With various lectures on the topic "Global change - local conflicts" the Team from GLOCON participated in the first PE-3C International Conference of POLLEN (the Poltical Ecology Network) which takes place from 7th-9th of July in Wageningen.

POLLEN

is a global network, consisting of a large variety of political ecologists. As individuals or small groups, these political ecologists have formed so-called ‘nodes’ and interact through POLLEN. The aim of POLLEN is to facilitate interaction and creativity through ‘cross-fertilization’ and to promote the important field of political ecology world-wide, among academics as well as others. One of the main activities of POLLEN is to hold a bi-annual conference.About the conference

About the Conference

We seem to have entered a new phase in the relation between violence and environment. This includes not just unprecedented surges of wildlife crime and associated military style retaliation, but also the conflicts and contestations that arise from structural unequal access to resources (ironically often exacerbated by environmental policies), and the epistemic and intellectual domination of specific ways of understanding, representing and enacting natures, animals and environments.

These forms of conflict and violence are (again) becoming an ever more central aspect of the political ecologies of late capitalism and warrant renewed attention, conceptualization and critique. This international conference aims to bring together scholars, activists, non-governmental and governmental change-makers and interested individuals to discuss and increase our understanding of the causes, consequences, natures and politics of these dynamics and so inspire and understand contested 21st century political ecologies.

Political ecology

A second objective of the conference is to contribute to a broader understanding of the meaning and nature of political ecology in the 21st century. Political ecology, as the study of how different interests, forms of power and politics influence and frame access to, use and understand the environment, has become a mature field of academic and activist inquiry. One of the untapped strengths of this field is that those who call themselves political ecologists work within a wide variety of different disciplines, traditions and academic cultures. The aim of this conference is to bring these different disciplines, traditions and cultures together and so connect important discussions on the political ecologies of conflict, capitalism and contestation.

The Panel of the PE-3C-International-Conference here to download