Landscape around Céu do Patriarca Ecovillage, Brazil. Here, communities organise for nurturing both 'soil and soul'. Photo: Leopoldo Cavaleri Gerhardinger

2 recent articles highlight the importance of values and a sense of connection. Both fundamental to a genuine transition to sustainability.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee writes in the Guardian on how a sustained transition to sustainability will require nurturing both “soil and soul”.

He points out that:

“If we go to the root of the present ecological crisis we will find a state of disconnection. We appear frighteningly disconnected from real awareness of the effects of our materialistic culture upon the very ecosystem that supports us. The challenge is to develop a value-based economic structure, that is not concerned solely with our material well-being, but embraces the whole human being – body and spirit – as well as the rich biodiversity of the Earth… This deepening of awareness may seem idealistic and impractical, but only a few decades ago organic farming, which respects the well-being of the soil, was considered uneconomic and idealistic. Now it is recognised as both environmentally and economically sustainable.”

Attendance is free, but prior registration is required. Please register by clicking here.

Solar panel project for the Lower Kolyma region of the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia; a four year collaboration.

Chris Madine, Arklerton Trust 

19th February 2013, Room Room TC.1.10, from 12:30 – 14:00 

Fracking; Painting by Gloria Betlem

Prof. Steffen Boehm, Director of the Essex Sustainability Institute and Principal Investigator of the Ecocultures Programme, recently published a piece in the East Anglian Daily Times on the need for a more sustainable energy policy, based on local production and the use of renewables.  You can read the full text by clicking on the link below.

IsFrackingTheFuture

[Image link]

While we’ve been offline on this website, work on the project has been proceeding apace over our Christmas ‘break’. We’ve been pushing to complete our survey, and we’re excited to announce that we’re nearly there!  So far, 281 responses. But we see that some 74 questionnaires were begun and not yet completed.  If these were finished up, we’d have a total of 355 – which is 55 more than our original target, and that would be super. So, if you’ve started and not finished, or if you’re inclined to give it a go, please could we ask you to spare a few moments of your time and click here? Though the time taken to complete each survey has varied between respondents, we’re still averaging about 10 minutes per respondent to complete the survey. Which is not bad!

We’ve also begun work on our second phase of data collection, which involves participatory workshops in Norfolk, Essex and Suffolk. Our first workshop will be in Norfolk on the 1st of February and we’re looking forward to it. We’ll be meeting with people from Master Gardner in Norfolk – who’ve recently also done work with the University of Coventry around health and community.Once we’re done we’ll post a short summary and pictures here.

In the meanwhile, we’re spending time designing our workshop, and continuing with the (mammoth) task of reviewing the literature on local food to try and sieve out references to health and well-being. And we’re working on the final details for our upcoming Food in Transition workshop.

So we’re planning, and reading, and designing and moving forward. Watch this space!

[Cover Photo for this post: Jules Pretty]

The Essex Sustainability Institute’s Seminar Series,Sustainability Contested, continues in 2013 at the Wivenhoe Park campus. The seminars are open to staff, students and members of the public. All are welcome, and attendance is free! Please spread the word!

Our next seminar is on the 23rd of January 2013, at 16:00 in Room 5N.7.23. Please note that the event will be free but prior registration is required. To register, please click here.

Separating Indigenous Peoples From Their Lands: The Ethnocidal Effects of Recent Canadian Land Claims Agreements 

This presentation examines Canadian land claims policy and interprets it as a means to diminish the cultural distinctiveness and social cohesion of Aboriginal peoples by requiring that they release most of their land to Canada and participate in resource extraction joint ventures. The recent Innu Nation land claims agreement called Tshash Petapen (‘New Dawn’)  will be analyzed in terms of (1) the social and political conditions in which the Innu negotiate, especially high rates of social dysfunction, alcoholism, and substance abuse (2) the provisos in agreements aimed at cultivating acquisitive individualism within a neoliberal economic framework, (3) the effects on Aboriginal social cohesion and relationships to the land, and (4) the legal result of such agreements, which is to extinguish indigenous ownership of lands and abolish any claims Aboriginal peoples can make against Canada for the violation of their rights.

Professor Colin Samson is a member of International Fact Finding Mission on land rights of Innu of Matimekush, Quebec, a delegate to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations for the Innu Council of Nitassinan, Geneva, 19-23 July 2004 and a founding member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples, an organization seeking to link hunting and pastoralist peoples, Arusha, Tanzania. He is also the author of A Way of Life That Does Not Exist: Canada and the Extinguishment of the Innu.

If you would like to meet the speaker on the day, please email Bryony Pound, at balpou (at) essex.ac.uk. 

“A few years back, research by Manchester University found that the carbon equivalent emissions of the UK’s total Christmas dinners was 51,000 tonnes. Much of this can be attributed to the life-cycle of the livestock… 

It is not only meat that is environmentally un-friendly. Cheese production creates vast amounts of greenhouse gases. Cranberry sauce is another emissions heavy but popular food this time of year. Because much of the cranberries needed for the sauce are grown in North America, the condiment has the highest transport-related emissions of the average x-mas feast. 

The great news is that with just a few small changes to the way you eat, there can be a large improvement to your environmental impact and to your health as well. For instance, cut down on the amount of red meat you eat and you will lower your cholesterol. As a rule of thumb, eating less meat and more vegetables will reduce your carbon footprint.

If you want to minimise your climate impact this Christmas, cut out meat completely and go for a vegetarian option. This is how to get a really low carbon Christmas.

Though if you do choose a prime cut of meat make sure it’s a locally farmed product. Locally sourced food will have low transport emissions and benefit your community at the same time. It’s even better if you can grow it yourself!“

Good stuff. Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy Christmas, with great food that’s good for you, your community and your planet

]]> http://www.ecocultures.org/2012/12/eat-well-this-christmas/feed/ 0 http://www.ecocultures.org/2012/12/call-for-papers-new-perspectives-on-international-development-the-role-of-the-extractive-industries/ http://www.ecocultures.org/2012/12/call-for-papers-new-perspectives-on-international-development-the-role-of-the-extractive-industries/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:38:24 +0000 zareen http://www.ecocultures.org/?p=1151 Continue reading →]]> Call for papers: New Perspectives on International Development: The Role of the Extractive Industries 

The term ‘extractivism’ refers to the extraction of minerals, oil and gas that are destined for international markets. It is part and parcel of the hegemony of development (Giarraca, 2007; Böhm and Brei, 2008), often leading to relations of dependency between providers and users of resources (Misoczky, 2011).

In Latin America, Africa and Asia extractivism has been in place since colonial times, as capitalism has always been dependent on extractive economic activities (Galeano, 1997). Whether in the silver mines of Potosi, the gold mines of South Africa or the vast coal mines in Australia, colonial modes of extraction ensured that the colonies provided raw materials, cheap energy and food to the colonizers enabling the latter to accumulate capital and fuel their development. Colonialism was a structural instrument for the uneven appropriation and consumption of the world’s resources. Colonial modes of extraction had immense social, economic and environmental impacts. For example, Indigenous peoples and other colonized subjects were used as slave labour that generated much of the wealth in Europe but resulted in death and dispossession of the people that produced the wealth. Extractivism also had devastating environmental impacts, destroying livelihoods and poisoning the land, lakes and rivers that were the source of sustenance for Indigenous peoples (Gedicks, 1993; Banerjee, 2000).

The end of direct colonialism and the emergence of new nation states that were former colonies marked a significant shift in post-colonial relations. The extractive model of development has generally remained intact, even intensified, as former colonies found themselves locked into the development discourse of global neo-liberal capitalism (Banerjee, 2011; Misoczky, 2011). ‘Emerging economies’, such as China, India and Brazil, require seemingly endless supplies of raw materials to ‘develop’. Hence, the majority of Latin American countries, for example, have been specializing in raw commodities exports, as shown by the increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in natural resources, which reached 43% in 2010 (ECLAC, 2011). Extractivism has recently been reconfigured into what can be called ‘neo-extractivism’, referring to policies that strengthen the role of the State in the exploitation and ownership of resources (Gudynas, 2010), a development that has gained momentum in large parts of the ‘developing world’.

The renewed emphasis on extractivism is not only a phenomenon of the South, however, but is a global phenomenon. In Canada, for example, many communities are opposing the privileged access mining and oil companies have to the land and questioning the assumption that extractivism is the best and most profitable use of land and guarantee for development (see www.miningwatch.ca). In many parts of Europe mining and new forms of oil and gas drilling are expanding at an unprecedented scale and pace (FoE, 2012).

Regardless of location, extractivism is generally controlled by large transnational corporations. The state is also a key player in the political economy of extractivism by creating the conditions that enable corporations to accumulate wealth. As a consequence, economic enclosures are implemented within sovereign states, as spaces for the provision of natural resources needed for the endless process of capital accumulation. Resource rich but cash poor and indebted states have been ‘structurally adjusted’ by supranational institutions like the World Bank and IMF as well as regional development banks to open up pristine forests for resource extraction. Transnational capital in the form of multinational corporations and national governments organizes the ‘legitimate’ violence of the state to forcibly relocate Indigenous and rural communities in order to extract surplus from their land (Banerjee, 2011). Extractivism is a form of internal colonialism managed by elites of the former colonies operating under the structural power of supranational institutions like the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Consequences for communities facing the brunt of development have been devastating whereby extractive industries have inevitably led to social dislocation, environmental destruction and loss of livelihoods (Bebbington et al., 2008; Böhm and Brei, 2008).

However, extractivism has not gone unchallenged. Anti-mining protests across the developing and developed world are on the rise (www.miningwatch.ca). These resistance movements involve a diversity of actors including community groups, local activists, domestic and international non-governmental organizations (Spicer and Böhm, 2007). Corporations that are the targets for these protest movements are by no means passive actors and use a variety of strategies to counter resistance. Ironically, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become the weapon of choice where corporations highlight their ‘sustainability’ and ‘citizenship’ credentials to obscure their role in extractivism (Mutti et al, 2011; Kapelus, 2002).

We call for papers that critically engage with the history and contemporary faces of the extractive model of capitalist development, exploring the following possible themes (amongst others):

• Mapping the (history and contemporary face of) extractive industries and (neo)colonial development in South and North;
• CSR strategies of extractive industries
• Governance arrangements used by the extractive industries and other mega-development projects
• The organization of resistance to the extractive industries and mega-development projects by social movements, NGOs and other civil society groups;
• The role of FDI contracts and international law;
• The relationship between the extractive industries and other mega-development projects;
• The role of global financial institutions and development agencies as well as the role of the cooperation with NGOs and governments supporting the expansion of mega-development projects;
• Global commodities chains: extraction, production and consumption in the international division of labour;
• Articulations of alternatives to the models of extractivism and mega-development

To respond to this call: 

Please send abstracts, of a maximum of 500 words, on A4 paper, single spaced, 12 point font to Steffen Boehm: steffen@essex.ac.uk by 31st January 2013.  

Your abstract should include:

• Title
• The focus, aims and objectives of the paper
• The research evidence base underpinning the paper
• How the paper will contribute to the theme

Notification of paper acceptance: 22nd February 2013

Full papers will be expected by 1st May 2013

We look forward to hearing from you, and any questions in the meantime should be addressed to Steffen Boehm

The Essex Sustainability Institute’s Seminar Series, Sustainability Contested, continues in 2013 at the Wivenhoe Park campus. The seminars are open to staff, students and members of the public. All are welcome, and attendance is free! Please spread the word!

Our next seminar is on the 15th of January 2013, at 12:30pm in Room TC 1.10. 

Please note that the event will be free but prior registration is required. To register, please click here. 

Stakeholder Participation: Keys to success 

Diana Pound, Dialogue Matters ltd. 

Stakeholder dialogue is regarded as a best practice approach to stakeholder participation.  It can be applied in any situation where people with different interests and knowledge need to work together to find a way forward. This includes achieving research impact via participatory knowledge exchange, involving stakeholders in the management of the environment and using participation as a tool for team decision making.  It has an emphasis on process design and uses facilitation methods that help people shift from positional behavior to cooperative and creative negotiation. Practitioners are guided by key concepts, design principles and ethics. This presentation will: explain some of these concepts, describe keys to success, and refer to cases that show this approach works.

Diana Pound founded Dialogue Matters in 2000 to transform the way people work together around the management and use of the natural environment. She champions good practice, speaking at national and international conferences and has designed over 70 stakeholder dialogue/consensus building processes, facilitated more than 100 workshops and trained over 900 people in good practice. Her work includes helping communities solve local challenges, stakeholders agree plans, researchers share knowledge, and international organisations including UN Conventions, develop guidance or policies. Diana recently developed a course to help researchers achieve research impact with end users through knowledge exchange.  She has also been an IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Commissioner since 2004.

If you would like to meet the speaker on the day, please email Bryony Pound, at balpou (at) essex.ac.uk. 

FOOD IN TRANSITION: TOWARDS A RESEARCH AND POLICY AGENDA 

A collaborative workshop of the Transition Research Network, Essex Sustainability Institute, Participatory and Rural Geographies Research Groups.

University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, Essex 

Wed 6^th Feb 2013, 12 noon – 6pm (followed by dinner) 

Are you:

• Working or seeking to work, on local food initiatives where you live?
• A grower or producer who supplies, or would like to supply locally, and support the work of community food initiatives?
• Involved in academic research on local food systems, and seeking to maximise its practical value by collaborating directly with community groups, growers and producers?

If so, please join us and help develop a new agenda for local food practice, research and policy. We will use inclusive facilitation techniques to ensure the meeting is dynamic and makes the most of what all participants have to offer. The event is open to everyone interested in contributing to this theme. Attendance is free but by registration only. Travel and accommodation support is are available and will be allocated based on income and a simple email application.

Please spread the word, and feel free to circulate the attached flier.

For registration and bursary applications: Send an email to Prof. Steffen Boehm (steffen at essex.ac.uk) by 21st December 2012 with:

• Your name and location
• The name of the initiative you wish to represent (where relevant)
• A few lines to tell us about your key relevant experience and why you wish to attend
• An indication of whether you would like to apply for a travel bursary to enable you to attend.

We will then get back to you with a link to our registration page. The deadline for registration is 14th January 2012. 

The Transition Research Network is a self-organising group of academics and community activists. See: www.transitionresearchnetwork.org