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- Convenors:
-
Anastasia Badder
(University of Cambridge)
Fatima Ajia (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Send message to Convenors
- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Online
- Sessions:
- Thursday 18 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
The socioecological polycrisis of climate change, resource mismanagement, and inequality demands a transition rooted in diverse concepts of humanity and justice. We explore relations between varied socioecological practices and cosmologies to reimagine principles and practices for just transition.
Long Abstract:
Averting the sixth mass extinction and ensuring a just transition requires urgently addressing the socioecological polycrisis of climate change, resource mismanagement, infrastructural failures, and inequality, using principles and practices rooted in diverse conceptions of humanity, community, and justice.
Recent environmental crises demonstrate that the bureaucratic language dominating climate change discourse is unable to harness the diversity in local value systems, ecological practices, and climate-positive cosmologies. Biases in understandings of intersecting crises continue to marginalise worldviews and practices that challenge Eurocentric universalism.
Fundamental to addressing these deficiencies is the exploration of synergies between socioecological practices and cosmologies, which we interpret broadly to include religious, indigenous, traditional, and other worldviews.
Centring religious and spiritual life as essential to just transitions, this panel explores ways of worldmaking that might undo universalistic responses to crisis and reimagine assemblages of epistemic communities and actions to tackle the current polycrisis. We ask:
- What are the existing or emerging alliances between different epistemic and moral communities, and how do their demands intersect climate justice with identity and social justice?
- What could the project of enabling pluriversal ecologies look like as a practice or method in anthropology?
- How might anthropology help reassemble relations between diverse actors to attend to the religious and spiritual practices that are essential to achieving a just transition?
We invite papers exploring these and related questions based on ethnographic studies of the value systems, cosmologies and political-ecological narratives that shape life worlds, particularly of people at the forefront of ecological breakdown.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 18 July, 2024, -Nisha Paliwal (IIT Jodhpur)
Paper short abstract:
The global transition towards green energy in Global South endangers the ecological significance of sacred groves (Orans), wrongly labelled as 'wastelands,'. This paper challenges the colonial construction of ‘wastelands’ that are framed around development logic at the cost of ecological balance.
Paper long abstract:
In recent years, the Global South has witnessed an acute land rush for large-scale renewable energy projects advanced by the aspirations of fostering national identity through technological and scientific progress. In an attempt to achieve India’s target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based energy by 2030 set at the COP26, sacred groves known as Orans in Rajasthan are taking the brunt of global climate change mitigation efforts. The ‘(un)making of space’ and the private takeover of Orans in Rajasthan by green energy projects is advocated by development logics framed around wasteland narratives encouraged by the conceptualisation of renewables as ‘green’ and ‘clean’ that overlooks the exploitative potential of the energy transition and its impact on local livelihood and community. Orans, dedicated to a folk deity, are rich repositories of bio-genetic diversity warehouses consisting of endemic, endangered and medicinal plants supported by a traditional ecological knowledge system. This ecological understanding emerges from the recognition of dependency on water and vegetation that gravely contributes to the livestock-based economy and is hallowed by a set of established rules and regulations that govern their management forming a significant reserve of grazing/pasture land for the pastoralist community.
Grounding the research in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, an ethnographic approach has been employed to challenge the colonial construction of Orans as ‘wastelands’ in the Revenue Land Record that creates new paradigms for capitalist ventures on a socially and environmentally agreeable basis by appropriating and commodifying elements of nature on previously unexplored territories in the Global South.
Anna Kolendo (University of Central Lancashire)
Paper short abstract:
Climate crisis prompts numerous interpretations across Oceania, sometimes expressed through the story of Noah. With more people moving abroad, this parable remains as a reference to climate change, yet continues to adapt to different peoples and their cosmologies.
Paper long abstract:
Anthropogenic climate change has been acknowledged worldwide and acted upon by numerous international and local agencies. Pacific Islands are on the frontline of this climate crisis by experiencing accelerating storm surges and rising sea levels. Considering the heterogeneity of culturalpractices , competing attitudes towards climate change emerged. Specifically, the variety of Christian denominations and local knowledge practices produced numerous comprehensions of climate change. For this reason, the importance of sociocultural factors has been acknowledged in climate reports and policy planning. However, despite such efforts, policy makers encountered instances of climate denial that is exercised through numerous interpretations of Noah’s story. Previous findings pointed to the notions of industrial blame, acknowledgement of rainbow covenant as a rejection of climate change and many others. This study demonstrates that religion provides a vessel for comprehension of environmental change through the lens of one’s cultural reality. The ethnographic study of the Fijian diaspora in the UK of the Methodist denomination has been conducted to examine the intersectionality of local knowledges, climate change, religion and a setting in the Western locality. By centralising the research on the story of Noah, this study investigates how notions of climate justice are expressed in this biblical parable. This will be achieved through comparative approach to the Fijian diaspora and local views on climate change in Fiji. Overall, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge that highlights local views and subjective experiences of climate crisis to a more inclusive and holistic approach for climate policymaking.
Mathilde Gouin-Bonenfant (University of Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
Based on 12 months of fieldwork in the Saloum Delta (Senegal), this paper will examine the claim that sacred spaces act as a form of biodiversity conservation and that NGOs should therefore include 'traditional knowledge' into their environmental projects.
Paper long abstract:
Based on 12 months of fieldwork in the Saloum Delta (Senegal), this paper will examine the claim that sacred spaces act as a form of biodiversity conservation and that NGOs should therefore include 'traditional knowledge' into their environmental projects. I will make a few claims regarding the methodological, epistemological, and ethical dimensions of such inclusion. I will argue that the study of 'traditional knowledge inclusion' would benefit from an ethnographic approach and a focus on 'practice.' With this in mind, I will consider the implications of 'NGO talk' and NGO's practices of data collection on their possibility of documenting 'traditional knowledge.' I will argue against a strict division between 'modern' and 'traditional' environmental knowledge, while recognising both the ways in which they are put in hierarchical relation and their inscription in competing ethics of care. This will lead me to question the compatibility of 'conservation' and 'sacrality' in the Saloum Delta, in terms of the environmental projects that are enacted through them.
Simona Fabiola Girneata (University of Rome La Sapienza)
Paper short abstract:
Exploring the theme of sustainability in Romanian Orthodox communities reveals interesting cultural practices on response to the EU Green Deal. The EU regulatory approach efficiency-focused, fails to ensure a just energy transition that should instead consider local knowledge as renewable resources.
Paper long abstract:
My research investigates the link between the perception of justice and sustainability in Orthodox communities in rural areas of Romania. Through ethnographic study, it aims to assess the significant impact of cultural and religious principles on local responses to environmental regulations introduced by the European Green Deal. Fieldwork has highlighted a complex relationship between justice and sustainability, presenting challenges in the energy transition context, often stemming from the incompatibility of new regulations with local cultural practices. Understanding justice and sustainability within these communities is firmly rooted in cognitive mechanisms infused with deep spirituality, revealing an intriguing dynamic between the internal and external forums.
Western secularization, by separating law from its cultural and religious foundation, has contributed to creating the illusion of legal objectivity. This illusion obscures cultural subjectivity in justice interpretation, creating a dichotomy between the internal sphere, imbued with cultural values, and the external sphere representing the formal legal system. Such separation appears to hinder fruitful dialogue between these spheres. Moreover, the forced and mechanical implementation of provisions leads to local inconsistencies and injustices, as the categories of "environment" and "sustainability" are overlaid without considering the complexity of their meanings. While community regulations specify procedural elements, they often focus on efficiency standards without fully integrating local diversity into goal definition. To develop effective sustainability plans, it will be crucial to consider local variables in terms of energy efficiency, work and production models, and the anthropology of relationships between individuals and the environment.
Laura Schimmöller (Free University Berlin)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how the global rights of nature movement promotes novel ecological knowledge. Creating spaces where climate science co-exists alongside indigenous cosmologies, the movement re-imagines the role of epistemic pluralism in the fight for ecological justice.
Paper long abstract:
The global rights of nature (RoN) movement is part of a recent turn towards ecocentric governance approaches. Since the creation of a new constitution in Ecuador in 2008 which enshrined the rights of ‘Mother Earth’, the movement has expanded globally; from other Latin American countries to New Zealand and the US as well as Europe, with recent legislation creating legal personality of the Mar Menor lagoon in Spain. By granting legal rights to ecosystems or ‘Mother Earth’, the movement contributes not only to the transformation of environmental law, but also to an integration of non-Western ecological values and practices. This is informed by a strong connection to indigenous movements and spiritual thought leaders.
Behind the mobilisation of more-than-human rights lies a fundamental conflict about solutions to ecological crises: One where institutionalised responses to environmental issues are contested, and instead, the focus is placed on approaches that are informed by a plurality of epistemologies—where climate science co-exists alongside indigenous cosmologies.
This paper looks specifically at how the RoN movement contributes to decolonial and ecocentric transitions by including the voices of diverse epistemic communities and by centering the participation of indigenous and local knowledge producers. Drawing on official publications and participant observation surrounding the civil society-organized Rights of Nature tribunal and the United Nations Harmony with Nature dialogues, I look at how the RoN movement challenges environmental discourses within global institutions. I find that, beyond its legal contributions, the movement re-imagines the role of epistemic pluralism in the fight for environmental justice.
Chloe Chesney (Centre for Research in Anthropology)
Paper short abstract:
Settlement histories illuminate intricate links between traditions, natural resources, and environmental shifts, providing profound insights into cultural and ecological dynamics over time helping to comprehend how people shape and connect with the environment in the face of increasing change.
Paper long abstract:
Oral histories recounting the settlement of villages offer valuable insights into the historical context of the region and the people who live there, including their beliefs, values and practices and how people maintain a connection with the past that may shape their present-day practices. We conducted a literature review (~166 resources) and conducted 40 one-on-one semi-structured interviews and 30 group interviews (~300 informants). Constant comparative multilayer analysis throughout data collection allowed codes used to describe and interpret all data to develop and improve. These oral histories reveal intricate connections between traditions and beliefs, natural resources, and environmental changes, offering a deeper understanding of the region's cultural and ecological dynamics. Results contribute valuable insights into the ways in which people's relationships with their environment are shaped and maintained over time and allow reflections on how they intersect with environmental matters including ever-increasing rates of change.
Paula Serafini (Queen Mary University of London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the question: How can we practice a decolonial, Latin American environmentalism away from the territory, when the territory is at the centre of it? The meaning of territory is explored alongside the notions of situatedness and pluriverse.
Paper long abstract:
How can we practice a decolonial, Latin American environmentalism away from the territory, when the territory is at the centre of it?
This question emerged from personal experience, and thus, I seek the answer to it by means of autoethnographic reflection on my position as an environmental activist and researcher in the diaspora. In these reflexions, I draw on three concepts to help me develop a praxis-oriented response:
1. Territory. Can the territory stretch? Can we revise what we mean by territory? Can we find new territories abroad?
2. Situatedness. How do we make a decolonial, context-specific environmentalism ‘land’ in a different context? What forms of translation must we engage in? And how do we engage with the new territory?
3. Pluriverse. Is the pluriverse an opportunity for a radical diasporic environmentalism that does not look like what it is expected to?
With this paper I hope to contribute to discussions on the traveling of political frameworks and projects like decolonisation, new forms of embodying politics across territories, and how the pluriverse can help nurture and connect radical projects that thrive in their situatedness.
Daillen Culver (SOAS)
Paper short abstract:
Shinrin yoku or forest bathing has become a popular wellbeing practice. As a forest bathing facilitator, I propose forest bathing as an embodied practice for cultivating multi-species kinship and ensuring that non-human beings are represented in moments of ecological transition.
Paper long abstract:
Shinrin yoku, also known as forest bathing, has become a popular alternative wellbeing practice. Developed by Japanese researcher Yoshifumi Miyazaki to address the public health polycrisis in post-war Japan, it has grown to encompass a heterogenous set of eco-therapy practices and mindfulness-based techniques. Beyond its physiological health benefits, forest bathing is designed to bring humans into harmony with the ecosystems they inhabit (Miyazaki 2018). Practitioners are invited to develop networks of multi-species kinship with the non-human beings they encounter during a forest bathing session, creating micro-opportunities for a gradual ontological shift away from dualism and towards an ethos of interconnectedness. Drawing on my training as an anthropologist and experience as a certified forest bathing facilitator, I will introduce the practice of forest bathing as a pathway to multi-species kinship and assert its potential as an embodied, transformational practice for cross-species representation in this moment of polycrisis.
Joana Roque de Pinho (ISCTE-Instituto Universitario de LIsboa) Angela Kronenburg García (UCLouvain) Stanley ole Neboo
Paper short abstract:
We examine entanglements of Pentecostalism with land changes in two southern Kenyan conservation landscapes. Conversion to Pentecostalism by pastoralists affects their relationships to the land; and suggest ways for increased engagement of environmental conservation with religion.
Paper long abstract:
Bialecki et al. (2008) once questioned anthropologists’ reluctant engagement with Christianity. Recently, Wilkins (2021) pondered the absence of religious actors in political ecological inquiry. We address these concerns by tackling another omission, i.e., how scholarship on environmental change and conservation challenges in Kenya Maasailand overlooks (agro)pastoralists’ conversion to Pentecostalism. Despite other disciplines’ acknowledging spiritual dimensions of human-environmental relationships, and accounts of early Maasai encounters with mainline Protestant and Catholic missionaries (Hodgson, 2005; Rigby, 1981), contemporary analyses of Maasai livelihoods and environments sidestep Pentecostalism as a variable in changing demographics and livelihoods/land uses, responses to climate variability, and conservation outcomes – even when confronted with conspicuous faith-related manifestations, e.g., proliferating churches and public religious performances.
We use ethnographic data (2002-04, 2011, 2002-23) from two southern Kenyan conservation landscapes to examine entanglements of Pentecostalism with land use/tenure changes. We find that Christian beliefs, religious leaders’ discourses and behaviors, and Bible-inspired household dynamics re-shape how (agro)pastoralists relate to the land, conceptually and materially. Around Amboseli National Park, churches’ promotion of farming interacts with conservation discourse to redefine the meaning of “land”. Around Maasai Mara National Reserve, land demarcation facilitates the penetration of churches through land purchases and donations. With declining reciprocity ascribed to land privatization, urbanization and education, people credit churches with re-creating “unity”. Meanwhile, pastors preach against selling land, mediate land conflicts, and promote tree planting and wildlife conservation. Away from clear directions of causality, this study exposes the complexity of religious-environmental entanglements in Maasailand; and suggests avenues for increased engagement of environmental conservation with religion.
Natalia Valdivieso Kastner (University of Manchester)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the action of Catholic ecotheopolitics in the production of new signifiers and the (re)articulation of relations between humans, nature, and the divine and the collaborations across religious, non-secular, and secular arenas.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the operation of theopolitics in the context of vulnerable Amazonian ecological landscapes. Infused by the narratives of ‘the care for our common home’ and the ecological spirituality chartered in the encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015) and the Synod of the Amazon (2019) the action of ecotheopolitical regimes has been key in the production of new signifiers and the (re)articulation of relations between human beings, nature, and the divine. I argue that the conception of nature as a non-secular assemblage of humans and non-humans in the form of Creation has served to reorganise relations between humans and the natural world via the emergence of Christian environmental subjectivities. Based on a 14-month ethnographic fieldwork, I observe how the deployment of such language and narratives in the establishment of alliances and modes of collaboration across religious, non-secular, and secular arenas by a group of Catholic missionaries working in the Ecuadorian Amazon has served to the advancement of claims of responsibility for the commons in the political realm and the emergence of the Catholic Church as a plausible political and ecological subject in the face of the Anthropocene.
Key words: theopolitics, ecological spirituality, environmental justice, Amazonia.
Femke Vulto (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
This paper addresses how ‘responsibility’ and ‘accountability’ are enacted in the supply chain of brown shrimp. 'Luck’, ‘destiny’ and ‘risk’ inform actors' understanding of agency and responsibility in distinctive ways. This paper attends to how such notions produce particular forms of ethical life.
Paper long abstract:
Within the global supply chain of brown shrimp, social and ecological crises converge. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and Morocco, where brown shrimp are fished and peeled respectively, this paper argues that notions of ‘luck’, ‘destiny’, and ‘risk’ are key for understanding how actors within this supply chain conceive of ethical ‘responsibility’ and ‘accountability’. Whereas Dutch fishers mobilize luck to account for uncertainties in everyday life, Moroccan shrimp peelers evoke destiny to construct a narrative about their precarious livelihoods. Corporate managers, in contrast, draw on the concept of risk to capture the unpredictability of the future. These concepts entail distinct understandings of the future and actors’ agency in shaping it; by extension, they involve implicit understandings of responsibility and accountability. The ways in which actors constitute their relation to the future through notions of luck, destiny and risk infuse their everyday actions with a certain ethical sensibility. Importantly, these notions reflect the distributed nature of agency and therefore do not rely on an idea of the autonomous subject. Thus, whilst notions of liberal agency have often been identified as the root of socio-ecological harm within projects of ‘modernity’, such ideas were notably absent in the ‘modernist’ supply chain of brown shrimp. Therefore, this paper argues that more ethnographic attention is needed to understand how cosmological concepts such as ‘luck’, ‘destiny’, and ‘risk’ inform the ways in which ethical life is materially enacted in the ‘modern’ world.