This interdisciplinary symposium will explore how we might reimagine mobility, belonging and kinship amidst mounting ecological upheavals
Our current era of accelerating ‘ecocide’ marks a ‘double death’ (Rose, 2012) through the untimely obliteration of the ‘deep biological rivers that constitute entire species’ (Jones et al, 2020, p. 391), as well as the disruption of life’s capacity for regeneration. The socio-ecological upheavals wrought by intensifying wildfires, droughts, floods and storms are also radically redefining ‘home’ for many earthlings, with questions around what/where constitutes ‘home’, who ought to be welcomed in a place and who is to be excluded becoming especially contested. Rigid binary constructs such as native/invasive are increasingly being deployed to reinforce ‘biopolitical landscapes of inferior and superior bodies’ (Subramaniam, 2024, p. 52). For instance, from far-right movements and governments violently militarizing borders, vilifying migration and ‘outsiders’, to hubristic ‘invasion biology’ conservation discourses and practices seeking to police boundaries between ‘native’ and ‘invasive’ species. However, mobility, far from being anomalous, is “a recurrent rhythm fundamental to our planet’s dynamism, where change is the welcome constant rather than feared, controlled, and villainized” (Tran et al, 2025, p. 50). Sustainable futures require more fluid biogeographies (Lorimer, 2008) that celebrate the dynamism of terrestrial life, and open, rather than foreclose, possible ecological futures (Head, 2011, p. 174).
As such, this symposium seeks to foster interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations on how we might reimagine mobility, belonging and kinship in a world in flux. How can we create more capacious and caring stories of community and belonging, attendant to the trials as well as joys of living together? How to foster more welcoming environments for unanticipated visitors and strangers, human and otherwise, increasingly in search of new dwelling places?
- Coffee, tea and lunch will be provided
This event is hosted by Sustainability@SEED, a steering group based in the University of Manchester's School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED). Sustainability@SEED features representatives across all five SEED departments, and works to facilitate collaborations amongst SEED staff and students for promoting and embedding transformative sustainability across relevant school activities. Symposium programme:
9:30 – 10:00 – Welcome, coffee
10:00 – 11:30 – Session 1: ‘(Re)thinking the theory and practice of sustainable lifeworlds’
‘Rupture and the Psychic Infrastructure of Convivial Futures’ - Mark Carrigan
‘Green Roots, Global Voices: Migration, Faith and Community Leadership in Urban Sustainability’ – Saima Ansari (Sustainable Consumption Institute)
‘Biocultural conservation for convivial futures: Exploring the experiences of the Inclusive Conservation Initiative’ – Natalie D. L. York (Research Associate, Global Development Institute)
11:30 – 11:45 – Coffee break
11:45 – 13:00 – Session 2: ‘Living better together on campus’: outdoor session at Jen O'Brien's allotment (Contingency plan in case of poor weather – Group visit to the ‘Human Natures’ exhibit @ Manchester Museum)
13:15 – 14:15 – Lunch
14:15 – 15:45 – session 3: ‘Multispecies conviviality in pedagogy and practice’
'Learning from and with Noongar Boodja with Nownaup Bush University: Reflections on virtual fieldtrips and place-based learning at University of Manchester’ - Alison Browne, Susan Brown, Raichael Lock and MA EdSE students
‘Seeds of a Better Tomorrow: Reterritorializing Wetlands in Santiago de Chile’ - Edward Ephithite Lindholm (Social Anthropology, SoSS)
‘Treemarkable as kith and kin: nurturing cultures of coexistence in a Moss Side school’ – Raichael Lock (MIE), Ryan Woods (SALC)
15:45 – 16:00 – Thank you & next steps
