Pesticides and Global Health: Research, Collaboration and Impact Workshop
Durham University, 10-11 February 2015
Pesticides are widely accepted and promoted because they help to feed
the world, but problematized because they poison the world. Arguments in
favour and against the use of pesticides (including insecticides,
herbicides, fungicides, etc.) are often impassioned and powerful,
drawing upon a wide range of competing medical, moral, and efficacy
claims. How might social science contribute to an understanding of these
debates? How do the interests and positioning of different agents lead
to differing and contrasting rhetorics? In what ways is the medical and
scientific evidence constructed, valued, and deployed? What social,
ethical, and political arguments arise and how are they related to
local/global contexts?
This workshop launches /Pesticides and Global Health: An Ethnographic
Study of Agrochemical Lives/ -- a research project funded by the
Wellcome Trust and hosted by Durham University
(http://www.tom-widger.com/pesticides--global-health.html). The overall
aims of the project are to:
1.Extend theories of pesticides and global health by developing a
'pesticide's-eye view' of the medical, moral, and efficacy debates they
generate;
2.Illuminate the social, ethical, and political dimensions of those
debates, including how notions of pesticide health benefits and risks
are constructed, valued, and used;
3.Achieve this by developing a 'follow the chemical' methodology
capturing pesticides' changing status as they pass between local
contexts; and
4.Actively participate in local/transnational debates concerning the
'pros' and 'cons' of pesticides by offering contextually nuanced
accounts of the ways in which they become part of local agricultural,
health, and environmental practices and identities.
The objective of the workshop will be to create a forum and network of
social and health researchers working on pesticides in different
capacities and from different perspectives, primarily in developing
world contexts.
We invite presentations on recently completed, ongoing, or planned
research with the ultimate aim of cultivating opportunities for
collaboration between activities and enhancing opportunities for impact.
Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of questions that pesticides
generate, speakers are welcome to address theoretical and
policy/practice issues, including, but not limited to:
·Pesticides as 'things,' 'commodities,' 'substances,' and 'technologies'
in a globalising landscape
·The regulatory and political environment of pesticides, especially
within and outside US/EU trade zones and the rise of Chinese and Indian
manufacturers
·Pesticides as 'solutions' and 'problems' within global development
debates, including global health and global environmental justice movements
·Health, environmental, and social impacts of pesticides in terms of
both intentional and occupational exposure
·Recent developments in pesticide chemistry in response to health,
social, and environmental concerns
·Notions of corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy, and
corporate governance in the pesticide industry
·The relationship between pesticides and local agricultural and health
identities in cross-cultural contexts
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>by *Friday 12^th
December. *Invited speakers will be asked to circulate a paper of no
more than 3,000 words by *Friday 30^th January*.
--
Tom
Dr Tom Widger
ESRC-DfID Research Fellow -- Charity, Philanthropy & Development in Colombo
Department of Anthropology
School of Global Studies
University of Sussex
UK
0094 (0)7186 47791
0044 (0)7792 203957
www.tom-widger.com
www.charityphilanthropydevelopment.org
@philanthropologist
www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tom-widger
http://suicideandculture.wordpress.com/
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