Print

Print
CFP DOPE2013: Towards a Relational Political Ecology

Organizers: Daniel Cockayne and Ryan Cooper, University of Kentucky
Discussant: Dr. Keith Woodward, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This session invites papers from scholars thinking about and integrating aspects of relational thought into their work and research. Typically in contemporary writing this includes Latour’s actor network theory, Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage and the Harawayian figure of the cyborg. In this session we will critically evaluate what it means to think in terms of relations; what are the benefits, but also what are the potential consequences?

Political ecologists examining waste and resource management, environmental conflict and justice, urban and rural infrastructure and many other topics have considered actor networks or assemblages to be a useful way to examine and theorize problems. Relational thought encourages us to re-examine basic categories such as nature and culture; subject and object; human and non-human and material and immaterial. The cyborg for example both extends and threatens our understanding of what it might mean to occupy the status of ‘human’ (Gandy 2005). As clear distinctions between actors become blurred it is easier to advocate a position elevating the primacy of non-human actors. Since relations are not defined by their form, analysis is able to radically dissect scale, working deftly between distinctions of global and local, micro- and macro-.

Despite some clear benefits, relational thought has not been without criticism. Relational thought advocates complexity, though perhaps at the cost of obfuscating the underlying political issues at stake.

We welcome both empirical and theoretical contributions. Speakers could interrogate relational analysis itself, or they could include it in as a way to think through a problem or case study. Potential topics might include, but are certainly not limited to seeking answers to the following questions:

What are the consequences in extending understandings of agency not only from humans to non-humans, but also to the non-living?

What are the ethical implications for the valuation of non-human actors? Can this or does this impact upon practical management and policy making?

Might this lead the idea that humans should have less responsibility for their immediate ecological conditions?

How might thinking about an expansion of collaborative capacity between humans and non-humans improve our ability to address political ecological issues?

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to Daniel Cockayne ([log in to unmask]) and Ryan Cooper ([log in to unmask]) no later than December 1, 2012. Participants will still need to register at www.politicalecology.org.

The third annual Dimensions of Political-Ecology: Conference on Nature/Society will be held at the University of Kentucky February 28 - March 3, 2013. For information on travel, registration, keynotes and other specifics, please see www.politicalecology.org/dope2013.

--
Daniel Cockayne
PhD Student
University of Kentucky
Department of Geography
[log in to unmask] 
@insistondoubt