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Topics for discussion •Report on the EDS conference Conflict in Paradise: the transformation of rural New Zealand •Generating a sense of what’s happening in biological economies (outline the working tasks) •Projects broader directions and goals – frames and phrases •Reviewing results of tasks so far and discussion: people, projects and workshops Environmental Defence Society conference. Conflict in Paradise: the transformation of rural New Zealand • Two-day conference on issues and solutions • Ostensibly about many things, but heavily focused on water quality and in particular the dairy industry’s contribution to this. • ‘science’ respected and many claims to be a scientist, “as a scientist I…”, “need the science to back things up” said many times • little acknowledgement of social sciences role in understanding and working with the issues and solutions identified • Science seen as the solution because once know bio-physical processes = can fix them • Social science practically invisible, but a large role to play, or to get people to recognize it is playing – in the how we ‘fix’(or even if fix is right) • Sciencemakers there in force Tasks • Tracing geography people – Where are they in the literature/what frontiers are they pushing – Particularly connections with biology and management issues, biophysical process, overlap with geography – Names on the list so far Paul Robbins Sarah Whatmore Susanne Freidberg Henry Buller Neil Ward Mike Goodman Julie Guthman Joanna Govern James McCarthy Ian Cook Becky Mansfield • Tracing terms in wider social science literature – E.g. eco-verification, resilience, ‘biological economies’ • Tracing through policy – Use of key terms/ideas, e.g. the terms/ideas there or not, or anything else with a different name that is the same thing • Tracking conferences/symposia • Review journal coverage for Connections with biology Narrates the world in different ways New language that highlights social science Biophysical processes Where sciences meet social sciences Expertise Knowledge construction (particularly around the environment) • Journals on the list so far Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies, Geoforum, Environment and Planning A, Agriculture and Human Values, Natural Resources and Society Broader goal of these tasks • • • • • Bring together a range of interests to think supply chain analysis differently. Actors, meanings, messages, movements – following objects. New connections. Try and understand how knowledge operates (in those supply chains). Expertise. Thinking about knowledge production and how this can perform the world into something different Positioning social science in the New Zealand context. Destroy the othering of social science against ‘natural’ science. How is social science being deployed? Biological economies a good context in which to start thinking New Zealand social science differently – Can we use this focus to narrate the world in slightly different ways – To find a new language that enables us to engage in key policy debates that centre social science – Into what new sites/organisation/institution/ministries can we go if we have some stories? – Change from thinking researchers as technicians to researchers as thinkers Biological economies • phrases gathered that I think begin to contribute to its meaning – – – – – – – – – – – – Socio-technical practice/arrangements Socio-ecological Networks that tie together Apparatus of calculation, technologies of organisation, measurement, calculation and representation, organising work practical work of bringing it into being Competing projects Participating in making sites where facts/knowledges can survive Nature of expertise, location of expertise Economy of possibilities Enactment, alter and practices to perform new futures into existence Chain making (active connections, relations etc) not the content (of the chain) that is important (Latour) emergence – Changing positioning of priorities from social, economic and environmental to ecological, social and economic. – Shifting from environment to ecology – Biophysical processes – Thinking policy differently – Raising visibility of social science (by not making it the other defined against science) – Strengthening connections of biophysical processes and relations – Focused through supply chains of dairy and wine in order to provide the concepts of knowledge production and reconfiguring social science a context in which to be worked through – Production of biological, economic-geographic knowledge – Interconnected – Interacting in multiple networked places – About ‘vital’ and life … New Zealand context institutional ‘hot topic’ conferences sustainability Biological economies project Projects and thinking Focusing ideas • Rethinking supply chain • Science meets social science (or is that social science meets science?) • Rethinking (location of/nature of) expertise International work projects people New Zealand context Institutional ‘hot topic’ conferences sustainability • Pipfruit – a sustainable future. Pipfruit New Zealand Inc. August 2008 • Running hot interconnection: New Zealand science in the 21st century. MoRST sponsored science leadership groups. October 2008 • Nga Kete a Rehua: inaugural Maori research symposium Te Waipounamu September 2008 • New Zealand sustainable land use forum. Coming out of the environmental defence society. • Institute of food, science and technology – sustainability theme at annual conference • Others to be added … do you know of any? • Addressed three questions – What is gained by re-thinking supply chains as biological economies? – How do we study biological economies? – Does this thinking help to reposition economic geography in a politics of knowledge production conditioned by a nexus of influences such as climate change, food questions, and water concerns? Biological economies project Projects and thinking • Engage with dairying, development of calculus and practices, values and expertise, which is a window into the New Zealand scene • Discussion (Caroline Saunders and Sally van de Zijp sustainable winegrowing) that exposed the way that social science and the New Zealand context was reduced to a process to produce information not about the production ideas • EDS conference experience, even where social science reported on, unacknowledged and deliberately made invisible • Taking the ecological as a starting point OR taking multiple beginnings as the starting point, both have enactments in common, making a different world , knowledge production is enacted Meetings/events • More-than-human modes of enquiry –Whatmore workshop, Australia November 08 • Nature and supernatures–Henry Buller, Exeter University September 08 • Add to this list … Projects • E.g. Habitable cities: civic spaces and ecological practices (Whatmore) • Capacity building project on bringing together natural and social science perspectives on understanding diffuse pollution (Whatmore) • Eating biodiversity: an investigation of the links between quality food production and biodiversity production (Buller) • The integration of biodiversity knowledges and policies into agricultural policy reform in the UK (Buller) • Complexity and contingency: innovating explanation in human/environment geography (Robbins) • Geographies of insects and institutions: mosquito governance in the US southwest (Robbins) • Fresh: a perishable history (Freidberg)– social and technological history of freshness • Supermarkets and imperial knowledge (Freidberg)– culture and power relations of food provisioning, relationships shaped by ecological and colonial histories International work projects people Following people: Sarah Whatmore • • • Is interested in where knowledge is from, recognizing multiple expertises and contexts as knowledge Lots of her work is engaging with ‘science’, where social science meet science e.g. water politics, re figuring property through bio resources etc Is also involved in rethinking work – – Habitable cities – rethinking environmental knowledge “capacity building project on bringing together natural and social science perspectives on understanding diffuse pollution” • • • • Example of repositioning science as helper not leader per se in projects Capacity building – thinking differently through recognizing diverse knowledges This kind of work acknowledges performing new understandings Quite a lot of work on ecological and/or environmental topics New ways of approaching New Zealand’s concerns (environmental issues) in ways that prioritise social science? • • Mostly engaged with other universities – UK and also Australia mostly research council funded but … a variety of these – – – – • • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Rural Economy and Land Use programme (RELU)-though funded by ESRC Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Policymakers (e.g. in the capacity building project), other science institutions, government agencies (e.g. DEFRA, environment agency), NGOs One project is with French and Belgian research teams Themes of interest • More than human currents in socio-ecological and humanities research • City dwellers, green, living cities, social science engaged in policy debates • More than human, political implications, reshaping thinking • Technological natures, how nature and other material forms are assembled • Environmental knowledges, ecologies, biogeographies • a little through food Titles of current research projects • Environmental knowledge controversies: sciences, democracy and expertise • Scientific ecotourism and (post) colonial encounters with wildlife • the stuff of politics: techno-science, democracy and public life • Sustainable consumption: social contestation and consumer action • Locating techno-science: geographies of science, technology and politics • Habitable cities: civic spaces and ecological practices • Eloquent materials: the witness of matter in science and law New Zealand context institutional ‘hot topic’ conferences sustainability • What are the connections and interactions? Biological economies • Others doing things that fit? International work That can be learnt from? project • How does New Zealand context projects Projects and thinking relate to overseas? people • Where are the constellations of expertise? Being mobilised in particular ways • Ideas for rethinking supply chains, starting all science projects with social science etc Eco-verification • • Quick search reveals that various government departments are interested in/pushing this concept (Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Fisheries etc) have launched a website to help the public with their eco-verification. – – • • www.med.govt.nz/ecolabels The ecolabel directory is a joint initiative between the Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry for the Environment, as part of the Ecoverification work programme. Looking at the first three pages from Google reveals this to be almost exclusively government related websites. On p3 organisations such as Landcare, Roading New Zealand and Russell McVeagh appear in relation to the government’s initiative