environmental justice and conflict transformation think tank -...

Environmental Justice and Conflict Transformation Think Tank

Norwich, United Kingdom, 1-2 December, 2016

Report

Text: Iokiñe Rodriguez, Hannah Gray and Adrian Martin

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3

2. Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Think-Tank Participants ........................................................................................................................... 4

3.1 List of Think Tank Participants ..........................................................................................................................4

4. Results of Discussions (Day 1) .................................................................................................................. 5

4.1 Linking environmental justice and conflict (transformation) ..............................................................................5

Figure 1: Illustration of the conflict reproduction/transformation dynamics ................................................................ 6

4.2 Theorizing environmental justice alongside conflict transformation, development alternatives and just

transitions .............................................................................................................................................................7

Figure 2: The causes of harms and conflicts according to the frameworks ................................................................... 8

Figure 3: The “ways in” to transformation identified by the frameworks ...................................................................... 9

4.3 Knowledge gaps in environmental justice research .......................................................................................... 10

4.4 Imagining a transformative environmental justice research agenda ................................................................. 12

Figure 4: Key elements to develop capacities for action and practice-based research ................................................ 13

5. Casting our vision for collaboration (Day 2) ............................................................................................ 14

5.1 Hopes, values and the vision that ties us together ........................................................................................... 14

Figure 5: Radical hope, our values and our vision ........................................................................................................ 15

5.2 Areas of potential collaborative work ............................................................................................................. 16

Figure 6: Themes of interest for joint work .................................................................................................................. 16

Figure 7: Potential joint activities to further a transformative environmental justice agenda .................................... 17

5.3 The road ahead .............................................................................................................................................. 17

Figure 8: Areas for future collaboration ....................................................................................................................... 18

6. Justice Testimonies ................................................................................................................................ 19

Appendix 1 – Agenda of the Think Tank ..................................................................................................... 20

Appendix 2 – Biographies of the Think Tank Attendees .............................................................................. 21

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to UEA DEVCo for funding the Think-Tank and the ACKnowl-EJ Project for funding participation of

some of the attendees. To The Cellar House in Eaton for hosting us; to Dominic Joyce for filming and editing

the justice videos; and to Vanessa Tarling and Nathalie Horncastle from DEV Training for their logistical

support for the Think-Tank. Special thanks go to Dylan McGarry for introducing us to Social Sculpturing and

Franklin Paniagua for transcribing the handwritten records onto MS Word.

1. Introduction

Across the globe, environmental justice struggles over the right way to govern and use natural resources are

increasing, and so is the attention being paid to studying and understanding these environmental conflicts.

However, there is a pressing need to make more explicit connections between some key bodies of research

that are relevant to these struggles. Currently, for example, advances in environmental justice research have

largely occurred in isolation from advances in environmental conflict transformation research. Cross-

fertilisation between these cognate bodies of work is overdue and it could open up new and exciting

directions in environmental justice research, moving beyond analysis of conflicts and struggles, to an agenda

of seeking to better understand practices that can facilitate social and environmental transformations and

sustainable peace at local and at large scales. This effort will not only involve new cross-disciplinary ventures

but also research approaches that are more engaged with activists and practitioners.

The Conflict Transformation and Environmental Justice Think-Tank brought together UEA conflict researchers

along with invited external researchers and practitioners with expertise in environmental justice, conflict

transformation, theory of change and well-being /development alternatives, post-growth and sustainable

transitions among others, to jointly explore how such a transformative research agenda for environmental

justice is being, or can be, developed. It also explored ways in which further collaborations that can help

advance this agenda of transformative research for global environmental justice can be developed.

2. Methodology

The Think-Tank methodology was discussion-based. Four discussion papers were circulated prior to the Think-

Tank to guide and trigger the initial discussions, but most of the time was spent in very rich and engaged group

and plenary discussions. We used a format of “prompting questions” to guide the discussions for each of the

workshop activities, which the groups could answer through diagrams, drawings or in text. For some of the

activities we used connective group dynamics, such as gift-giving for the welcome or social sculpturing for

exploring how a sense of empathy and rooting with the earth can be collectively developed.

The first day was devoted to sharing experiences and approaches for transformative environmental justice

research and exploring areas of potential collaboration. The second day was devoted to visualizing a potential

collaborative research agenda among the participants. A detailed agenda can be found in Appendix 1.

The Global Environmental Justice Group also took the opportunity to interview some of the participants to

create films to add to their existing ‘Testimonies of Justice’ video library. Links to these films can be found in

section 6.

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3. Think-Tank Participants The event built on existing links within UEA (e.g. Water Security Research Centre) and externally (e.g. Grupo

Confluencias, a Latin America environmental conflict transformation network and the Academic and Activist

co-produced knowledge for Environmental Justice (ACKnowl-EJ) Project, which is part of the International

Social Science Council’s (ISSC) Transformations for Sustainability Network). Participants came from within the

UK and from abroad, with nine different countries represented. Further information about the participants

can be found in the Biographies in Appendix 2.

3.1 List of Think Tank Participants

Participant Institution

Rania Masri*

Catherine Moughalian*

Asfari Institute at the American University of Beirut

Daniela Del Bene*

Leah Temper*

Mariana Walter*

Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Ethemcan Turhan* Bogazici University, Turkey

Dimitris Stevis Colorado State University, USA

Juliana Robledo ◊ Department of Environment, Entre Rios State Government, Argentina

Neema Pathak Broome*

Meenal Tatpati*

Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, India

Mirna Inturias * ◊ Nur University, Bolivia

Dylan McGarry Rhodes University, South Africa/ T-Learning Project

Hannah Gray

Nicole Gross-Camp

Adrian Martin*

Peter McArdle

Rupert Read

Iokiñe Rodriguez* ◊

Mark Zeitoun

University of East Anglia, UK

Franklin Paniagua University of Florida, USA/ Costa Rica

Simphiwe Nojiyeza University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Saskia Vermeylen University of Strathclyde, Scotland

* Member of the ACKnowl-EJ Project

◊ Member of Grupo Confluencias, Latin America

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4. Results of Discussions (Day 1) This section outlines the main discussion points from the first day of the Think-Tank, recording information

collected in small group discussions and plenary discussions regarding transformative environmental justice

research. Selected pictures have been included to illustrate some aspects of discussion, and some diagrams

have been created to represent the major conclusions of elements of discussion.

4.1 Linking environmental justice and conflict (transformation)

The first group discussion of the Think-Tank was aimed at exploring the link between environmental justice

and conflict (transformation).

All groups agreed that there is a clear connection between conflicts and environmental justice, in the sense

that environmental conflicts are both the cause and consequence of injustices. The different perspective of

nature that different social groups have is often a point of contention and conflict in human relations and

interaction.

However, there is no clear cut way to understand and analyse environmental conflicts and injustices.

Perspectives can vary according to their place in continuum of eco-centric approaches on one extreme and

anthropocentric approaches on the other.

Mention was made of the fact that wars over resources are increasing (e.g. water, energy). This is driving a

“securitization” (Peace and Security) agenda in environmental conflict research and interventions which often

overshadows or limits a deeper political ecological understanding of environmental injustices (e.g. the

rewilding of the UN-controlled buffer zone in Cyprus and Sudan’s post-conflict environmental recovery).

For environmental justice to be achieved, transformative interventions are necessary. There are pathways to

justice and away from justice, and also false justice pathways which are temporary or partial, and end up

looping back to conflict (see figure 1 for an illustration of the conflict reproduction and transformation

dynamics). How can we move towards multiple issue transformation? What institutional changes are needed?

Mobilisation of Environmental Justice groups (water groups, climate groups, indigenous peoples’ movement)

and cooperation amongst them are seen as essential to bring about real transformation. The energy of

Environmental Justice movements plays an important part - pushing current systems towards a conflict or

crisis to cause change. This may need to happen again and again for different conflicts, groups or localities.

This iterative process is a transformative process.

A point was made by Rupert Read that the term “justice” is too narrow and anthropocentric to guide the type

of change needed to bring about the sustainable transformation that the world needs. He proposed the term

“care” to guide change. This was left as a point for further reflection throughout the event.

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Figure 1: Illustration of the conflict reproduction/transformation dynamics

(by Dylan McGarry, Rania Masri, Catherine Moughalian, Leah Temper and Saskia Vermeylen)

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4.2 Theorizing environmental justice alongside conflict transformation, development alternatives

and just transitions

As mentioned before, one of the key objectives of this meeting was to explore how to make connections

between key bodies of knowledge that could help open up new and exciting directions in environmental

justice research, moving beyond analysis of conflicts and struggles, to an agenda of seeking to better

understand practices that can facilitate social and environmental transformations and sustainable peace at

local and at large scales. For this purpose, four members of the workshop were invited to share with the

workshop participants a paper that could anchor this discussion1. Two of these papers were from the Global

South and two from Global North.

The titles and authors of the papers were:

Conflict Transformation: a Framework for Environmental Justice Research and Action by Iokiñe

Rodríguez, Mirna Liz Inturias and Juliana Robledo (Grupo Confluencias, Latin America)

Alternatives Transformation Format: A Process for Assessing and Moving Towards Radical Change by

Ashish Kothari (Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, India)

Green Transitions, Just Transitions? Broadening and Deepening Justice by Dimitris Stevis (Colorado State

University) and Romain Felli (Université de Genève)

Post-growth Localisation by Helena Norberg-Hodge and Rupert Read (Local Futures and Green House, UK)

A brief explanation of the origin of the concept papers was followed by group discussion on the papers, with

the aim of identifying similarities and differences between the 4 conceptual papers presented.

We were particularly interested in identifying what the frameworks had to offer in terms of analyzing the

causes of environmental conflict and the ways out for transformation.

Figure 2 summarizes what the four frameworks put together say about the causes of conflicts. They all share a

focus on the structural causes of conflicts and injustice, including: power asymmetries, violence, politics of

knowledge, global economics and world dynamics (globalisation), modernity, political contexts and cultural

framings.

1 Each paper is available from the authors upon request. See Appendix 2 for emails of each workshop participant.

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Figure 2: The causes of harms and conflicts according to the frameworks

• Unequal power (asymmetries)

• Hegemonic corporate and state power

• Marginalisation

• Structural inequalities and episodes

Power

• Oppression and domination

• Not just physical, also epistemic and symbolicViolence

• Universal ideas about forms of knowledge (monocultures of the mind, knowledge)

Knowledge politics/hegemonies

• Economic growth

• Economics itself (economics is a form of mental illness)

• Exploitation

• Tension with the local: autonomy, indigeneity, sovereignty

• Neoliberalism and the role of trade treaties

Global economy, world systems (Globalisation)

• Disconnect between society and natureModernity

• Nation-states are weak

• Lack of interculturality in decision-making processes

• Lack of democracyPolitical context

• Different world views/ values/ identityCulture

This explains why according to the four frameworks the way out for transformation necessarily involves

engaging head on with the structural forces that cause injustice (see figure 3). This includes:

a) supporting collective action in struggles for cross-scale learning

b) confronting power at different levels to help empower vulnerable actors but also weaken the powerful

ones

c) developing a decolonial research praxis by helping to develop intercultural relations, restoring the past in

conflicts, and understanding, challenging and reframing dominant narratives

d) helping to develop a post-growth/ post-development movement by transforming economies

e) show-casing positive examples of transformation.

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Figure 3: The “ways in” to transformation identified by the frameworks

• For cross-scale action/ learning: in labour, between environmental groups, geographies

• Developing politics/ activism of the big-picture: ecological literacy

Collective action, alliances

• Engaging power in its multiple expressions (structural, relational)

• Developing entities that can stand against big international powers

• Strengthening communities’ agency through process of empowerment

• Weakening the powerful (pedagogies of the oppressor)

Confront power

• Developing symmetrical intercultural relations

• Understanding of the past and historical memory, re-building historical memory

• Renewing vision of the future

• Accessing knowledge

• Developing counter-narratives

Decoloniality

• Transforming economics

• Policy recommendations

Post-growth/ post-development

• Working with examples/ models that present alternative realities

• Developing more optimism in the formation of an international transformation Showcasing

• Making protecting no longer a dirty word, how to do this without being xenophobic?Protectionism

• Acknowledging/ confronting complexity/ uncertainty Understand structural change

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4.3 Knowledge gaps in environmental justice research

Another important objective of the workshop was to help identify knowledge gaps in environmental justice

research that limit its contribution to social change. For this purpose we spent some time discussing what we

needed to learn (understand better) for environmental justice research to have a transformative agenda.

The points raise by the groups can be divided into four categories a) gaps in terms of our understanding of the

actors, their perspectives and world views, b) in our understanding of the world economy, c) of our

understanding of conflicts and transformation dynamics, and d) in our understanding of how to do

transformative research.

a) Actors, perspectives and world views:

Listen to people on the ground and understand what language like “environmental justice” and

“transformation” means to them. Better understand the language that people facing injustice are

using.

Learn more about indigenous people worldviews, how to live in balance (re-imagined knowledge). But

also, what are old knowledges, not just indigenous knowledge.

How to understand imaginaries, worldviews, cosmovisions and how they are rooted in history (or not).

Better understand actor complexities: State, companies, communities - break stereotypes about

actors.

b) World economy:

Better understand the nature and dynamics of world economy which displaces the alternatives. How

are they institutionalized in decision making processes? How can they be challenged?

We need more narratives of the positive examples.

c) Conflict and transformation dynamics:

At the level of Conflict Prevention:

o Without cooptation, by who? NGOs, Governments, International Institutions, Organized

communities. How?

At the post-episode level (how to access/address):

o Transformations of what? How? (institutions, relations) relationship to future conflict prevention

o Cross-scale temporal transformations

Better understand when a process is transformative:

o How can we tell the difference between change and transformation?

o Learn about the balance between personal and structural change.

How to articulate rural-urban actors?

What do we need to un-learn:

o How do we go beyond protesting, to demanding, to actually doing?

d) Transformative research:

How to develop transformative research (outreach, aims, results etc…):

o See cases as experiments,

o Build alliances,

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o How to disseminate results?

o Ethics,

o What are the strategic needs or problems?

However, to part of the group, the challenge for transformative research is not so much in the production of

new knowledge as in a true engagement in the processes of change. As said by one group “we don’t need to

know anything, we just need action”. Thus, to this group of the participants, the key for a transformative

research agenda is not so much focusing on the “what” we need to know but the “how” we need to do it, and

this can be achieved by research contributing to:

Equalizing the flow of knowledge

Speaking truth to power

Mapping the rich:

o Pedagogies of the oppressor (eg. NIMBY)

o Understanding the structures of the oppressor, we give the State its legitimacy, what do we do

when we take it away?

Developing a meaningful engagement with the other worldviews/ values systems ways of knowing

Developing support within academia for action research co-production/ development of research

questions and outputs.

Supporting citizen-lead initiatives (eg. analytical, writing skills) (eg. Turkey use of air quality, monitoring

equipment)

Developing long-term relationships/ partnerships (academia-institutions-communities) and in-country

research

Sometimes speaking works, sometimes it doesn’t:

o Intermediate strategies: Gandhi non-violence acting and speaking truth

o Convince people about alternatives

Going beyond materiality:

o Embodied being, moving away from the tyranny of written cultures

o Not just decolonizing the mind but escaping the mind

o Embodied ecological citizenship

o Inspire the people to feel they can make a change, the power of Mom (Caring).

Questioning scale:

o We do things on such a large scale. How do we do that when the 1% controls the State? Communities

have to be physical.

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4.4 Imagining a transformative environmental justice research agenda

The next step in our workshop was to start imagining what a transformative research agenda would look like.

For this purpose we spend some time discussing how a transformative research agenda could be brought

about.

The key points mentioned by the groups were:

Aim to reach a wide audience, with flexible and creative strategies

In the research conception:

o Formulate strategic questions, context related

o Develop alliances with interest groups in order to jointly think about the impacts that want to be

generated

o Define the roles in the process (understand/ define role of research)

o Define with precision which relations we want to transform

o Ensure that our ethics and our values are clean

In the research development:

o Ensure that the research is context related

o Aim to have a local focus: understanding historical environmental, reclaim history

o Aim to help re-imagine the past, who was excluded/ exiled into history?

o Create capacities for action and practice-based research through:

o Co-production of knowledge

o Learning/teaching processes

o Self-reflection

o Research out-puts

o Develop strong principles that can ensure:

o Not being patronizing

o Participation, intuition, flexibility

Of all these points, there was a consensus that creating capacities for action and practice-based research in

the four levels mentioned above (the co-production of knowledge, the learning/teaching processes, self-

reflection, in the research out-puts) both within academia in with actors in struggles, was one of the more

important components of a transformative environmental justice research agenda. A detailed explanation of

what each one of these levels entails is shown in figure 4.

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Figure 4: Key elements to develop capacities for action and practice-based research

• We are coming with an agenda (objective/ subjective)

• How much are we censoring ourselves? (subjective scholars)

• Ethics: can our values be clean?

• Who defines participation? importance of invisibility (if you are not confused, then you are not getting it)

• Participation and the danger of collectivism (false representation, research for who?)

• Emphasis in process and in outcomes

• Place-based learning, phenomenological experiencing, dwelling, embodying

• Art/ aesthetic education (storytelling, art, feelings)

• Connective aesthetic education, experiential learning, expansive learning (ontological reflection), talk about feelings, explore questions together, personal experiences of transformation

• What is the outcome of the research: research papers or social transformation?

• Publishing co-produced knowledge in local and regional languages

• Work with local governments (in urge of capacity building)

• Multilevel co-production of knowledge (inter/ transdisciplinarity)

• Doing research with communities/ movements

• Aligning research with needs of a communities

• Indigenous knowledge

• Defining research agenda/ approach together

• Working with networks

• Practice research (move beyond-action research) Co-production

of knowledge

Engagement and research

output

Self-reflectionTeaching/ Learning

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5. Casting our vision for collaboration (Day 2)

Having spent the first day of the workshop exploring and sharing views about what a transformative

environmental justice research agenda would look like, in the second day of the workshop we turned to

discussing in more detail the areas in which we could potentially work together in order to set this idea in

motion.

5.1 Hopes, values and the vision that ties us together

We started by sharing our views of our hopes, our values and our vision as a group, that is how we see our

purpose and work ethos and dynamics as a group (see figure 5).

The discussions showed a shared commitment from the group to contributing to change. Hope was defined in

a radical and proactive way, as a space to dream and work towards a better future. This was also reflected in

the vision the group has of itself as proactively transgressive, striving to transform, pioneering and playing a

role empowering actors as well as in the commitment to breaking methodological boundaries with political

rigour, in order for research to have a social impact. Two other very distinctive features in the vision of the

group was the commitment to the co-production of knowledge through developing transdisciplinary and

collaborative research. The latter was conceived in a decentralised way, through interconnected nodes that

complement each other to make the most effective use of each others’ capacities.

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Figure 5: Radical hope, our values and our vision

Radical Hope:

• Hope as a process, a verb, proactive

• Hope as a possibility of change

Our Vision:

• Provocatively transgressive

• Striving to transform

• Pioneering

• Transdisciplinary

• Empowering actors

• Inclusivity (international)

• Collaborating instead of competing

• Complementary

• Creating a support network (Bi-annual gatherings)

• Part of an international network

• Interconnected nodes

• Free forum / collaborative output

• Political rigour, methodological (research that goes beyond academic and ethical boundaries to have social impact)

Our Values:

• Care and love, equality, ecology, sanity (some terms to go beyond sustainable) (we need to acknowledge that the way we are living drives us a little insane)

• Strong ethics: From personal to community to all humanity to all animals to rocks and water

• We love conflict (resolution, transformation, analysis)

• Tolerance respect for the different roles/ approaches

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5.2 Areas of potential collaborative work

The latter part of the workshop was devoted to exploring potential areas of collaboration. We first identified

the themes we are individually interested in working on, which ranged from areas of environmental justice

and conflict research (some of which are currently being developed by the workshop participants), to the

development of the new theory and methods that can help break conceptual and methodological boundaries

in these fields (see figure 6).

Figure 6: Themes of interest for joint work

• Work and workers (green and just transitions)

• Conservation

• Extraction e.g. fracking

• Waste management

• Renewable energy

• Water resource management and supply

• Climate change mitigation and adaptation

• Indigenous people/territories

• Rights of nature

• Corporate rule

• Relationship between injustice and unsustainability (and investment)

Areas of Environmental

Justices research

• Continuum from indifference/ exhaustion to anger/ rage to empathy/ “in”pathy

• When is conflict useful?

• Prevention (Action/ activism)

• Compare approaches in different countries (Philippines, Mexico)

Understanding conflicts

• Rethinking democracy and governance

• Framing and re-framing narratives of nature/ sustainability/ conservation

• Linking restorative justice, long term historical time frames (decolonial perspectives) and environmental justice

Theory

• Role of researcher/ activist (de-learn how we do research)

• Indifference ontology

• Future visioning and back-casting

• Radical and political research methods and experiments

• Research (change discourse): is there some research which should only be practiced/ lived but not published?

• Compare approaches in different countries (Philippines, Mexico)

Methods

And lastly, we worked in identifying activities we could carry out together to help us develop these themes of

interest. The three main activities we identified were: self-reflection and shared learning, joint research, and

capacity building (See figure 7).

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Figure 7: Potential joint activities to further a transformative environmental justice agenda

• Longer retreat (not 9 to 5 but all day)

• Longer self-reflection sessions

• Skill sharing

• Discussion of paper drafts

• Intuition/ dreams/ psychotherapy-trainings

• Language rethinking, how it frames research and concepts

Self-reflection and shared

learning

• Exploratory, investigating thematic areas

• Different approaches to rights of nature: how are they working?

• Do some more imagining of the future (not just envisioning, but experimenting with different types of futures)

• Challenging popular narratives, debunking. eg. sustainable intensification

• Arts and social sciences critique to ecosystem services

• Do work in value chains: production networks, commodity chain tracking

• Trace how conflicts move across locations

• Include as many sources of knowledge, give voice to local communities

Joint research

• Workshops for conflict actors: communities (legal action and frameworks), local governments (conflict analysis/ transformation)

• In Universities: short courses (income generating)/ MOOC (open source)

• Bring new learning traditions/ methodologies into teaching

• Summer schools

• Create games for students: e.g. simulation of climate negotiations (climate interactive)

Capacity building

5.3 The road ahead

Based on the two day discussion we identified four key areas of work for potential future collaborations,

which included (see figure 8):

o Theory: conceptual reframing of environmental justice theory to bring closer social and ecological dimensions (e.g. rights of nature), longer time frame of injustices (past, present and future), conflict transformation, and transitions and theory of change.

o Methods: breaking methodological boundaries with political rigour, in order for research to have a social impact.

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o Education (universities as spaces for transformative change) and capacity building (at the community and government levels).

o Cross-learning for action through practice-based research in conflicts.

Following our vision of interconnected nodes for collaboration, we formed sub-groups that would take the

lead in each one of the components.

Political rigour (methods/ethics) - Leah, Dylan, Ethamcan, Franklin

Re-framing (social and ecological) - Dimitris, Franklin, Rupert, Marianna, Rania, Leah, Adrian, Iokine

Education and capacity building - Simphiwe, Juliana, Rania, Iokine

Cross-learning for action (empirical) - Meena, Mirna, Mariana, Dimitris, Daniela, Iokiñe

We also agreed that we would seek to maintain cross pollination with other existing initiatives such as T-

learning and other partners that were interested to participate but could not make it for the meeting.

Figure 8: Areas for future collaboration

Methods/ethics: develop tools, guidelines to do

research with political rigour and high social impact

Theory:re-framing

nature, restoring

conflicts, just transitions

Education and capacity building: help develop capacities to transform

conflicts

Joint research:

cross-learning for action

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6. Justice Testimonies

During the Think Tank the Global Environmental Justice Group took the opportunity of filming some ‘Testimonies of Justice’ from some of the participants. These have now been added to the other Testimonies of Justice films created by the Group on the UEA School of International Development’s YouTube channel.

To view the films click on the photos or visit: www.youtube.com/user/devschooluea/playlists.

Neema Pathak Broome

Simphiwe Nojiyeza

Rupert Read

Ethemcan Turhan

Dylan McGarry

Mariana Walter

Dimitris Stevis

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Appendix 1 – Agenda of the Think Tank

Day 1 – Exploring the interface between Environmental Justice and Conflict Transformation

Time Activity

10:00 Coffee: Welcome, Agenda run-through, Presentations

10:45 Group discussion: Exploring the links between environmental justice and conflict transformation

11:30 Brief presentations on the four framework documents

12:00 Exploring Commonalities/Differences between the frameworks

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Plenary discussion on the application of the frameworks in moving forward a transformative environmental justice research agenda.

15:00 Coffee

15:30 Group discussion: What do we need to learn (to understand better) for environmental justice research to have a transformative agenda?

16:40 Group discussion: How can we do this is a transformative way?

17:50 Summary of the afternoon’s discussion

Day 2 – Casting Vision and Planning Action (with Testimonies of Justice filming)

09:30 Sculpting the space for collaboration

10:15 Casting our vision for collaboration

11:15 Coffee

11:45 Identifying key areas of potential work

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Bringing the ideas together in a platform for collaboration (Spider-Web)

15:00 Grounding our potential collaborative work:

What would each person want to do?

Who would the core group be?

What would be the next steps?

16:00 Funding options:

Research calls and practice-based sources

16:30 Conclusion, Feedback and Farewell

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Appendix 2 – Biographies of the Think Tank Attendees

Ms Daniela Del Bene

Email: [email protected]

Institution: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

Job Title: Phd candidate

Bio: Daniela Del Bene is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental Sciences at ICTA-UAB. She holds a Master degree in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Turin (Italy) and a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of Triest (Italy). She also studied Ethnology, History of Southern Asia and Politics at the South Asien Institute at University of Heidelberg (Germany). Her main research topics are conflicts related to water resources, dams and hydropower, energy sovereignty. Her work is mostly based in Southern Asia (Indian Himalayas), Europe (Alps) and Latin America. She currently works in the EJAtlas (global map of environmental conflicts and resistance) and the ACKnowl-EJ project. She is member of the Barcelona based Observatori del Deute (ODG) and the Catalan Network for Energy Sovereignty (XSE)

Mrs Hannah Gray


Institution: UEA

Job Title: Coordinator of Global Environmental Justice Group

Bio: I am currently coordinating the Global Environmental Justice research group, assisting the researchers with publicity, funding and administration. Previous to this role I was working as an Environment Officer for the Broads National Park, UK, implementing biodiversity monitoring and management on water and land, and engaging stakeholders with the work we were carrying out. I have a BSc in Environmental Science.

Dr Nicole Gross-Camp


Institution: UEA

Job Title: Senior Research Fellow

Bio: I am an environmental scientist interested in influencing socially-responsible, long-term conservation change particularly in the African tropics. My work has predominantly occured at the interface of subsistence or forest-based communities and protected areas. Most recently I've been leading a research project on understanding the influence of community-based forest management on human wellbeing in Tanzania, and a Co-I on the 'Conservation, Markets & Justice' project examining the influence of market-based conservation mechansims on local people's perceptions of justice.

Mrs Mirna Inrturias


Institution: Nur University

Job Title: Research

Bio: Bolivian sociologist with a Masters in Sustainable Development. I am a social researcher, specializing in indigenous issues, identity and interculturality, indigenous education and transformation of environmental conflicts. I have carried out research on environmental conflicts in protected areas and indigenous territories in the East, Chaco and Bolivian Amazon. I am a founding member of Grupo Confluencias and part of different Latin American networks of reflection and research. Lecturer at Nur University, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

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Dr Adrian Martin


Institution: UEA

Job Title: Professor of Environment and Development

Bio: Academic with teaching and research interests in environment and development. In recent years I have been working with an environmental justice framework. My research focus has mostly been on forestry and conservation issues in Africa, but collaborative project work has also taken me to other places.

Dr Rania Masri


Institution: Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship, AUB

Job Title: Associate Director

Bio: Dr. Masri joined AUB in September 2014 after nine years as professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Balamand (2005-2014). Previously, she served as the Environment and Energy Policy Specialist at the UNDP-Regional Office in Cairo (2012-2013). Prior to her move to Lebanon in 2005, she was the Director of the Southern Peace Research and Education Center at the Institute for Southern Studies in North Carolina, USA (2002-2005).

Dr. Masri holds a PhD in Forestry from North Carolina State University (2001), and a Masters in Environmental Management (MEM) from Duke University (1995). Throughout her career, Dr. Masri has worked to bring a holistic, interdisciplinary lens to the environmental sciences, and a recognition that environmental management must encompass a human rights and social justice practice and is, in itself, a struggle for full citizenship. Her academic research and publications have centered on issues of ecological sustainability, environmental politics, and social movements. She has also written and organized extensively on the sanctions on Iraq, the occupation of Palestine, and civil and environmental rights, and spoken at hundreds of public events and media appearances. (A partial listing of her writings and talks can be found on her personal website: http://greenresistance.wordpress.com/my-writings/)

Mr Peter McArdle


Institution: UEA

Job Title: PhD candidate

Bio: Peter is undertaking a research project looking at how the participant experience of transboundary water conflict - particularly boundaries that are not solely defined by interstate borders - and how they might inform practicalities of peacebuilding in water conflict. He has worked for several years within the Red Cross movement, including in conflict in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone and disasters in Nepal and the Pacific.

Dr Dylan McGarry


Institution: Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University

Job Title: Post Doctoral Fellow/ Researcher /Social Sculptor

Bio: Dylan is a Post Doctoral fellow at the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University, and a research fellow at Urban Futures Centre, at Durban University of Technology, in South Africa. He is also a researcher in the ISSC Transformative Knowledge Network, with a particular focus on methodological and pedagogical developments in transgressive learning in new environmental and social justice projects across nine countries. He explores practice-based research into connective aesthetics, transgressive social learning, protest/forum/documentary and verbatim theatre, immersive empathy and socio-ecological development in South Africa. He has a transdisciplinary PhD in Environmental

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Education and Art (social sculpture). His academic work to date has mainly revolved around sustainable rural development, informal youth education in complex learning environments and transgressive social-ecological learning across various contexts and cultures. His artwork and social praxis (which is closely related to his research) is particularly focused on empathy, and he primarily works with imagination, attentive listening and intuition as actual sculptural materials in social settings to offer new ways to encourage personal, relational and collective agency. To read more about his work and to connect to his publications go to www.dylanmcgarry.org

Ms Catherine Moughalian


Institution: Safari Institue, AUB

Job Title: Senior Researcher

Bio: I've studied social psychology and specialised in research on collective action and predictors of mobilisation. I'm currently working as a researcher with the Asfari Institute on the EJ program, and in my free time I volunteer as a sexuality hotline counsellor, which was started by the women led Lebanese NGO the A-project, dedicated to starting a conversation around sexuality and sexual and reproductive health and rights for women in Lebanon.

Dr Innocent Simphiwe Nojiyeza


Institution: University of Johannesburg

Job Title: Academic

Bio: Dr. Simphiwe Nojiyeza joined UJ in 2014. He previously worked at O P Jindal Global University’s School of International Affairs, Management College of Southern Africa, Rosebank College and the Department of Basic Education. He has two decades of environmental and climate change activism as chair of the KZN Environmental Justice Networking Forum (mid-1990s), chair of Earthlife Africa Durban (early 2000s) and founder-member of the South African Water Caucus. He was recently Chair of South African Water and Sanitation, a board member of the Freshwater Action Network and Network for Advocacy in Water Issues in Southern Africa. His research interests includes water resources management, water supply, sanitation, climate change adaptation & mitigation, trade liberalization, African political economy & development and entrepreneurship.

Mr Franklin Paniagua


Institution: University of Florida School of Law

Job Title: Adjunt Professor

Bio: Franklin Paniagua has over 20 years of experience in Environmental law, particularly in negotiation, facilitation and mediation of multi-stakeholder public interest conflicts. Franklin has a Law degree from the University of Costa Rica Law School and a Masters from the University of Florida where he is finishing his Ph.D. Franklin had intensive training in negotiation and mediation from the Supreme Court of Justice in Costa Rica. Being of the first cohort of certified mediators in his country. He has developed graduate as well as undergraduate university courses in public interest disputes and professional training programs in negotiation and facilitation throughout Latin America. He has published several handbooks regarding citizen engagement and social dialogue and negotiation, as well as, academic articles in the fields of environmental policy, public conflicts and participation.

Ms Neema Pathak Broome


Institution: Kalpavriksh

Job Title: Programme Coordinator

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Bio: Neema Pathak Broome, has studied environmental science and completed a post graduate diploma in wildlife management. She is a member of Kalpavriksh, coordinating the Conservation and Livelihoods programme and is part of the team monitoring implementation of conservation laws and policies in particular the Wildlife Protection Act and the Forest Rights Act in India. Her main area of interest is conservation governance, particularly Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs). She has been involved with documentation, research, analysis and advocacy related to inclusive conservation governance and ICCAs in India and South Asia.

Dr Rupert Read


Institution: Univeristy of East Anglia

Job Title: Reader in Philosophy

Bio: Rupert Read is a Reader in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. A specialist in Wittgenstein, he has written and edited a number of well-received books on the subject. Aside from this, Rupert’s key research interests are in environmental philosophy, critiques of Rawlsian liberalism, and philosophy of film. His interest in environmental ethics and economics has included publishing on the problems of ‘natural capital’ valuations of nature, as well as pioneering work on the Precautionary Principle. Recently, his work was cited by the Supreme Court of the Philippines in their landmark decision to ban the cultivation of GM aubergine. Rupert is also chair of the UK-based post-growth think tank, Green House, and is a former Green Party of England & Wales councillor, spokesperson, European parliamentary candidate and national parliamentary candidate.

Mrs Maria Juliana Robledo


Institution: Secretaria de Ambiente del Gobierno Entre Rios (Argentina) y Miembro del Grupo Confluencias

Job Title: Directora de Fiscalizacion Ambiental

Bio: Lawyer and mediator. Specialist in Environmental Law and Administration and in Alternative Approaches to Public Conflicts. She has worked as a researcher at the Institute of Environment and Ecology of the University of Salvador, as Coordinator in Fundación Cambio Democrático, as consultant for IDB, UNDP and the Integrated Trinational Program to support the Rights of indigenous communities in the American Chaco, always developing processes linked to the issue of socio-environmental conflict and dialogue. For the last three year she has served executive functions in the public administration, initially as Director of Environment and now as Director of Environmental Enforcement to Municipal Government of the Entre Rios Province. Argentina. Co-founder of Grupo Confluencias.

Dr Iokiñe Rodriguez


Institution: UEA

Job Title: Senior Research Fellow

Bio: I am Venezuela sociologist working on socio-environmental conflict transformation in Latin America for more than 20 years. I have worked in Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Chile and now in Bolivia building local and institutional capacity to transform environmental conflicts using participatory action-research. My work on environmental conflict transformation focuses on issues of local history and identity revitalization, indigenous environmental knowledge, power, environmental justice and intercultural dialogue. I work in close collaboration with Latin American institutions in training, developing methodological and conceptual frameworks and assessing on-going experiences on environmental conflict transformation across the region. I am currently a Senior Research Fellow at DEV-UEA where I work in the “Conservation, Justice and Markets” Project, the “Academic-Activist Co-Produced Knowledge for Environmental” (ACKnowl-EJ) Project and collaborate in the Global Environmental Justice Group.

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Dr Dimitris Stevis


Institution: Department of Political Science, Colorado State University

Job Title: Professor

Bio: At the undergraduate level I teach international relations, international political economy, and green political economy. I have also taught capstones on global labor politics. At the postgraduate level I teach The Politics of the Environment and Sustainability, Governance of the World Political Economy, International Environmental Politics as well as special seminars on transnational social policy and green political economy.

In broad terms my research examines the social governance of the world political economy in the areas of labor and the environment, with particular attention to social power, justice and local/global dynamics. I am currently involved in a number of projects. One project is Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Climate Change, based at York University (Canada). In that context I am investigating the green transition strategies of US and global labor unions, with particular attention to Just Transition proposals. A related project, in collaboration with colleagues from Sweden and the UK, investigates the environmental politics of labor unions across the world. A third collaborative project examines the immigration and labor policies of environmentalist organizations. A fourth project, with colleagues from Colorado State University and supported by the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, focuses on Environmental Justice.

Ms Meenal Tatpati


Institution: Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group

Job Title: Research Associate

Bio: I am part of Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group in Pune, India. I interned with the group on various projects for the Conservation and Livelihoods team before becoming a full-time member in 2013. My work has been centered around advocacy and research on Community Forest Rights (CFR) under Forest Rights Act. I am currently also focusing on understanding indigenous worldviews. I am interested in understanding the changing socio-political aspects of forest governance in India. Besides work, I like to travel, take pictures and collect people stories. I have a Masters in Environmental Science from the University of Pune.

Dr Leah Temper


Institution: Institute of Environmental Science and Technology - ICTA-Autonomous University of Barcelona ICTA-UAB

Job Title: Associate Researcher, Project leader, ACKnowl-EJ

Bio: Dr. Leah Temper is a scholar-activist specialized in Ecological Economics and sometimes filmmaker. She is co-director of the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (www.ejatlas.org) and Project leader of ACKnowl-EJ (Activist-academic Co-production of Knowledge for Environmental Justice), a project analyzing the transformative potential of community responses to extractivism and alternatives born from resistance.

Dr Ethemcan Turhan


Institution: Bogazici University

Job Title: Research Associate

Bio: Ethemcan Turhan (Ph.D.) is an environmental social scientist. He was recently a Mercator-IPC fellow in Istanbul Policy Center in 2014-15. He received his B.Sc. in environmental engineering from Middle East Technical University, his M.Sc. and Ph.D. on environmental studies from Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. He held visiting periods in Brown University, Lund University, University of Potsdam and Middle East Technical University. His scholarly work appeared in Global Environmental Change, Ecological Economics and WIREs Climate Change.

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Dr Saskia Vermeylen


Institution: University of Strathclyde, Law School

Job Title: Senior Lecturer & Chancellor's Fellow

Bio: As a socio-legal scholar, I have worked with indigenous peoples in Southern Africa on transitional, social and environmental justice related to cultural heritage and land rights. Theoretically my work draws upon post-colonial theory and poststructuralism and I am particularly interested in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida.

Dr Mariana Walter


Institution: Autonomous University of Barcelona

Job Title: Scientific Project Manager, ACKnowl-EJ project

Bio: Mariana Walter holds a Phd in Environmental Sciences. She is a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technologies (ICTA) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research addresses political ecology, ecological economics and resource extraction conflicts in Latin America.

Mr Mark Zeitoun


Institution: UEA

Job Title: Professor

Bio: Dr Mark Zeitoun is co-counder of the Water Security Research Centre, and Professor of Water Security and Policy at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. His research follows three streams: a) development of theory and case-based research on international transboundary water management; b) examination of the influence of armed conflict on water and other essential urban services, and c) water security and management in development, post-conflict, and conflict contexts. This stems from his work as a humanitarian-aid water engineer, and advisor on water security policy and transboundary water negotiations throughout the Middle East and Africa. He has a B.Eng in civil engineering and an MSc in environmental engineering from McGill University, and a PhD in human geography from King’s College London.

environmental justice and conflict transformation think tank -...

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