Event

Keywords: Planetary urbanization, urbanization of sand, urban political ecology, urban metabolism. Abstract: the city’s material skeleton is founded on extraction of sand. The United Nations Environment Program considers sand the “unrecognized foundational material of our economies” (UNEP 2019, 2). Sand is a key component of built environments – from residential and office space to production facilities, infrastructure and leisure space (Dawson 2021). There is sand in electronics, the buildings we live and work in, the roads we drive on, the pavements we walk on, the glass we drink from and the windows we look out through. Sand is a ubiquitous yet somewhat invisible ingredient of modern life. But it is not an unlimited resource (Beiser 2018). Sand and gravel are currently estimated to be – right after water – the most extracted and consumed material worldwide (Krausmann et. al. 2018). From an urban metabolism perspective, ecosystems are regenerated through specific regulatory processes shaped by complex relationships of reciprocity, exchange and redistribution. The constantly increasing scale of capital involved in nature-society interactions has over the past two centuries intensified the metabolic demands on nature.
That we are now living in an ‘urban age’ has become a mantra in academic, political and journalistic discourse. This claim, however, is not a neutral statement (Brenner 2019). The promise of ostensible high-tech, smart, green and sustainable cities has namely been forwarded as the solution to climate change challenges. In the process, both ocean and land based natural resources (e.g. sand) are extracted to produce ‘sustainable’ urban landscapes – while producing other additional sustainability challenges. This development has given rise to societal and academic calls for improved understandings of contemporary urbanization and practices that can better safeguard the environment and climate interests in urban development.
We respond to these calls and aim to critically explore the uneven socio-ecological metabolism of operational urban landscapes, highlighting the of extractive practices beyond the city. We specifically do this by ‘following the sand’ from sites of extraction, through processes of circulation, and to sites of use. This paper follows up on the calls within both rural and urban studies regarding the need to supersede the urban/rural divide in order to better elucidate contemporary processes of socio-spatial transformations and their implications. This means that analyzing urbanization processes and their implications today, theoretically and empirically takes us far beyond the “city”. This project contributes to this theoretical challenge through the intersection of theories on planetary urbanization, and (feminist) political ecology.

Keywords: ecology, open data, free software, defense of territory, Central America, science. Abstract: We made a map of structural connectivity in Panama as a way to support the work of communities that defend their territory and that of environmental activists. This talk is about connectivity mapping methodology, open data, science outside of academia with activist goals, and the use of free software tools.
Panama, despite marketing itself internationally as a "carbon negative" country, is subject to various development pressures that destroy or threaten to destroy the country's forests. These threats and pressures include open-pit metal mining, large-scale hydroelectric plants and other energy infrastructure, privatisation of national lands, cattle ranching, highways, and large-scale tourism. The most important environmental struggles in the country in recent years have been carried out by indigenous peoples, but also by settler and mixed peasant communities that resist these pressures. A few years ago, a group of ecologists from Panama City identified the need to better understand the key points for the functioning of the Isthmus of Panama as a bridge of ecological connectivity tin America. The idea was to make a connectivity map that would support the environmental movement and the communities in defense of their territories with a tool that would demonstrate the value of forests with data and scientific language, something that in a country controlled by a highly mercantilist State is a significant challenge.
In this presentation I will share the methodology used for the preparation of this map and the process of interpreting and socialising the results. The production of a "structural" ecological connectivity map is possible with various sources of information and can work even in places with low availability of open data from the State. The process can be done entirely with free software. Computational power requirements can be adjusted based on available resources.
The structural connectivity modeling methodology involves the computational analysis of a cartographic layer that incorporates data on land use and human modification of the environment, including infrastructure and population density. What are the implications of this massive condensation of data? In what ways do you make "reality" on the ground visible or invisible?
The process of this map also opens questions about the creation of scientific knowledge outside the institutional sphere. The imagining of the objectives of the study and the process of interpreting the results incorporate the participation of different actors from the environmental movement in Panama. Other interesting points have to do with the use of scientific language and its tools, in this case biology and cartography, by people outside the formal academic environment.
The map is calculated for the national territory of Panama (with a 10km buffer along each border), which from a strictly ecological point of view does not make sense. In addition, the methodology does not take into account the heterogeneities in the territorial control of Panama by indigenous, rural and settler peoples. What are the tensions implicit in framing ecology studies to political entities?
Finally, our organisation reflects on the tools used for the processes and hence the use of free software. For us it is essential to be able to create methodologies that can be reproduced by anyone, despite the temptations and impositions of more comfortable, "free" tools or those financed by scientific or educational institutions. What does it mean to reflect on technologies and tools?

Keywords: Feminist Political Ecology; Forest conservation; Ecological care; Labor and Nature. Abstract: Political ecologists are increasingly focusing on the fundamental role of care practices and affections in socio-natural relationships. As the green economy and market-based forest conservation solutions advance (e.g., carbon credit markets and bioeconomy), it becomes necessary to recognize two key factors. 1) The changes and interlinks between labor and notions of nature involved in these forest conservation approaches; and 2) the interweaving between care and violence that such changes may entail. Theoretically, the manuscript aims to extend the discussions on the production of the means of life and the production of life (care labor) at the intersection of ecological conservation. It thus addresses questions of ecological care labor. Ecological care is generally described as those attempts to reduce harm and violence on the earth, species, or other human beings. However, many of these attempts are often immersed in oppressive relations based on historically constructed social hierarchies based on gender, ethnicity, class, and racialization. Recognizing oppressive relations also reveals the diverse relations between humans and non-human species across different spaces (e.g., the household, the village, the cultivation land, and the forest), and the labor involved in such relations. Drawing upon feminist political ecology approaches to the care of life, this manuscript explores how we understand ecological care and its framework while recognizing the power and violence exercised in current forest conservation systems (protected areas and community-led conservation). Based on qualitative research conducted in Mexico and Laos PDR, the manuscript explores how care practices, knowledge and affections with(in) the forests can escape the imperial gaze of the green economy and the emergent bioeconomy. The manuscript delves into understanding other ecological care practices when living and working with(in) the forest.

Key words: Climate, Narrative, power, movement praxis. Abstract: This would not be a paper but rather a short presentation with a few slides explaining narrative power analysis as a framework that has emerged from grassroots practice. The content would highlight a few aspects of the social movement methodology that is documented in my book Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements and Change the World (2nd Edition 2017 PM Press). Then I would apply narrative power analysis to highlight some of the new strategies being used by climate justice campaigns to impact popular discourse.


Over the past 15 years I’ve supported the growth of the North American climate movement as an embedded strategist and trainer. I’ve worked with diverse constituencies ranging from fossil-fuel impacted communities, to grassroots activists, youth, trade unions and NGOs. Based on my field experience, I would highlight examples of new climate justice frames emerging from campaigns to target financial institutions, amplify survivors of climate disasters and incorporate more transformative narratives about the economy, racial justice and decolonization. I did a comparable presentation (link to video) as part of an 2022 conference on narrative and social change hosted by Oxfam Intermón in Valencia, Spain.


If this type of a presentation would fit with the conference theme I would be honored to share it.


Here’s a little bit more info about me: Patrick Reinsborough is a U.S. based organizer, movement strategist and trainer who works at the intersection of the ecological crisis, narrative shift and transformational movement-building. He has over 25 years of experience in diverse U.S. social movements where he helped codify and spread practices around narrative power analysis. He co-founded and led the Center for Story-based Strategy (from 2002-2016) where he trained thousands of grassroots activists and partnered with hundreds of high-impact organizations to build alliances, reframe issues, and craft winning narratives. He is the co-author of Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements and Change the World (2nd Edition 2017 PM Press) which documents the Center’s methodology. There is more info about my work on my personal website at www.patrickreinsborough.org.