|
Masters in Environmental Governance
MA Wild Writing
iCES
Film Series
Occasional
Papers
Current Research Programmes
University Books on
Environment and Health
University's Green Task Force
Department of Biological
Sciences
Fellows of the iCES
Prof Jules
Pretty
Dr Jo Barton
Prof Ted Benton
Prof Steffen Boehm
Dr Stuart Bunting
Prof Ian Colbeck
Dr
Val Gladwell
Prof Mark
Harvey
Rachel
Bragg
Dr Karen Hulme
Prof Peter Hulme
Dr Peter
Martin
Dr Sandra Moog
David Ong
Dr Kate
Rockett
Dr Gavin Sandercock
Dr David Smith
Prof Colin Samson
Prof
Martin Sellens
Prof Nigel South
Associates of iCES
Dr Zareen Bharucha
Karen Kolbe
Pippa Mansell
Suresh Sahu
Dr Zulfiqar Ali
|
Seminar series
EcoCultures: Resilience for the Future of Social-Ecological Systems
Every Wednesday during term-time, 4-6pm, in Room
5N.4.8 (week 7 : LTB 4)
These seminars form part of one of the University's
Global Challenges programme. Some
communities or cultures have been deliberately designed as cultural
revitalisation projects, others are historical relics; some are distinct
communities, such as indigenous or religious groups, others are indistinct
from the surrounding or neighbouring human systems, but nonetheless all of
them have implicitly chosen pathways towards resilience. Despite the
prevailing gloom about global prospects, these communities are living in
ways that build natural, social and human capital, maintain well-being and
happiness, and contribute to the sustainable use of resources, as a result
of various projects, programmes and cultures. For different reasons,
resilience within these EcoCultures is high or has increased.
2nd March - Professor Bill Adams, University of
Cambridge
Conservation's Babel Fish? Ecosystem Services and Interdisciplinarity
13th October – Professor Ken Worpole, Cities
Institute, London Metropolitan University
A home for the birds, but not for us
Ken Worpole is a writer and broadcaster, and the author of many books on
social policy, landscape and architecture. He was a member of the UK
government Urban Green Spaces Task Force, and an Adviser to the Commission
for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Heritage Lottery
Fund. His books include, Here Comes the Sun: architecture and public space
in 20th century European culture (2001), Last Landscapes: the architecture
of the cemetery in the West (2003), and most recently, Modern Hospice
Design: the architecture of palliative care (2009). He is currently a Senior
Professor in The Cities Institute at London Metropolitan University.
In this talk Professor Ken Worpole will compare and contrast the continuing
development of new wildlife areas, RSPB sites, ecology parks, et al along
the Thames corridor and Essex coastal areas with the ecological
unsustainability of most new housing in adjacent lands. We are adept at
providing a home for the birds and the marsh frogs, but utterly incapable of
providing an ecological home for ourselves and our lifestyles.
20th October – Professor Garry Marvin, School of Business and Social
Sciences, Roehampton University
‘Countries’ in the Countryside: English Foxhunting and Other Hunting
Communities
In his research on leisure hunting Garry has been exploring the nature of
the experiences that hunters seek and achieve when they are hunting. He has
been particularly interested in engagements with the landscapes of hunting.
In this paper he will set out some notions of belonging and engagement in
foxhunting and will attempt to link this research to other modes of hunting,
connectivity and community.
3rd November - Dr. Christopher Houghton Budd
Deep Accounting - The key to financial and economic sustainability
Most people today are concerned about the sustainability of modern economic
life and the need for some form of accountability towards the environment.
However, many of the solutions are either free market or of a 'bolt-on'
regulatory kind. What is needed is an understanding of economic life that
hallows the environment in the first place, coupled with the use of
conventional accounting to overcome the externalising and socialising of
costs.
10th November – Dr. Patrick Devine-Wright, Manchester School of
Architecture, University of Exeter
Beyond NIMBYism (not in my backyard): Understanding conflicts over siting
renewable energy technologies
Patrick Devine-Wright holds a Chair in Human Geography at the University of
Exeter. His main conceptual interest is the concept of place, and
particularly the concepts of place attachment and place identity. Whilst
working in applied, interdisciplinary research projects, he has applied
these concepts in novel ways to explain public responses to conflicts over
the siting of sustainable energy technologies such as wind farms – conflicts
typically dubbed ‘NIMBYism’ (not in my backyard). He is editor of the book
‘Public Engagement with Renewable Energy: From Nimbyism to Participation’
published in 2010 by Earthscan and acted as co-editor of a special issue of
the Journal of Environmental Psychology on ‘Place, Identity and Behaviour’.
He was Principle Investigator of the ‘Beyond Nimbyism’ multidisciplinary
research project that concluded in 2009 and was rated as ‘outstanding’ by
ESRC in end-of-award peer review. He was an invited Lead Expert to the UK
Government’s Foresight project on Sustainable Energy and a member of the
International Science Panel on Renewable Energy. He has provided consultancy
expertise to a range of private, voluntary and public sector organizations
and has disseminated research findings in a variety of media, including
radio and TV.
http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Patrick_Devine_Wright
Governments worldwide are increasing the use of renewable
energy as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, raising important
questions about the social acceptance of new energy technologies. Typically
when asked, members of the public give strong support for renewable energy,
yet often social conflicts arise when projects are proposed in specific
places. ‘NIMBYism’ (not in my back yard) is often used by policy makers and
energy companies to explain this ‘gap’, referring to the presumed ignorance,
selfishness or irrationality of individuals who object. However, the NIMBY
concept has been strongly critiqued by social scientists from a range of
disciplines as a valid and appropriate way of understanding objection.
This presentation will draw on the findings of a three-year
multi-disciplinary research project funded by the ESRC/Research Councils’
Energy Programme involving six UK Universities entitled ‘Beyond Nimbyism’.
The project involved the collection of qualitative and quantitative data
from over 3000 members of the public living across the UK. In particular,
the presentation will propose a novel conceptual approach to public
engagement with renewable energy,
drawing on literature on place attachment and place identity from
Environmental Psychology and Human Geography. Empirical support for this
approach will then be examined, drawing on case study data. The implications
of the findings for theory, policy and practice will be discussed.
17th November – Professor Doug Medin, Psychology Faculty, Northwestern
University, USA (Video Conference)****LTB 8******
Culture and mental models of nature
Douglas Medin is the Louis W. Menk Professor in Psychology and in Education
and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He previously taught at
Rockefeller University, the University of Illinois and the University of
Michigan. Best known for his research on concepts and categorization, his
recent research interests have extended to cross-cultural studies of
biological categorization and reasoning, cultural and cognitive dimensions
of moral reasoning and decision making, and culturally- and community-based
science education.
This latter work has been conducted in the form of a partnership involving
the American Indian Center of Chicago, the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin and
Northwestern University. He has conducted research on cognition and learning
among both indigenous and majority culture populations in Guatemala, Brazil,
Mexico and the United States. Recently he served on the NRC committee on
Informal Science Learning. He is a recipient of an APA Presidential Citation
and the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy
of Sciences.
Abstract: One of the key aspects of people's understanding of the nature is
their conception of where human beings fit into it. For example, people may
conceptualize nature as pristine, in need of preservation (from human
influence), and as apart from human beings. A bird nest is a bird nest but a
human dwelling represents civilization and an intrusion on the natural
world. This work will outline some of the work my colleagues have been doing
on cultural differences in mental models of nature, as well as cognitive and
behavioural consequences associated with these differences.
24th November – Professor Katrina Brown, School of International
Development, University of East Anglia
Resilience: The new ‘sustainability’?
Katrina Brown is an environmental social scientist, and Professor of
Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. Her research explores
the interface between international development, environmental change and
sustainability and she has experience of research in sub-Saharan Africa,
Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia. She is co-editor of the
journal Global Environmental Change, member of the Resilience Alliance, and
on the Scientific Committee of the IHDP. She was Convening Lead Author
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. She currently holds an ESRC Professorial
Fellowship on ‘Resilient Development in Social-Ecological Systems’.
Resilience seemingly offers a set of ideas by which sustainability can be
understood in linked social ecological systems. It is currently being in
used in many different fora and policy proclamations and emerging as a new
‘buzzword’. However there is not consistency in how resilience is being
applied. This presentation will discuss two key issues: first it reviews
current policy discourses on resilience; how these ideas are being used and
the actions they are promoting. Secondly, it looks at how these compare to
emerging scientific ideas on resilience, and how resilience – incorporating
complex system thinking with critical social analysis - might be used to
transform how we understand and implement development.
8th December – Dr. Howard Lee, Lecturer & Sustainability Champion, Hadlow
College
Will we starve? The importance of low carbon communities
Howard has over 25 years experience of teaching and researching in the
area of sustainable agriculture and sustainable land management at Queen’s
University Belfast, Wye College University of London and now Hadlow College,
University of Greenwich. Howard has a great deal of experience of working
with external groups such as low carbon communities, commercial
organisations, charities, and Government Departments. Three years ago he
started a low carbon community at Hadlow – a co-operative project with the
College.
This seminar will actively discuss how low carbon communities function.
There will be focus on climate change, energy and food security – and the
linkages will be explored. How can low carbon communities operate
effectively for mitigation against and adaptation to climate change? How can
sustainable supplies of energy and food be secured? What are the quality of
life issues for members of such a community? How might the structure and
function of such communities differ in urban and rural areas? What lessons
can we learn from community projects that have failed? Where do we go from
here?
15th December - Alexia Coke, Doctoral Student, University of Surrey
In search of resilience: The politics and practice of the Transition
movement’s physical manifestations
Alexia Coke is currently a third-year PhD student with RESOLVE (Research on
Lifestyles, Values and the Environment) at Surrey University, a
cross-disciplinary research programme headed up by Prof. Tim Jackson. She
sits within the ‘policy and governance’ strand, which includes a focus on
community-based approaches to promoting a low carbon future, and has
recently completed a 3-month ESRC-funded internship at the Department of
Energy and Climate Change. She has 15-years of experience in international
development, coordinating programmes and research with a particular focus on
sustainable livelihoods and/or education, largely in Asia and the Pacific.
The Transition movement started in the UK five years ago, motivated by the
‘twin threats’ of peak oil and climate change. The aim is to promote
sustainable living and resilience through re-localisation and energy descent
planning. The process of becoming a Transition initiative involves 12
‘elements’ which include the development of ‘practical manifestations’
(projects) to demonstrate what is possible. There are now over 300
Transition initiatives in the UK and beyond.
In this presentation, Alexia Coke will draw on her qualitative research into
the food and energy-related projects of a number of Transition initiatives
in the south of England. She will explore the social practices being
promoted through these projects, the new ‘cultural stories’ that inform
them, and the ‘(a)politics’ of Transition that are sometimes manifested
through them.
Dr. Leanne Cullen, Environmental Scientist, CSIRO
Sustainable Ecosystems
Returning to Country: Kuku Nyungkal Rainforest Aboriginal People
Leanne is a human ecologist and has recently completed a three-year research
fellowship with the CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Division based in Cairns,
Australia. Leanne has a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences with honours in Marine
Biology from the University of Newcastle and a M.Sc. in Marine Environmental
Protection from Bangor University. It was during her masters that she became
more interested in human ecology and science that considers people as a part
of the ecosystem. Her PhD (University of Essex) took her more into the area
of socio-economics, the links between people and the environment, and the
need for appropriate (inclusive) management of natural resources (including
people as part of the ecosystem). Leanne has spent the past three years
working with Rainforest Aboriginal Australians under a cooperative research
framework to develop linked biophysical and cultural indicators for the Wet
Tropics World Heritage Area of Far North Queensland.
Principal researchers: Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth (CSIRO Sustainable
Ecosystems) and Mrs Marilyn Wallace (Bana Yarralji Bubu Incorporated)
The environment is a humanised landscape and “country” in Aboriginal English
is not viewed as conceptually apart from humans. The term cultural landscape
is useful as it captures the essence of landscapes detectably modified by
people, in many cases over generations. The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area
(WTWHA) in Far North Queensland, Australia, represents a cultural landscape,
having been managed by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years and
shaped into the rich and diverse landscape it is today. The Area represents
an integral part of Indigenous Australian cultural, social, religious and
spiritual values. Cultural values include the ongoing traditions of
Aboriginal people associated with the Wet Tropics; therefore Aboriginal
involvement in land management is essential to maintaining culture.
Rainforest Aboriginal people recognise that the WTWHA is under threat from
local phenomena such as population growth and urbanisation as well as global
phenomena including climate change.
The Kuku Nyungkal people are one of eighteen traditional owner groups with
land across the WTWHA. Kuku Nyungkal are active users and managers of their
lands and as such are acutely aware of the biophysical changes in the
landscape. Although cultures inherently change and evolve, contemporary
Aboriginal culture is represented by individuals who blend the traditional
knowledge of their elders with the knowledge from their own modern education
and life experiences.
I will present a cooperative research example from the WTWHA where the
impetus was knowledge evolution and creation to support cross-cultural
natural resource management, governance and community resilience in the face
of a changing environment. Work was conducted in partnership with the Kuku
Nyungkal Indigenous Ranger group representing the Kuku Nyungkal Community.
Our case study provides insight into the adaptive capacity of a rainforest
Aboriginal tribe who have maintained or retraced their traditional
connection to country and for who culture, traditional and contemporary,
remains strong.
For enquiries, comments or more information, please contact Zareen Bharucha at
zpbhar@essex.ac.uk
|
|
