This is a reminder to list members that JoAnn Carmin and I are planning a panel at Pisa entitled,
'The Politics of Environmental Capacity-Building: knowledge transfer or political intervention?'
We have already received several abstracts, but would like to issue a final call for papers. We are
particularly keen for comparative analyses, or research on the global south.
Details of the panel are to be found below:
The concept of environmental capacity-building (or development) denotes the transfer of
knowledge, ideas, policy and technical assistance from Europe and the US, to the South and across
post-socialist states. As both discourse and policy framework, capacity-building has become the
central tenet of development aid and assistance for the environment in a range of countries at
various stages of regime change and democratization. Capacity assistance is administered by a
host of multi-lateral and bi-lateral donor agencies, including the EU, UN, the OSCE and the World
Bank, in the contexts of both democratisation and state-building. In the case of the Balkans,
building environmental capacity is a central component of the EU stability and accession agenda.
The existing literature on environmental capacity-building includes cross national and regional
studies, but little critical analysis of the embedded ideological assumptions behind the empirical
application of the concept. Where attempts have been made at cross-regional comparison, the
findings have revealed a number of similarities in terms of the impact of capacity initiatives and
the constraints placed on intervention and knowledge transfer by local contexts.
We hope to receive contributions from scholars involved in researching the impact and operation
of environmental capacity assistance in the North, South or post-socialist regions, in order to
extend a comparative focus as the basis for developing a more robust critique of this critical
aspect of environmental intervention.
If you are interested in presenting a paper please contact Adam Fagan: [log in to unmask] , or
JoAnn Carmin: [log in to unmask]
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