| 1. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Chimeras of Resource Geographies: unbounding ontologies and knowing nature
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography.
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the field of critical resource geographies, work on “socionatures” is well established. However, this growing body of work bridging across the social and natural sciences has not erased a number of frictions associated with disciplinary boundary crossing. We highlight three types of outcomes: epistemic closure, stickiness and sparks. We invite the figure of the chimera, a mythical creature of destruction and incommensurate parts, to argue for a plural—as opposed to hybrid—approach to resource geographies. We propose that far from being a position of “no discipline”, interdisciplinarity requires the embodying of multiple disciplines and the ability to understand how they relate and translate. For critical resource geographies, the chimera suggests that striving for consensus or dismissing other framings are both counterproductive. The chimera symbolizes an embodiment of plural positions, but rather than bringing chaos, she opens up a fruitful and multi-layered terrain of meaning, where new questions and perspectives come into view. We suggest that this is a highly productive terrain, but it meets with stubborn resistance from the scientific community. We counter it with the strangeness and ambiguity of the chimera to investigate the possibilities to “unbound” resource geographies throughmultiple ontologies.
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| 2. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Mismatch Between Scales of Knowledge in Nepalese Forestry: Epistemology, Power, and Policy Implications
- 2012
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Ingår i: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 17:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The importance of scale dynamics and scale mismatches for outcomes of natural resource management has been widely discussed. In this article we develop theoretically the concept of ‘knowledge scales’ and illustrate it through empirical examples. We define scales of knowledge as the temporal and spatial extent and character of knowledge held by individuals and collectives, and argue that disparate scales of knowledge are an important ‘scale mismatch,’ which together with scale politics, lead to conflicts in Nepalese forest management. We reveal how there are multiple positions within local knowledge systems and how these positions emerge through people’s use of and relations to the forest, in a dynamic interaction between the natural environment and relations of power such as gender, literacy, and caste. Nepalese forestry is a realm in which power and scales of knowledge are being coproduced in community forestry, at the interface of material and symbolic practices in use of forest resources, and in contestations of social-political relations. Further, we reflect upon the importance of clear and precise use of scale concepts and present a methodological approach using triangulation for divergence, enabling researchers and practitioners involved in natural resource management to reveal scale mismatches and politics.
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| 3. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Theorizing power in political ecology: a case study of rural electrification and technology development in Tanzania
- 2015
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Ingår i: Conference paper. Power in political ecology, Research Workshop, Bergen 26-27 November 2015.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Power and politics have been central topics from the early days of Political Ecology. There are different and sometimes conflicting conceptualizations of power in this field that portray power alternatively as a resource, personal attribute or relation. The aim of this paper is to contribute to theorizations of power by probing contesting views regarding its role in societal change and by presenting a specific conceptualization of power, which draws on both political ecology and sociotechnical approaches in science and technology studies. We review how power has been conceptualized in the Political Ecology field and identify three trends that shaped the current discussion. We then develop our conceptual discussion and explicitly ask where power emerges in processes of resource governance projects. We identify four locations that we illustrate through a case of rural electrification in Tanzania that aimed at providing renewable energy-based electricity services to people in order to catalyze social and economic development. Our analysis supports the argument that power is relational and productive, and it draws on Science and technology studies to bring to the fore the critical role of non-human elements in co-constitution of society—technology—nature. This leads us to see power exercise as having contradictory and ambiguous effects. We conclude that by exploring the tension between human agency and constitutive power we keep the politics alive throughout the analysis and are able to show why intentional choices and actions really matter for how resource governance projects play out in everyday life.
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| 4. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Theorizing power in political ecology: the where of power in resource governance projects
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 25:1, s. 381-401
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Power and politics have been central topics from the early days of Political Ecology. There are different and sometimes conflicting conceptualizations of power in this field that portray power alternatively as a resource, personal attribute or relation. The aim of this article is to contribute to theorizations of power by probing contesting views regarding its role in societal change and by presenting a specific conceptualization of power, one which draws on both political ecology and sociotechnical approaches in science and technology studies. We review how power has been conceptualized in the political ecology field and identify three trends that shaped the current discussion. We then develop our conceptual discussion and explicitly ask where power emerges in processes of resource governance projects. We identify four locations that we illustrate empirically through an example of rural electrification in Tanzania that aimed at catalyzing social and economic development by providing renewable energy-based electricity services to people. Our analysis supports the argument that power is relational and productive, and it draws on science and technology studies to bring to the fore the critical role of non-human elements in co-constitution of society—technology—nature. This leads us to see power exercise as having contradictory and ambiguous effects. We conclude that by exploring the tension between human agency and constitutive power, we keep the politics alive throughout the analysis and are able to show why intentional choices and actions really matter for how resource governance projects play out in everyday life.
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| 5. |
- Ensor, Jonathan Edward, et al.
(författare)
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Asking the right questions in adaptation research and practice : Seeing beyond climate impacts in rural Nepal
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1462-9011 .- 1873-6416. ; 94, s. 227-236
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adaptation research and practice too often overlooks the wider social context within which climate change is experienced. Mainstream approaches frame adaptation problems in terms of the consequences that flow from biophysical impacts and as a result, we argue, ask the wrong questions. A complementary approach gaining ground in the field, foregrounding the social, economic and political context, reveals differentiation in adaptation need, and how climate impacts interconnect with wider processes of change. In this paper, we illustrate how this kind of approach frames a different set of questions about adaptation using the case of Nepal. Drawing on fieldwork and a review of literature, we contrast the questions that emerge from adaptation research and practice that take climate risk as a starting point with the questions that emerge from examination of contemporary rural livelihoods. We find that while adaptation efforts are often centred around securing agricultural production and are predicated on climate risk management, rural livelihoods are caught in a wider process of transformation. The numbers of people involved in farming are declining, and households are experiencing the effects of rising education, abandonment of rural land, increasing wages, burgeoning mechanisation, and high levels of migration into the global labour market. We find the epistemological framing of adaptation too narrow to account for these changes, as it understands the experiences of rural communities through the lens of climate risk. We propose that rather than seeking to integrate local understandings into a fixed, impacts-orientated epistemology, it is necessary to premise adaptation on an epistemology capable of exploring how change occurs. Asking the right questions thus means opening up adaptation by asking: ‘what are the most significant changes taking place in people's lives?’, along with the more standard: ‘what are the impacts of climate change?’ Viewing adaptation as occurring between and within these two perspectives has the potential to reveal new vulnerabilities and opportunities for adaptation practice to act upon.
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| 6. |
- Fisher, Janet A., et al.
(författare)
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Strengthening conceptual foundations: analysing frameworks for ecosystem services and poverty alleviation research
- 2013
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Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 23:5, s. 1098-1111
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A research agenda is currently developing around the linkages between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. It is therefore timely to consider which conceptual frameworks can best support research at this nexus. Our review of frameworks synthesises existing research on poverty/environment linkages that should not be overlooked with the adoption of the topical language of ecosystem services. A total of nine conceptual frameworks were selected on the basis of relevance. These were reviewed and compared to assess their ability to illuminate the provision of ecosystem services, the condition, determinants and dynamics of poverty, and political economy factors that mediate the relationship between poverty and ecosystem services. The paper synthesises the key contributions of each of these frameworks, and the gaps they expose in one another, drawing out lessons that can inform emerging research. Research on poverty alleviation must recognize social differentiation, and be able to distinguish between constraints of access and constraints of aggregate availability of ecosystem services. Different frameworks also highlight important differences between categories of services, their pathways of production, and their contribution to poverty alleviation. Furthermore, we highlight that it is important to acknowledge the limits of ecosystem services for poverty alleviation, given evidence that ecosystem services tend to be more associated with poverty prevention than reduction. We conclude by reflecting on the relative merits of dynamic Social–Ecological Systems frameworks versus more static checklists, and suggest that research on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation would be well served by a new framework distilling insights from the frameworks we review.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Gonda, Noémi, et al.
(författare)
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Resilience and conflict: rethinking climate resilience through Indigenous territorial struggles
- 2023
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Ingår i: The Journal of Peasant Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0306-6150 .- 1743-9361. ; 50, s. 2312-2338
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Resilience to climate change demands a transformation in social and political relations, but the literature has largely neglected how these are embedded within legacies of conflict. We explore the roles socioenvironmental conflicts play in the scaling up of transformation amidst ongoing settler colonial projects in Indigenous territories in Nicaragua. Drawing on insights from resilience, climate change, and critical agrarian studies, this article reframes resilience as a process produced within socioenvironmental conflicts, placing contestation and negotiation in the centre frame. By re-signifying the meanings and practices of resilience, Indigenous agrarian struggles contribute to 'eroding capitalism' and its entwinement with climate change.
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| 9. |
- Khatri Bahadur, Dil, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance?
- 2021
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Ingår i: World Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-750X .- 1873-5991. ; 141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper critically reviews the outcomes of internationally-funded interventions aimed at climate change adaptation and vulnerability reduction. It highlights how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. Four mechanisms drive these maladaptive outcomes: (i) shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; (ii) inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; (iii) a retrofitting of adaptation into existing development agendas; and (iv) a lack of critical engagement with how ‘adaptation success’ is defined. Emerging literature shows potential avenues for overcoming the current failure of adaptation interventions to reduce vulnerability: first, shifting the terms of engagement between adaptation practitioners and the local populations participating in adaptation interventions; and second, expanding the understanding of ‘local’ vulnerability to encompass global contexts and drivers of vulnerability. An important lesson from past adaptation interventions is that within current adaptation cum development paradigms, inequitable terms of engagement with ‘vulnerable’ populations are reproduced and the multi-scalar processes driving vulnerability remain largely ignored. In particular, instead of designing projects to change the practices of marginalised populations, learning processes within organisations and with marginalised populations must be placed at the centre of adaptation objectives. We pose the question of whether scholarship and practice need to take a post-adaptation turn akin to post-development, by seeking a pluralism of ideas about adaptation while critically interrogating how these ideas form part of the politics of adaptation and potentially the processes (re)producing vulnerability. We caution that unless the politics of framing and of scale are explicitly tackled, transformational interventions risk having even more adverse effects on marginalised populations than current adaptation.
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| 10. |
- Khatri Bahadur, Dil, et al.
(författare)
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Multi-scale politics in climate change: the mismatch of authority and capability in federalizing Nepal
- 2022
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Ingår i: Climate Policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1469-3062 .- 1752-7457. ; 22, s. 1084-1096
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nepal's transition to federalism in 2015 involved a significant redistribution of authority across three levels of government, with a greater level of autonomy granted to provincial and local levels. We examine multi-scale climate policy and politics in Nepal, focusing on three elements that are important for policy development and implementation: (a) the authority to make decisions; (b) the knowledge and expertise to develop and implement policies; and (c) the ability to access and mobilize resources, primarily external funding, by government bodies at different levels. Our findings show that the newly decentralized local governments are constrained in their ability to develop and implement climate change-related policies and practical responses by a mismatch between the authority granted to them and existing institutional capabilities. These governmental bodies have limited opportunities to develop, access and mobilize knowledge of climate and development and financial resources, which are needed to put new policies into action. Based on this analysis, we argue that decentralization of governmental authority is not likely to produce effective climate policy outcomes if this mismatch remains unaddressed.
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