Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Peer reviewe
Research Interests:
This article advances a novel analytical framework for investigating the influence of political-economic processes in human-wildlife interactions (HWI) to support efforts to transform wildlife conservation governance. To date, the... more
This article advances a novel analytical framework for investigating the influence of political-economic processes in human-wildlife interactions (HWI) to support efforts to transform wildlife conservation governance. To date, the majority of research and advocacy addressing HWI focuses on micro-level processes, while even the small body of existing literature exploring social dimensions of such interactions has largely neglected attention to political-economic forces. This is consonant with efforts to transform conservation policy and practice more broadly, which tend to emphasize "circular" change within current political-economic structures rather than "axial" transformation aiming to transcend these structures themselves. Our analysis thus advances understanding of potential for axial transformation in HWI via confrontation with, and "unmaking" of, constraining political-economic structures. It does so through cross-site analysis of conservation policy and practice in relation to three apex predator species (lions, jaguars and wolves) in varied geographic and socio-political contexts, grounded in qualitative ethnographic study within the different sites by members of an international research team. We explore how the relative power of different political-economic interests within each case influences how the animals are perceived and valued, and how this in turn influences conservation interventions and their impact on HWI within these spaces. We term this analysis of the "production-protection nexus" (the interrelation between process of resource extraction and conservation, respectively) in rural landscapes. We emphasize importance of attention to this formative nexus both within and across specific locales in growing global efforts to transform situations of human-wildlife conflict into less contentious coexistence.
Research Interests:
This article contributes to mixed-methods research in global development studies. It draws on empirical study of changes in access to livelihood resources ensuing from state-sponsored resettlement schemes in Oromia, Ethiopia. The analysis... more
This article contributes to mixed-methods research in global development studies. It draws on empirical study of changes in access to livelihood resources ensuing from state-sponsored resettlement schemes in Oromia, Ethiopia. The analysis demonstrates that explaining and understanding processes and outcomes of development interventions can be expanded and deepened by the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative analysis uncovers the magnitude of changes, whereas qualitative analysis reveals political power relations and contextual meanings of the changes as experienced by affected people. The study shows that mixed-methods approach enables addressing the statistical and substantive significance of the variables in question and the diversity of meanings and experiences associated with development interventions. This strengthens the analytical power of research, providing opportunities to enhance evidence-based comprehension of generic patterns and specific co...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Politics and Ambivalence
Research Interests:
The urban inequality of large cities and the accumulation of disadvantage present a problem all across the globe. People from similar backgrounds occupy the same areas, resulting in the division of urban space and city districts, among... more
The urban inequality of large cities and the accumulation of disadvantage present a problem all across the globe. People from similar backgrounds occupy the same areas, resulting in the division of urban space and city districts, among other factors, by ethnicity, income level, religion and language. Why is this and how can this trend be influenced? The event introduces examples of urban division and development in Finland, Europe and the Global South. Venla Bernelius, Teemu Kemppainen and Katja Vilkama look at the regional differentiation in Helsinki. Florencia Quesada Avendaño, Filip de Boeck and Anja Nygren talk about cities in Latin America and Africa. The first discussion is in Finnish and the latter in English. The event is hosted by Reetta Räty.status: publishe
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Sociology, Transformative Learning, Conservation Biology, Political Science, Social Justice, and 10 moreEnvironmental Ethics, Human-wildlife conflicts, Multidisciplinary, Social transformation, Transition, Conservation Psychology, Anthropocene, Scholarship, Human-Wildlife Conflicts and Anthropology, and Sustainability
The concepts of resource frontier and commodity frontier are often treated interchangeably. This article suggests the benefits of clarifying these concepts because frontiers remain important analytics for understanding drastic land‐use... more
The concepts of resource frontier and commodity frontier are often treated interchangeably. This article suggests the benefits of clarifying these concepts because frontiers remain important analytics for understanding drastic land‐use changes and other socio‐environmental transformations. Based on long‐term field research in different parts of South and Central America, we use frontier concepts as heuristic devices to analyze heterogeneous frontier situations and make broader generalizations. Our synchronic and diachronic analyses of frontier dynamics elucidate different frontier modalities and shifting frontier expansions. The concept of commoditizing resource frontier is introduced to explain recent frontier‐makings in Brazilian Amazonia and Cerrado and in the Nicaraguan Río San Juan. Although earlier frontier research took a short‐term time perspective and created conceptualizations based on a single modality of a particular period, our longitudinal analysis shows that drastic c...
Research Interests:
Geography, Economics, Development Studies, Brazilian Studies, Central American Studies, and 15 moreAgrarian Change, Brazil, Land Use Change, Central America, History and archaeology, Deforestation, Amazon, Frontier, Commodity trade, Actors, Agrarian Political Economy, Accumulation, Expansion, Complex, and Commodity Frontiers
This article analyzes the contested struggles over protection and production in the Nicaraguan biological reserve of Indio-Maı́z as a local example of broader conflicts over wilderness preservation and local livelihoods in the developing... more
This article analyzes the contested struggles over protection and production in the Nicaraguan biological reserve of Indio-Maı́z as a local example of broader conflicts over wilderness preservation and local livelihoods in the developing world. The main focus is on conflicting views of different stakeholders concerning the access to and control over natural resources. Special attention is given to the local inhabitants’ struggles for everyday survival and social justice on the fringe of the restricted-use reserve. The study emphasizes that in densely populated rural areas, such as Central America, inclusionary conservation represents the politically most feasible and socially most just form of conservation possible.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The call by Alf Hornborg for a better consideration of the human dimension in the public discussion of global environmental change, networks of production and consumption, and structures of knowledge and power is a welcome contribution to... more
The call by Alf Hornborg for a better consideration of the human dimension in the public discussion of global environmental change, networks of production and consumption, and structures of knowledge and power is a welcome contribution to efforts to remove mental barriers and institutional forms of governance that limit transdisciplinary understanding of multifaceted environmental problems and political-economic processes. Hornborg’s concern over the limited role anthropologists have played in the mainstream discourse on “our common future” – discussion largely dominated by natural scientists, technologists and economists – is highly relevant and thought-provoking. Equally important is his argument that anthropological analyses of cultural perceptions and symbolic meanings would be crucial for a more holistic understanding of past, present and future concerns with global sustainability issues.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This introduction underlines some of the topics the present thematic issue focuses on, such as segregation and security, control and creativity, resistance and networking, presenting continuities and changes in urban governance and urban... more
This introduction underlines some of the topics the present thematic issue focuses on, such as segregation and security, control and creativity, resistance and networking, presenting continuities and changes in urban governance and urban justice in different parts of the world. We argue that urban theory should be rethought to consider cities as fora that recentre the ‘political’ in relation to gentrification, rights to the city, justice, and alternative urbanisms. We highlight structural aspects of urban policy and planning, including the intersection of mega-development projects with disruptive acts of social dispossession and efforts to depoliticise institutional control. Simultaneously, we emphasise tactics that reinterpret hierarchical modes of governance and create initiatives for enhanced justice through claim-making, negotiation, improvisation, acts of everyday resistance and organised opposition.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Cities around the world are developing new ways of governing risks and vulnerabilities. In the new flood-governance measures, technological risk-prevention is linked to programmes of social resilience and cultural adaptation. By focusing... more
Cities around the world are developing new ways of governing risks and vulnerabilities. In the new flood-governance measures, technological risk-prevention is linked to programmes of social resilience and cultural adaptation. By focusing on the catastrophic floods in the city of Villahermosa, Mexico, this article argues that new flood-governance strategies rely on complicated forms of neoliberal governance, in which flood governance is turned into a matter of adaptation and self-responsibilisation, while scant attention is paid to the socio-spatial distribution of vulnerabilities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in three socially differentiated neighbourhoods of Villahermosa, this article demonstrates how flood-governance strategies and the residents' responses to them vary across the city and how the production of flood risk is connected to the uneven production of urban space. The institutional acts of governing aim to render certain population groups governable, whilst being ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... JUAN TURRIALBA JSAN BAJO VINAS '-ttacS % PACAYITAS VICENTE PACUARE ,~~~~P -, _ - 07, P, ; 4 0 ANJUAN BOSC ) MAE EGUINEO TUCURRIQUE ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ IE MNANAS PEJ I O A PEJIBAYB {S: study area ...