\, this event will explore the practical implications of research on innovation and the nexus. \n\nInnovation and the nexus\nNexus challenges come in many forms\, requiring social\, institutional and technological changes. Another buzzword – ‘innovation’ – therefore also comes to the fore.  But incremental changes\, while important\, are not enough. The scope and gravity of nexus challenges call for more ‘radical’ changes – in many senses of the word. \n\nWhat in practice does it mean to transform not only existing systems of provision\, but patterns of innovation themselves?\nWhat is the role in this regard of different kinds of democratic struggle?\nWhat are the implications for current institutionalised notions of expertise\, currently privileged disciplinary methods and vertical structures for the organisation of research?\n\nParticipants\nConfirmed and invited speakers at this workshop include Andy Stirling (ESRC STEPS Centre/SPRU\, University of Sussex)\, Sujatha Raman (University of Nottingham)\, Frances Harris (University of Hertfordshire)\, Joe Williams (University of Durham)\, Jake Reynolds (CISL)\, Adrian Smith (ESRC STEPS Centre /SPRU)\, Elizabeth Shove (Lancaster University)\, Ruth Stevenson (Centre for Alternative Technology)\, Clare Brass (Royal College of Art)\, Andrew Simms (New Weather Institute)\, Tim Forsyth (LSE)\, Ian Scoones (STEPS/IDS)\, Rose Cairns (SPRU)\, Dipak Gyawali (Royal Nepal Academy of Science & Technology)\, Miles Parker (University of Cambridge) and Jack Stilgoe (UCL).\n \n\nAbout the Transformations series\nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/transforming-innovation-nexus/
LOCATION:Central London
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20170316
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20170317
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
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;VALUE=DATE:20170206
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20170207
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20170201T161235Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170201T161235Z
UID:11213-1486339200-1486425599@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Food Agendas in a Post-Brexit Future: BSUFN Symposium 2017
DESCRIPTION:Brighton\, UK (buy tickets) \nThere has been much talk of the ways in which the United Kingdom leaving the European Union\, or ‘Brexit’\, will impact British farmers due to changes to the Common Agricultural Policy.  We believe that Brexit will have far reaching effects across the food systems in many ways\, in the UK\, Europe and beyond. From policy implications for food safety standards and nutrition labels\, to international trade and markets\, to controls on chemical pesticides and the regulation of genetically modified (GM) organisms\, and to diet and public health\, and more. \nTo reflect current discussions about Brexit and its implications\, the Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network (BSUFN) Annual Symposium 2017 will consider food agendas in a post-Brexit future. This may reflect anticipated impacts of Brexit on the UK food system as well as implications for food agendas in other countries and regions of the world. Topics may explore the future of food in the immediate aftermath of Brexit\, likely to be 2019\, or a more distant horizon. \nSTEPS speakers at the event include Adrian Ely and Erik Millstone. You can follow the event on Twitter using the hashtag #BSUFN17. \nSee the programme for more information (BSUFN website) \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/food-agendas-in-a-post-brexit-future-bsufn-symposium-2017/
LOCATION:Brighton\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20161103T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20161104T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20160816T194258Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170315T103145Z
UID:8824-1478160000-1478278800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Emancipatory Transformations: Engaging Radical Democracy in Kurdistan
DESCRIPTION:A public event and workshop on 3-4 November in Brighton\, UK focused on the remarkable political transformations happening in Rojava (Western/Syrian Kurdistan) in the midst of bloody conflicts and a humanitarian crisis. \nIn the region\, citizens are experimenting with ‘democratic confederalism’ and ideas from feminism and ecology as part of an ambitious project of radical democracy and social justice. The workshop aims to help participants learn\, explore\, share\, and think of future possibilities for direct democracy and democratic confederalism. \nThe workshop is part of a series of Transformations events exploring what we can learn from rapid transitions and transformations. \n\n3 November: Public event \nRevolutions in Rojava and Beyond: Perspectives on Democratic Transformations \nBrighton Dome Studio Theatre\nNew Road\, Brighton\nBN1 1UG\n4pm to 8pm \nScreening of short activist-produced films\, followed by a panel discussion with Janet Biehl\, Ercan Ayboğa\, and Dilar Dirik. \nFilms: \n\nBeyond War – a tour of Rojava (watch on YouTube)\nKurdistan: La guerre des filles (watch on YouTube)\n\nPanel: Janet Biehl and Ercan Ayboğa on Revolutions in Rojava and Beyond\n \nMore information (Eventbrite) \n\n4 November: Invite-only workshop\nEmancipatory transformations: engaging radical democracy in Kurdistan \nWorkshop at the University of Sussex. More info/questions: Amber Huff (a.huff@ids.ac.uk) \nVideo from the event\nAndy Stirling: Introduction \nAndy Stirling (SPRU)\, co-director of STEPS\, introduces the workshop with a short talk on STEPS Centre thinking about how transformations relate to democracy. \n \nDebbie Bookchin: Confederalism and its critics \nThe journalist and author Debbie Bookchin introduces democratic confederalism\, the idea at the heart of Rojava’s political system\, and traces its history and evolution\, including the ideas of libertarian municipalism proposed by her father Murray Bookchin. \n \nSolidarity statement\nAround the time of the workshop\, arrests were made in Turkey of leading figures from the HDP\, an opposition party\, and around 170 media outlets were shut down by the Turkish government. The workshop produced a solidarity statement in response to these events. \nRead the solidarity statement (Google Docs) \n\nBlog commentaries\nRojava\, where water is more expensive than oil\nCemal Özkahraman\, 21 December 2016 (openDemocracy.net) \nLearning from Rojava: exploring democracy in the midst of the Syrian war and beyond\nPatrick Huff\, 12 September 2016 \nTrump and Brexit: what’s the alternative?\nIan Scoones\, 11 November 2016 \n\nAbout the events\nThe many conflicts ravaging the Middle East pose profound questions regarding seemingly intractable and intersecting questions of democracy\, political and ethnic pluralism\, gender oppression\, and ecological despoliation; questions that confront not only the region\, but in varying forms\, the entire world. As such\, they highlight common challenges for humanity. These questions have received some radical and innovative answers in Rojava (Western/Syrian Kurdistan) where an ambitious project of radical democracy and social justice is being implemented despite formidable challenges\, including a total war against ISIS. \nCentral to this project are the principles of democratic confederalism\, plurinationalism\, revolutionary feminism and social ecology as integral dimensions of the radical wing of the wider Kurdish freedom movement. The Rojava revolution therefore represents a novel form of emancipatory praxis that has profound implications for the region and beyond. \nIts attempted conjunction of direct democracy\, communal economy\, gender equality and ecological consciousness under the most unfavourable local and regional conditions in a region ravaged by sectarian conflict calls for engaged and critical dialogue by academics and activists. This is necessary in order to address both its achievements and limitations\, to unearth and engage with many questions that remain suspended between a precarious present and uncertain future\, and to ask what broader lessons it holds for our understanding of transformative democratic practice in the Middle East and beyond. \n\nWorkshop\nThis workshop aims to bring together a diverse group of researchers and activists to mutually learn\, explore\, share\, and think of future possibilities for direct democracy and democratic confederalism through the examination of real-world grounded examples from contemporary movements in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) and Bakur (Northern Kurdistan)\, with careful consideration of the historical context and dynamics of contemporary and past struggles and challenges. \nThemes include: \n\nThe significance of understanding transformations to democracy for understanding transformations to sustainability\nConfederalism and its Critics\nContextualising democratic transformations in Kurdistan\nConceptualising transformations\nEcology\, Economy and Development\nComparative perspectives on transformative practice\n\nThese events have been organised through collaboration between the ESRC STEPS Centre\, members of the Sussex Kurdish Community\, Brighton Kurdistan Solidarity\, and members of the UK-based Kurdish Solidarity activist community. \n\nAbout the Transformations series\nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/emancipatory-transformations-engaging-radical-democracy-in-kurdistan/
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20161022T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20161022T184500
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20160929T135616Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20160929T135616Z
UID:11211-1477157400-1477161900@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Is the future nuclear? Battle of Ideas debate with Andy Stirling
DESCRIPTION:Frobisher Auditorium 1\nBattle of Ideas\, Barbican Centre\, London \nSTEPS co-director Prof Andy Stirling (SPRU) will debate the role of nuclear power in the future of energy\, at a debate hosted by the Battle of Ideas\, the flagship festival run by the Institute of Ideas in London. The event is open to Battle of Ideas ticket holders. \nAlso on the panel are Malcolm Grimston\, Joe Kaplinsky\, Prof Gerry Thomas and Martin Wright\, and the chair is Rob Lyons. \n \nFrom the Battle of Ideas website: \n“In an age when climate change has become a defining issue for governments\, nuclear power might be expected to be enjoying a new golden age. Nuclear is low-carbon\, unlike coal and gas\, and doesn’t suffer from the unpredictability and intermittency of wind and solar. Apart from one disastrous incident at Chernobyl in 1986\, nuclear has proven to be remarkably safe. Even the accident at the ageing Fukushima plant in 2011\, caused by an unprecedented tsunami and exacerbated by an unfortunate plant design\, caused no deaths from radiation exposure. Yet that golden age of nuclear still seems elusive.” \nSee full event & ticket details
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/is-the-future-nuclear-battle-of-ideas-debate-with-andy-stirling/
LOCATION:Books
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160928T070000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160928T213000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20160811T133332Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180322T170455Z
UID:8804-1475046000-1475098200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Who is the digital revolution for?
DESCRIPTION:Panel at the event: Ann Light\, Kat Braybrooke\, Tim Jordan\, Caroline Bassett and Andrew Sleigh.\nLighthouse\, 28 Kensington Street\nBrighton\, BN1 4AJ\, UK \nThis public event on 28 September 2016 explored how society and digital technology can shape each other for the common good. The event\, part of the Brighton Digital Festival\, is part of of our Transformations series of events. \n \nMaterials produced from this event\nBlog: What can we learn from digital transformations?\nby Nathan Oxley and Adrian Smith\, 7 October 2016 \nStorify: Tweets and images from the event (Storify.com) \nPhotos: Picture gallery (Flickr.com) \nAbout the event\nFor many of us\, digital technologies have been revolutionary. Yet at the same time\, some feel disenchanted with the consequences. \nThe digital is cast increasingly as an instrument of surveillance\, or a tool for disciplining ‘gig economies’\, and a material burden upon our environment and climate. \nIn this event\, we want to re-enchant the digital. We’ll reconnect with the utopian spirit of early pioneers\, and discuss aspirations and activities today for a sustainable\, democratic\, weightless\, and liberating digital society. A panel of writers and researchers will each give their view on how we can become re-enchanted with digital technologies. \nYou’ll have a chance to discuss the developers\, users and movements from around the world that are making digital technologies more co-operative\, easier to repair and repurpose\, and working with people to develop digital technologies for sustainable developments. \nWe’ll also look back at lessons from the last 40 years\, such as the free software movement\, hacklabs\, Web utopias\, and Scandinavian models for worker-controlled systems design. Who\, what\, and where are the heirs to that pioneering spirit\, and how is it manifesting today? \nThe event is part of the 2016 Brighton Digital Festival. \n\nChair\nAndrew Sleigh\, Producer\, Lighthouse and Maker Assembly \nSpeakers\nAnn Light\, Professor of Design & Creative Technology (Engineering and Design)\, University of Sussex (@StrangertoHabit) \nTim Jordan\, Professor of Digital Cultures\, University of Sussex \nCaroline Bassett\, Director\, Sussex Humanities Lab \nKat Braybrooke\, Researcher\, University of Sussex (@codekat) \nAdrian Smith\, Professor of Technology & Society\, Science Policy Research Unit and STEPS Centre\, University of Sussex (@smithadrianpaul) \nOrganiser info\nFor more details and other events in the Festival\, visit the Brighton Digital Festival website. \nThis event is organised by the ESRC STEPS Centre\, Sussex Humanities Lab and the Creative Technology Research Group and is part of a series on Transformations. \n\nAbout the Transformations series\nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details. \n\nImage: Camden Restart Party in Dartmouth Park by Restart Project (Flickr cc by-nc 2.0) \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/who-is-the-digital-revolution-for/
CATEGORIES:Technology & innovation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160920T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160920T143000
DTSTAMP:20260403T231145
CREATED:20160718T144049Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163120Z
UID:8787-1474376400-1474381800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Kolya Abramsky: ‘Towards a Class-Based Approach to Global Energy Transition: Shifting Energy Demand\, Expanding the Renewable Energy Sector and Phasing Out Fossil Fuel’
DESCRIPTION:STEPS Seminar – all welcome \nConvening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\nLibrary Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE \nAbstract: Terms such as “energy democracy” and “climate justice” have gained increasingly widespread usage and acceptance over the last 5 years. In order to give weight to these slogans\, it is necessary to understand the class relations behind the global energy sector\, and the sector’s worldwide division of labour. As a key means of production and consumption in the world-division of labour\, the energy sector as a whole\, both in the short term and in the long term\, are determined (and determinant of) class relations. \nThe energy sector is already an important site of struggle throughout much of the world. These struggles are likely to intensify in the years ahead. The question of “energy transition” is a central axis of class struggle in the world-economy in the years ahead. Like all class struggle\, its outcome is highly uncertain and unpredictable. \nAbout Kolya Abramsky\nKolya Abramsky is a freelance researcher\, educator and consultant on the global energy sector. Over 15 years\, he has focused on the social relations in the sector\, including land\, work\, ownership and choice of technology. Formerly\, he was the International Energy Officer for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa; coordinator of the World Wind Energy Institute (Denmark); Visiting International Scholar/winner of Manfred-Heindler Award for Energy and Climate Change Research at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Science\, Technology and Society\, at the Interuniversity Research Centre for Technology\, Work and Culture in Austria. He has edited two books: Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution: Social Struggles in the Transition to a Post-petrol World\, and Restructuring and Resistance: Diverse Voices of Struggle in Western Europe. He has advised policy makers and addressed universities in five continents. He initiated and built\, jointly with Focus on the Global South\, the website Understanding China’s Energy Landscape. He has a Sociology MA from State University of New York\, Binghamton.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/kolya-abramsky-towards-a-class-based-approach-to-global-energy-transition-shifting-energy-demand-expanding-the-renewable-energy-sector-and-phasing-out-fossil-fuel/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Seminars
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR