Society and Environment Research Group

Monday May 12th 2008 1.15pm

Professor Richard Walker, University of California-Berkeley (University of Manchester Hallsworth Visiting Fellow 2008)

'The Country in the City: the greening of the San Francisco Bay Area'

Arthur Lewis Building, Boardroom 2nd floor.

All welcome.

Capitalism and Conservation Symposium

Manchester University
9th-10th September 2008

Organisers: Dr Dan Brockington and Professor Rosaleen Duffy

This symposium will examine new directions in conservation debates and practices in the context of a neoliberal global order. Neoliberal values and practices are increasingly pervasive in wildlife conservation, and increaslingly influence the governments and NGOs shaping conservation practice. This symposium will bring together scholars examining how conservation is responding to the de and re-regulations of neoliberalism and other aspects of conservation?s changing global context. Papers will engage diverse topics including governance and natural resource management, conservation finance, trade, international networks, private capital, conservation business, and representation and image in conservation. These themes will be explored through panels on privatising nature, the trade in wildlife, illegal networks, conservation finance, the role of conservation NGOs and the importance of media and celebrity.

• Capitalism and Conservation Symposium website

Capitalism and Nature

Monday February 4th 2008

A one-day symposium at the University of Manchester organised by the Society and Environment Research Group, the Centre for the Study of Political Economy, and The Red-Green Study Group. Monday February 4 2008: 10am to 5pm, with a reception to follow, at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.

The symposium will present and discuss a series of papers published in the September and December 2007 issues of the international journal Capitalism, Nature, Socialism.

The event is free and open to the public – but please complete the booking form

For more information, or to receive a PDF copy of the papers to be presented at the symposium, Gavin Bridge, Society and Environment Research Group.

Programme

Coffee available from 10 o’clock

10:30 Introduction

10:45  SESSION ONE: THE ‘METABOLISM’ OF SOCIO-NATURE

• Ted Benton, The Rural-Urban Division in UK Politics
• Judith Watson, From Water to Land to Brownfield
• Commentary by members of the Society and Environment Research Group
• Discussion

12:30 Lunch

1:30 SESSION TWO: FOOD AND ACCUMULATION

• Richard Kuper, European Agriculture in the Crucible of the WTO
• Dan Rigby and Sophie Bown, Whatever Happened to Organic? Food, Nature and the Market for “Sustainable” Food
• Graham Sharp, School Meals in England and the Contradictions of Capital
• Commentary by members of the Society and Environment Research Group
• Discussion

3:15 Break

3:30 SESSION THREE: PRODUCING URBAN FUTURES

• Bill Hopwood and Mary Mellor, Visioning the Sustainable City
• Jane Hindley, A Park for the Twenty-First Century
• Michael Cahill, Why the U-Turn on Sustainable Transport?
• Commentary by members of the Society and Environment Research Group
• Discussion

5:15 Reception, sponsored by Routledge

Recent Appointments

SERG is also pleased to welcome three recent appointments at Manchester University, Professor Erik Swyngedouw (Geography) and Professor John O'Neill (Philosophy) and Dr James Evans of Birmingham University who will direct the new MSc. in Environmental Governance from August 07.

SERG is also delighted to announce the arrival of Dr. Maria Kaika from Oxford University as a Reader in Geography from September 07.

New MSc in Environmental Governance

Members of SERG are also engaged in developing a new MSc in Environmental Governance, which examines the question of how we should manage the natural environment and regulate human use of natural resources; it will introduce students to issues including global warming, fisheries management, fair-trade, use of water resources and deforestation, amongst others.  Please visit the MSc in Environmental Governance programme page for further information.

Environment and Development Reading Group

Organised by Dr Dan Brockington

The group meets fortnightly to discuss current issues in environment and development. The reading group draws together staff and PhD students from SERG; it discusses works by authors such as Hernando de Soto, Mac Chapin, Polanyi and Scott Prudham, and it provides a forum for members to present work in progress Please email Dan Brockington for further information about the group.