1. |
- Nightingale, Andrea J., et al.
(author)
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Conflict resilience among community forestry user groups: experiences in Nepal
- 2014
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In: Disasters. The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management. - : Wiley. - 0361-3666 .- 1467-7717. ; 38:3, s. 517-539
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the impact of violent conflict in Nepal on the functioning of community forestry user groups (CFUGs), particularly those supported by the Livelihoods and Forestry Programme, funded by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID). The key questions are: (i) what explains the resilience of CFUGs operating at the time of conflict?; (ii) what institutional arrangements and strategies allowed them to continue working under conflict conditions?; and (iii) what lessons can be drawn for donor-supported development around the world? The study contributes to other research on the everyday experiences of residents of Nepal living in a period of conflict. It suggests that CFUG resilience was the result of the institutional set up of community forestry and the employment of various tactics by the CFUGs. While the institutional design of community forestry (structure) was very important for resilience, it was the ability of the CFUGs to support and use it effectively that was the determining factor in this regard.
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2. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Chimeras of Resource Geographies: unbounding ontologies and knowing nature
- 2021
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In: The Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography.
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)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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3. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Mismatch Between Scales of Knowledge in Nepalese Forestry: Epistemology, Power, and Policy Implications
- 2012
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In: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 17:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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4. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(author)
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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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In: Conference paper. Power in political ecology, Research Workshop, Bergen 26-27 November 2015.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)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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5. |
- Fisher, Janet A., et al.
(author)
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Strengthening conceptual foundations: analysing frameworks for ecosystem services and poverty alleviation research
- 2013
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In: Global Environmental Change. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 23:5, s. 1098-1111
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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6. |
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7. |
- Nightingale, Andrea J.
(author)
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Challenging the Romance with Resilience
- 2015
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In: Practising Feminist Political Ecologies: Moving Beyond the ‘Green Economy’ by Wendy Harcourt and Ingrid Nelson. - London : Zed Books. - 9781783600878
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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8. |
- Nightingale, Andrea J.
(author)
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Fishing for Nature: the politics of subjectivity and emotion in Scottish in-shore fisheries management
- 2013
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In: Environment and Planning A. - : SAGE Publications. - 0308-518X .- 1472-3409. ; 45:10, s. 2363-2378
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the relational emergence of subjects, emotions, and socionatures and their consequences for Scottish inshore fishery management. Using a conception of the embodied spatial production of individual and collective subjectivities, and the ‘ambivalence’ of the subject, I explore why some fishers are committed to sustaining the fishing ground and others are not. Many people who work the land or the sea have a deep respect for and attachment to those environments, but overexploit them to make a living. How is it that people whose livelihoods depend on ‘natural’ environments embody apparently contradictory relationships with those environments? I probe such contradictions by exploring how the boundaries between subjects and environments are formed, and the consequences for Scottish inshore fisheries management of such boundary un/making. Using work from socionature, subjectivity, and emotional geographies, I show how fishing subjectivities are highly political and produce emotional and practical responses that have real consequences for how fisheries management plays out. Attending to the way in which subjectivities position fishers differently in relation to their resources and fisheries policies is therefore vital for successful management.
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9. |
- Nightingale, Andrea J., et al.
(author)
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Political Transformations: collaborative feminist scholarship in Nepal
- 2014
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In: Himalaya. - 0891-4834. ; 34:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Feminist theory has expanded the sphere within which politics is assumed to occur and thus can make significant contributions to research on state transition. This paper traces the development of a research project wherein we combined our expertise and feminist commitments to explore the current political transition in Nepal. The project conceptualized market formation and resource governance to be important sites of political contestation and the formation of citizen subjectivities. Within these sites, we sought to understand what ‘ democracy ’ looks like at different scales, especially where, when and how people make claims and build critical accounts of established social systems in its name. Here we reflect how on our feminist political and intellectual commitments helped develop a collaborative methodology and approach to state transition that integrates ‘ politics ’ across scales. The insights include the role played by spaces of social reproduction in everyday processes of state and political transformation, and the analytical opportunities opened up when research collaborations take the form of a community of inquiry within the field itself. We found ourselves turning back to traditions of feminist scholarship to show how the household is the origin of inequalities and how such relations transmit into wider contestations over ‘ democracy. ’
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