GSD PhD student presents research at political ecology conference
A third-year GSD PhD student recently presented his doctoral research at a prestigious political ecology conference.
Ben Hetherington, who is currently in his third year of our GSD PhD programme, presented his TRANSFORM-funded doctoral work at the POLLEN (Political Ecology Network) conference in Barcelona.
The conference took place between 29 June 鈥� 3 July, and brought together around 1500 researchers spread across 130 panels and 30 workshops, using political ecology approaches for research on topics as varied as conservation, water disputes and agrarian change. Political ecology encompasses a broad set of methods and disciplines but is grounded in fore-fronting the political economy of environmental change and outcomes. The conference was organised by the POLLEN secretariat and co-hosted by Universidad de Barcelona and Universitat Aut貌noma de Barcelona.
In a panel titled 鈥淭he uneven ecological exchange of Nature-based Solutions: From project expectations to contested terrains of practice鈥�, Ben discussed findings from his own PhD project. The title of his presentation was 鈥淩esistance to renaturation: saltpans in the Camargue as Nature-based Solutions and the political economy of infrastructure on a deindustrialised site鈥�. He covered themes in his thesis including contested 鈥榥atures鈥�, stranded assets and climate vulnerability, and processes of valuation in deindustrialised contexts. His presentation was joined by speakers talking about contexts spanning three continents, and offered a constructive discussion on critical perspectives of nature-based solutions, which is a concept that is being adopted increasingly in climate and biodiversity-focused policies and projects.
Ben鈥檚 attendance at the conference was supported largely by the Humanities Research Fund, allowing him to connect with international researchers, develop his exposure to conceptual and empirical breakthroughs in political ecology, and develop an understanding about research project funding opportunities. In between the panels, various events were available to conference delegates including film screenings, plenaries on socio-ecological tensions within Barcelona itself, and a book launch of the New Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology.
More on Ben鈥檚 research interests can be found here, and on POLLEN .