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Here is a recording of our latest webinar for the PECS webinar series.

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Title: 

Investigating horizontal conflicts: Tackling socio-environmental conflicts where roles are complex and changing

Abstract:

Environmental conflicts have been studied from a multiplicity of perspectives within the different sub disciplines of environmental studies. Within Political Ecology, for example, there is a long tradition of studying the root causes of environmental conflicts as well as their transformative potential as a process that might give voice to marginalized actors, or allow them to craft alliances beyond the apparent borders of the conflict. Within managerial approaches to environmental governance, conflict has often been seen as a problem to solve or to avoid, and influenced by deliberative perspectives, participation has been presented as a way forward to address potential conflicts. In this presentation, I would like to develop a theoretical perspective on conflict that considers it as entangled with collaboration, where roles and relationships are complex and intertwined. I use the idea of “horizontal conflicts” as a way to convey the multiplicity of responsibilities and positions that such type of conflict entails, where power endowments are ambiguous and changing. I bring to the discussion reflections from several cases, namely our work with coastal communities in Kenya and Mozambique where we used Forum Theatre as a research method to investigate horizontal conflicts, my collaboration with colleagues using a diversity of methods to understand the eutrophication crises of the Mar Menor Lagoon in Spain and the associated management decisions, and preliminary analysis of interview and observation data from a new project focusing on the conflict between fisheries management and seal and cormorant conservation in the Swedish Baltic Sea.   

Bio: 

Maria Mancilla Garcia is a researcher and theme leader at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her research covers theoretical work on process-relational perspectives, i.e. perspectives that put the emphasis on the role of ever-evolving relations in crafting and changing social-ecological systems, with a focus on conflict and collaboration dynamics understood as entangled. Maria’s research investigates a diversity of empirical governance cases related to water and sea governance with special attention to the role of street-level public officers. She uses a multiplicity of methods which range from network analysis and traditional qualitative research methods such as semi-structured interviewing, to more innovative ones such as co-production dialogues and arts-based approaches. She reflects on her engagement with theoretical, empirical and methodological advancements through her work as theme leader for the theme Doing Sustainability Research: The How. Maria is an environmental social scientist with background in political science, development studies and philosophy, but has always worked in collaboration with natural scientists, especially marine biologists, ecologists and ecological modellers.  

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.

Here is a recording of our latest webinar for the PECS webinar series.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Title: 

Beyond methods: An experience of collective stewardship of territories in Mexico

Abstract:

Participatory methods are praised as drivers for urgent transformations to address multiple crises and, at the same time, they are criticized as the new tyranny to legitimize decisions and research outcomes. This presentation is an invitation to revisit the notion of methods and the way in which they have been implemented in order to open new paths for transformation. From the collective journey of the Forest Stewards Network that celebrates 10 years of existence in Xalapa, Veracruz, we share insights into the complex life of collaborative multi-stakeholder processes. We present three key participatory experiences and their corresponding lessons: i. the citizens’ meeting from which the network’s territorial shared management process emerged, ii. the collaborative construction of utopias for strategic planning, and iii. the learning tours through the territories, with exchanges from a peasant to peasant approach. We question the central place often attributed to methods and discuss other fundamental dimensions of collective processes oriented towards justice and sustainability. What lies beyond methods? How do we facilitate socio-ecological transformation processes? 

Bio: 

Juliana Merçon is a researcher at the Institute for Research in Education at Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico. She conducts participatory action research in collaboration with urban and rural networks, organizations and communities. Juliana works with agroecological, feminist and decolonial approaches and has participated in the Forest Stewards Network since its conception. 

Loni Hensler practices the art of facilitating and systematizing participatory processes of collective action towards a comanagement of more just and sustainable territories with rural, urban, indigenous and fisher communities. She works on transformative learning, diverse values around nature, the defense of territory and the construction of horizontalities from a collaborative action-research approach. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and a member of multiple networks. 

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.