Speakers and participants will address key questions concerning political and ecological transformations in Asia. We are concerned with the environmental narratives and ecological knowledges through which political and ecological changes are understood, with how different actors both contribute to these transformations, and how they work to direct them. Substantively, the seminars will cover topics including resource extraction, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and urban ecologies. Speakers and seminar participants will also discuss research findings concerning emerging market-based governance mechanisms such as transnational sustainability certification, payments for eco-system services, and eco-tourism. We will direct our attention to the implications of the increasing involvement of diverse non-state or hybrid state-private agents in claiming authority over how resources are extracted and managed.

Seminars in the Series

Race and Territorial Politics in Making Agro-capitalism in Asia’s “final frontier” in Burma
Kevin M. Woods, University of California Berkeley
Tuesday, 14 October 2014 | 2pm | Room 280A, Second Floor, York Lanes

Vietnam’s Seafood Export Boom: Economic Growth with Impoverishment
Melissa Marschke, University of Ottawa
Friday, 21 November 2014| 10:30am to Noon| Room 857, Eighth Floor, Kaneff Tower

New Directions in Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia panel
The Private Provision of Public Information in Indonesian Tuna Fisheries – Simon Bush, Wageningen University
Neo-liberalization of Nature: Grounded Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in Northern Thailand – Chusak Wittayapak, Chiangmai University
Wednesday, 14 January 2015 | 12:30pm to 2pm | Room 626, Sixth Floor, Kaneff Tower

Teleconnections and Large-scale Plantations in Southern Laos and Northeastern Cambodia: Linking Land Concessions with Outside Spaces
Ian G. Baird.  University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thursday, 26 February 2015 | 3pm to 4:30pm | Room 280A, Second Floor, York Lanes
CAPES is organized by Peter Vandergeest (Geography) and Robin Roth (Geography) and hosted by the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR).

For more information: ycar@yorku.ca