Format/Structure

Opening presentation by panel convenors ; presentations followed by Q&A for each presenter ; group discussion / round-table Q&A

Long Abstract

A growing literature from across the social sciences has begun to draw attention to the ways in which conservation and climate-change mitigation programs depend on new kinds of exploited labor. Less has been said, however, about the « eco-precariat »’s (Neimark, B. et al., 2020) struggles to secure better livelihoods or pursue alternative political projects. Indeed, coalitions of international donors, NGOs and state bodies are increasingly involved in creating markets for ecosystem services e.g. through conservation efforts as a means to tackle the global environmental crisis. There is evidence that such initiatives depend on capitalist labor regimes which unevenly impact the largely rural and indigenous communities across the global South tasked with implementing them through casual, underpaid and poorly regulated labor arrangements. This panel calls for ethnographic and theoretical research contributions which furthers our understanding of conservation and other « green » labor regimes as well as forms of labor politics which they might generate.

1. How and to what extent does conservation rely on/produce surplus populations?

2. How can/do workers express agency and what struggles exist over working conditions?

3. What discourse and practices are mobilized to this aim ? What institutions, coalitions and forms of sociality do these labor antagonisms draw on or create as counter-powers or alternative projects?

4. How and to what extent do conservation labor regimes produce raced, classed and gendered relations and institutions between capital and labor ? How does this spark claims and inform struggles within labor regimes?

5. How does reproductive labor underpin conservation and other green labor regimes?

6. How are labor regimes and worker agency shaped by social, ecological, technological and institutional conditions?

7. How does conservation affect labor dynamics in other sectors?

8. How do broader regional, national and international contexts shape such struggles?

This Panel has 6 pending paper proposals.
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