Meetings of the Political Ecology Research Group at the Department of Geography

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Tuesday 22nd May 2012, 1.00pm - Alexandra Girard, DPhil candidate, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

Women, water and work - examining the role of the statecraft in irrigation management in Northern India

Venue: Room 101 Hardy Building

The role of the state in irrigation is contentious in India. The debate over the state’s position and capability to deal with environmental changes in rural areas is largely reflected in the management of irrigation systems in Northern India.The Kangra Valley, in Himachal Pradesh, has a long history of using /kuhls/, narrow and annually-dug drainage lines, to capture surface runoffs from monsoons and snowmelt
for irrigation. While these systems have been traditionally built, operated and maintained by male villagers, in the past decades numerous /kuhls/‘s have been overtaken by the state and their management left
under the responsibility of the Irrigation and Health Department (IPH). Since 1985, incentives to transfer operation and maintenance of state owned irrigation canals to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have
brought changes in the gender dynamics of /kuhl /management. With new policies to increasingly involve women with PRIs and the rising number of women engaging with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the agency of women is now becoming an integral part of the decision-making and carrying collective actions on /kuhls/, as opposed to existing patriarchal traditional management system. Using a household survey and interviews the research provides a comparative evaluation of the multiple roles of women in irrigation management and to what extent different irrigation management regimes lead to better
meeting the needs of female water users as reflected in their level of participation and decision making.

# Tuesday 29th May 2012, 1.00pm - Dr. Rob Small, Flora & Fauna International

Valuing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Servicesin the Ewasu Ng'iro watershed

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 5th June 2012, 1.00pm - Lindsay Galbraith, PhD Student at the Department of Geography

Policy making in confined spaces: the politics of exclusion in Canada's planning reform agenda

Venue: Room 101 Hardy Building

In northwestern British Columbia (BC), a large number of infrastructure projects are proposed and many of them are subject to environmental impact assessment (EIA). As Canada introduces significant reforms this year to streamline EIA, this paper examines the implications of these changes for policy making in the energy sector and for BC First Nations. Planning offers some of the very few formal spaces where policy discussions take place between First Nations and the governments of Canada and BC, usually over effects of developments on Aboriginal rights. A theoretical framework is introduced to conceptualize this particular role for planning in policy-making. The framework is then used to examine one in-depth case
study where the Haida Nation has used planning to regain some control over their island territory. As the Haida attempt to use planning to regain control over their ocean territory, Canada has actively resisted, leaving the EIA process as the only formal venue available to hear Haida concerns over their ocean territory. Two EIAs are proposed in the Haida ocean
territory: a large offshore wind farm and an Enbridge oil pipeline and tanker project. These EIAs are examined in conjunction with the wider national discourse linking these events to the planning reform agenda. Findings suggest that planning reform is a task aimed at deepening control over policy critics and has important implications for excluding First Nations from Canadian policy-making and increasing tensions as First
Nations and their allies turn to the courts and less formal venues.

# Tuesday 12th June 2012, 1.00pm - Girija Godbole, PhD student, Department of Geography

Title to be confirmed

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

Return to the list of forthcoming seminars.

# Tuesday 15th May 2012, 1.00pm - Esther Turnhout, Associate Professor at the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands

Only what is counted counts? The scientific and economic representation of biodiversity

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Biodiversity governance is characterized by a strong technocratic orientation. Science-based data, maps and numbers are used in the representation of biodiversity and inform decision making about conservation targets and priorities. In this talk, I will offer a critical engagement with the role of science and scientific knowledge in the representation of biodiversity and the
implications of these representations for how we treat biodiversity in practice. My contribution is based on the central idea that biodiversity representations are not neutral mirrors of world but activity contribute to the constitution of biodiversity as a readable and governable phenomenon: they are performative. Subsequently, I will use the examples of TEEB and IPBES to demonstrate the emergence of an explicit economic discourse of Ecosystem Services and to analyse how this economic discourse connects with and complements existing technocratic biodiversity discourses. I will conclude by discussing the importance of critical scrutiny of the performativity of knowledge in critical accounts of the neoliberalization of nature and addressing the linkages between political ecology and science and technology studies that are required to achieve this.

# Tuesday 8th May 2012, 1.00pm - Isabel Melo Vasquez, Visiting student from the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University, Netherlands

Assessing discursive practices associated with Terra Preta governance in Amazonas state, Brazil

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 13th March 2012, 1.00pm - Dr. Bhaskar Vira (Department of Geography) and others

"Reviewing the effectiveness of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation"

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Results from the Cambridge Conservation Initiative ‘Ecosystem-based adaptation project

# Tuesday 6th March 2012, 1.00pm - Kathryn Humphries, PhD student, Department of Geography

The Performance of Policy in Tanzanian CBNRM: Hidden Aspects of Governance and Participatory Spaces

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 28th February 2012, 1.00pm - Dr. Chris Sandbrook, Department of Geography

Reading: Land Sparing/Land Sharing

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 21st February 2012, 1.00pm - Dr. Evangelia Apostolopoulou, Visiting Scholar from the Department of Ecology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece

‘Framings of scale challenges in the governance of biodiversity’

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 14th February 2012, 1.00pm - James Palmer, PhD student, Department of Geography

‘Biofuels and the politics of land-use change: The controversial place of "place" in environmental governance

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 7th February 2012, 1.00pm - Reading and Discussion session

Reading, Jepson et al., (2011),‘What is a conservation actor?’

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Jepson et al., (2011),‘What is a conservation actor?’Conservation and Society, vol. 9(3): 229-235

# Tuesday 31st January 2012, 1.00pm - Reading and Discussion Session

Reading: Forsyth (2011), ‘Politicizing environmental explanations: What can political ecology learn from sociology and philosophy of science?’

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Book chapter in Goldman et al., (Eds), Knowing Nature: Conversations at the intersection of political ecology and science studies, University of Chicago Press

# Tuesday 24th January 2012, 1.00pm - Speaker to be confirmed

Political Ecology Lunch Social

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 17th January 2012, 1.00pm - Riamsara Kuyakanon Knapp, PhD Student, Department of Geography

‘Is it conservation or development? Pilgrimage or ecotourism? Identifying the genius loci in a hidden land (sbas-yul)'

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 29th November 2011, 1.00pm - Dr. Freddy Alvarez, Visiting Scholar, Department of Geography

'The rights of nature in the Ecuadorian constitution’

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 5.00pm - His Excellency Dr. Mok Mareth, Senior Minister and Minister of the Environment, Royal Government of Cambodia

This talk is being organised by Flora and Fauna International

‘Creating protected areas in post-conflict Cambodia’

Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 15th November 2011, 1.00pm - Chris Goodall

Reading: Goodall (draft paper) ‘Peak Stuff’ Did the UK reach a maximum use of material resources in the early part of the last decade?

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography

Abstract not available

# Wednesday 9th November 2011, 1.00pm - Dr. Peter Usher, Visiting Scholar, Department of Geography

This meeting is being organised in collaboration with the Travelling Knowledges reading group

‘Environmental assessment in Canada: The Mackenzie gas project'

Venue: Hardy Building Room 101

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 1st November 2011, 4.00pm - Prof. Piers Blaikie, University of East Anglia

This talk is being organised by the Cambrige University Geographical Society

‘Political ecology: Meeting travellers along the way’

Venue: Emmanuel college

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 18th October 2011, 12.00am - Bram Büscher

Nature on the move: The emergence and circulation of fictitious conservation and liquid nature

Venue: Venue to be confirmed

Reading (draft paper)