American environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation

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Prakash Kashwan

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Sep 4, 2020, 11:21:05 PM9/4/20
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Dear Colleagues,

The following piece in the Conversation speaks to some of the recent discussions we have had here. It is a challenging topic -- colleagues at  the Conversation and I worked hard to  walk a delicate line. Please take a look


Best,
Prakash

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Prakash Kashwan, Ph.D.

 

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut

Co-Director, Research Program on Economic and Social Rights, Human Rights Institute

 

Senior Research Fellow, Earth System Governance Project
Associate Editor, Progress in Development Studies
Editorial Board, Earth Systems Governance
Editorial Board,
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Palgrave)                                                    

                                                       

University of Connecticut

365 Fairfield Way, Storrs, CT 06269

Phone: 860-486-7951

http://prakash-kashwan.uconn.edu/


Book:
Democracy in the Woods (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Rethinking power and institutions in the shadows of neoliberalism (World Development).
Inequality, Democracy, and the Environment: A Cross-National Analysis (Ecological Economics).

Rosaleen V Duffy

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Sep 5, 2020, 4:12:21 AM9/5/20
to kas...@gmail.com, GEPED
This is an excellent piece Prakash! Thank you. Racism underlies so many strategies in current conservation practices, ranging from  ‘educate local people’ to militarisation of anti poaching . 
I hope it is widely read, esp by conservationists 

Rosaleen 

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Professor Rosaleen Duffy, FAcSS
The Department of Politics and International Relations
University of Sheffield
Elmfield, Northumberland Road
Sheffield S10 2TU

Principal Investigator: BIOSEC: Biodiversity and Security, Understanding Environmental Crime, Illegal Wildlife Trade and Threat Finance. ERC Advanced Investigator Grant.

twitter @biosec_erc


new papers
Massé, Dickinson, Margulies, Joanny, Lappe-Osthege & Duffy (2020) Conservation and Crime Convergence? Situating the London 2018 Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference, Journal of Political Ecology (open access) https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23543

Margulies, Wong and Duffy (2019) The Imaginary 'Asian Super Consumer': A critique of demand reduction campaigns for the illegal wildlife trade, Geoforum  (open access) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718519302945?via%3Dihub


Deborah Gallagher, Ph.D.

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Sep 5, 2020, 10:52:21 AM9/5/20
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Thank you for sharing, Prakash. This will spur some critical conversations.


From: gep...@googlegroups.com <gep...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Rosaleen V Duffy <r.v....@sheffield.ac.uk>
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2020 4:12:07 AM
To: kas...@gmail.com <kas...@gmail.com>
Cc: GEPED <gep...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [gep-ed] American environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation
 

Gellers, Joshua

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Sep 5, 2020, 4:01:40 PM9/5/20
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Thanks, Prakash, for that excellent contribution to this discussion. It’s a timely piece that sheds light on an uncomfortable/inconvenient truth about the origins of the movement that spurred our field. We would be wise not to forget it.

In the spirit of thinking about diversity more broadly, I’d also like to note that other disciplines have begun reckoning with their own troubled pasts, as evidenced by critiques in computer science of the famed “Turing Test” (Turing 1950) and Searle’s (1980) “Chinese Room” argument. These illustrative thought experiments, intended to probe whether or not computational systems could replicate human-like intelligence, have recently come under fire for being sexist (in the case of the former) and racist (in the case of the latter).

Thinking about, designing, and analyzing institutions intended to improve life on this planet requires a sustained commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, issues that seem to be having a(n overdue) moment in this country. Thanks to everyone for pushing this conversation forward.

Best,

Josh

Joshua C. Gellers, PhD
Associate Professor
Dept. of Political Science + Public Admin.
University of North Florida
1 UNF Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32224

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On Sep 4, 2020, at 11:21 PM, Prakash Kashwan <kas...@gmail.com> wrote:


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