GDI Lecture Series - Transformative change from below in a context of climate-related uncertainties: praxis, patches and politics - POSTPONED
| Dates: | 9 November 2022 |
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| Times: | 15:00 - 16:30 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | Global Development Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public, Post 16, Secondary schools |
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| Speaker: | Lyla Mehta |
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Climate-related uncertainties have tended to be defined by experts and bureaucrats (the ‘above’), mostly ignoring local perspectives and knowledges. Living in landscapes characterised by climate-related uncertainties creates anxieties and fears. But can uncertainty also open up spaces for exploring alternative pathways?
This presentation presents insights and findings from the project ‘Transformation as Praxis: Exploring Socially Just and Transdisciplinary Pathways to Sustainability in Marginal Environments’ (TAPESTRY) https://tapestry-project.org/.
We conceptualise transformation as praxis – where the focus is on bottom-up change, the identity, wellbeing and agency of marginalised people and on ‘patches of transformation’ –– where hybrid and transformative alliances between local communities, NGOs, scientists and some state agencies are seeking socially just and ecologically sound alternatives based on local people’s plural understandings of transformative change.
The talk looks at the challenges, politics and potential of these alliances and practices to reframe nature-society relations, knowledge & value systems and institutions to co-produce robust livelihoods & transformative adaptation. These issues are teased out through examples from three sites in south Asia: the coastal megacity of Mumbai, dryland Kutch and the deltaic Sundarbans in West Bengal and Bangladesh.
Speaker
Lyla Mehta
Role: Professor
Organisation: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
Theatre 2
Stopford Building
Manchester
