Research seminars
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Main Departmental seminar series
Main Departmental seminar series at the Department of Geography.
View the archive of previous seminars.
- # Thursday 2nd May 2013, 4.15pm - Michael Hulme,University of East Anglia
- The scientific and cultural dynamics of climate change (1988-2013)
- Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, Department of Geography, Downing Site
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In 1988 few serious commentators believed that the politics of climate change would be anything other than tortuous. Yet the assumption has remained through the period since that human-induced climate change is an important, urgent and discrete problem which at least in principle lends itself to policy solutions. Optimism has waxed and waned, but the belief has been maintained that at least some forms of policy intervention will yield tangible public benefits. [[Yes, the climatic side-effects of large-scale combustion of fossil fuels were an unforeseen and undesirable outcome of Western and then global industrialisation. But putting this causal chain into reverse—arresting some of these unwanted side-effects—was believed to be in the reach of an intelligent, purposeful and ingenious humanity]]. This presumption must now be questioned. Maybe the climate system cannot be managed by humans. This brief survey of climate change over 25 years suggests at least two reasons why. First, there is no ‘plan’, no self-evidently correct way of framing and tackling the phenomenon of climate change which will over-ride different legitimate interests and force convergence of political action. Second, climate science keeps on generating different forms of knowledge about climate—different handles on climate change—which are suggestive of different forms of political and institutional response to climate change. Or put more generally, science asa form of creative inquiry into the physical world co-evolves with the physical phenomena it is seeking to understand. Taken together these two lessons suggest other ways of engaging with the idea of climate change, not as a discrete environmental phenomenon to prevent, control or manage, but as a forceful idea which carries creative potential.
- # Thursday 9th May 2013, 4.15pm - John Agnew, UCLA and Queen's University, Belfast
- Territorial Politics after the Financial Crisis
- Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, Department of Geography, Downing Site
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In this lecture I redefine the financial crisis as a crisis of governance rather than as a primarily economic one conforming to the typical state-by-state framing of macroeconomics. I begin with a brief account of the mismatch between the geographical activities of major financial actors, on the one hand, and the geographical scope of state regulators, on the other. I then address three geographical dimensions of the mismatch and their consequences for territorial politics at different scales: what I term “low geopolitics” or the increased importance of economic matters involving non-state actors (credit-rating agencies, large law firms, producer-service organizations, etc.) often beyond the regulatory competence of particular states or international organizations for world politics; the increased political tensions between so-called world cities, on the one hand, and their surrounding hinterlands, on the other, particularly when national government fiscal and monetary policies favor the biggest cities over the rest of their territories; and the difficulties of “devolution” to local and regional governments when expenditures are devolved but revenue-raising and regulatory powers are not. I wish to question two developing narratives about territorial politics in the aftermath of the financial crisis: that which sees an “inevitable” return to a state-based world of finance and associated regulation and that which sees a decline in the possibilities of political devolution as a result of the crisis.
Seminars in Cultural and Historical Geography
- See also: The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure - Seminar Series and Graduate Workshops in Economic and Social History
All seminars begin at 4.15pm and take place in the Seminar Room (unless otherwise stated), Department of Geography. All welcome!
There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.
You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.
Cambridge Conservation Seminars
The series is intended to provide a research and social focus for university lecturers, research staff and postgraduate students interested in conservation research. The primary aim is to inform university colleagues of what research is going on in different departments and to bring in high quality outside speakers. Equally, members of conservation organisations are welcome to attend. A key element is the opportunity after each talk to socialise with colleagues from different departments and organisations.
Generously funded by the CCI Strategic Initiative Fund
http://www.conservation.cam.ac.uk/
** Send in your suggestions now for speakers for the 2013-14 series! ec460@cam.ac.uk **
There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.
You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.