scholarly journals Making a financial market: the economization and topology of Farmland REITs

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 599
Author(s):  
Angela Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Real Estate Investment ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
And Topology ◽  
Decision Making Processes

<p>This article considers how financial mechanisms shape political and economic power around farmland. It draws on political ecology around the financialization of agriculture, and perspectives from Science and Technology Studies about performativity and topology to study how financial mechanisms in agriculture reconfigure networks of access to farmland for farmers, investors, workers and consumers. The article focuses on the case of Farmland Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the United States and shows REITS as sociotechnical assemblages of economic theories mobilized by investors and their representatives. Building on topologic ideas, the article highlights how financial mechanisms, such as REITs, shift networks of access to land. These mechanisms can profoundly shape landscapes and livelihoods by creating a market for farmland that transforms the connections of different actors with land, distancing workers and consumers from decision making processes while producing fluid and smooth access for investors. By studying REITs from the perspectives of economization and topology this article identifies key actors and mechanisms through which financialization is reconfiguring access to farmland and identifies limitations and opportunities for increased access to decisions about land for farmers, workers and consumers.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>financialization of agriculture, political ecology, performativity, topology, science and technology studies, REITs, farmland</p>

Worlding, Ontological Politics and the Possibility of a Decolonial IR

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Blaney ◽  
Arlene B. Tickner
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Colonial Modernity ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Ontological Turn

This article argues that attention to representational practices and epistemology, however important for expanding the boundaries of International Relations as a field of study, has been insufficient for dealing with difference in world politics, where ontological conflicts are also at play. We suggest that IR, as a latecomer to the ‘ontological turn’, has yet to engage systematically with ‘singular world’ logics introduced by colonial modernity and their effacement of alternative worlds. In addition to exploring how even critical scholars concerned with the ‘othering’ and ‘worlding’ of difference sidestep issues of ontology, we critique the ontological violence performed by norms constructivism and the only limited openings offered by the Global IR project. Drawing on literatures from science and technology studies, anthropology, political ecology, standpoint feminism and decolonial thought, we examine the potentials of a politics of ontology for unmaking the colonial universe, cultivating the pluriverse, and crafting a decolonial science. The article ends with an idea of what this might mean for International Relations.

scholarly journals Theorizing power in political ecology: the 'where' of power in resource governance projects

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Ahlborg ◽  
Andrea J Nightingale
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Rural Electrification ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Social And Economic Development

Power and politics have been central topics from the early days of Political Ecology. There are different and sometimes conflicting conceptualizations of power in this field that portray power alternatively as a resource, personal attribute or relation. The aim of this article is to contribute to theorizations of power by probing contesting views regarding its role in societal change and by presenting a specific conceptualization of power, one which draws on political ecology and sociotechnical approaches in science and technology studies. We review how power has been conceptualized in the political ecology field and identify three trends that shaped current discussions. We then develop our conceptual discussion and ask explicitly where power emerges in processes of resource governance projects. We identify four locations that we illustrate empirically through an example of rural electrification in Tanzania that aimed at catalyzing social and economic development by providing renewable energy-based electricity services. Our analysis supports the argument that power is relational and productive, and it draws on science and technology studies to bring to the fore the critical role of non-human elements in co-constitution of society – technology – nature. This leads us to see the exercise of power as having contradictory and ambiguous effects. We conclude that by exploring the tension between human agency and constitutive power, we keep the politics alive throughout the analysis and are able to show why intentional choices and actions really matter for how resource governance projects play out in everyday life.

scholarly journals Ecosystem approaches to health and knowledge-to-action: towards a political ecology of applied health-environment knowledge

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben W. Brisbois ◽  
Andrés Burgos Delgado ◽  
Douglas Barraza ◽  
Óscar Betancourt ◽  
Donald Cole ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Knowledge Framework ◽  
Knowledge To Action ◽  
Ecosystem Approaches

Abstract Political ecology pushes back against the apolitical and ahistorical ecologies frequently found in mainstream scientific accounts of nature and the environment, and has increasingly focused on how scientific knowledge is 'socially constructed.' In this article, we argue for political ecological engagement with the highly influential knowledge-to-action (KTA) movement in science about health and the environment. We introduce KTA using results of a survey conducted under the auspices of a Canada-Latin America-Caribbean 'ecosystem approaches to health' (ecohealth) collaboration, and then narrow our focus to a single illustrative ecohealth project, dealing with the health impacts of small-scale gold mining in southwestern Ecuador. We employ an ecology of knowledge framework for integrating insights from science and technology studies,illustrating the interacting actors, material artifacts, institutions and discourses involved in not only the generation but also the application of health-environment science. The origins of ecohealth research in the Americas reflect interacting epistemological and political factors, as sophisticated, complex systemic analyses of health-environment interactions occurred amidst increasing neoliberalization of knowledge production. Simultaneously, corporate actors such as large mining companies influenced both the distribution of healthdamaging environmental conditions in the Americas, and the ways in which they were studied. This analysis motivates our advocacy of specifically political ecologies of health-environment knowledge, in which inequitable power dynamics and non-human actors are foregrounded in studies of the social production and application of science. The political ecology of knowledge framework that we envision would allow for simultaneous consideration of how societal contexts influence scientific knowledge production, and how the resulting knowledge can be better applied to protect the health of communities facing environmental injustice. Key words: ecohealth; mining; praxis; science and technology studies; knowledge-to-action; Canada; Ecuador

scholarly journals Re-negotiating Exhibitionary Practices and the "Digital" Politics of Display: The Case of the MTL Urban Museum App

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Herman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Digital Display ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Digital Politics

In this paper, I employ a sociotechnical approach (drawn from science and technology studies) to reconstruct how the McCord Museum’s MTL Urban Museum App was re-made. I take into account both the social and the technical, and consider the human and the nonhuman, which allows me to chart the roles of heterogeneous actors in re-making the App and in re-negotiating the Museum’s display practices. In doing so, I explore and point to the politics of this 'digital' display:  What actors were involved in its re-making? How did they participate in decision-making processes? What are the implications of the negotiations made? The analysis reveals: 1) how the re-making of the App redistributed tasks associated with exhibitionary practices by displacing them across unexpected actors both inside and outside the Museum, 2) how some aspects of design can become ‘non-negotiable’ or ‘irreversible’, and 3) how the re-negotiation of display practices established unanticipated ‘gatekeepers’ in the Museum’s display practice. Thus, this study sheds light on a “digital” case of the ‘politics of display’ (Macdonald, 1998). 

scholarly journals Trois regards sur la notion de « culture chinoise »

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116
Author(s):  
Basile Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Interactional Expertise ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Chinese Studies

Abstract Chinese studies are going through a period of reforms. This article appraises what could constitute the theoretical and methodological foundations of contemporary sinology today. The author suggests an approach of “Chinese culture” by drawing from recent frameworks of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The paper starts with current debates in Asian studies, followed by a historical overview of the concept of culture in anthropology. Then, two short case studies are presented with regard to two different STS approaches: studies of expertise and experience and the notion of interactional expertise, and the framework of waves and forms. A general argument is thereby sketched which suggests how “Chinese culture” can be understood from the perspective of materiality.

Queere Praktiken der Reproduktion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Charlotte Dionisius
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Feminist Science ◽  
Technology Studies

Ein, zwei, drei oder vier Elternteile, »Sponkel«, »Mapas« und lesbische Zeugungsakte - wer oder was Familie ist und wie sie gegründet wird, hat sich vervielfältigt. Sarah Charlotte Dionisius rekonstruiert aus einer von den Feminist Science and Technology Studies inspirierten, queertheoretischen Perspektive, wie lesbische und queere Frauen*paare, die mittels Samenspende Eltern geworden sind, Familie, Verwandtschaft und Geschlecht imaginieren und praktizieren. Damit wirft sie einen heteronormativitätskritischen Blick auf die sozialwissenschaftliche Familienforschung sowie auf gesellschaftliche und rechtliche Entwicklungen, die neue Ein- und Ausschlüsse queerer familialer Lebensweisen mit sich bringen.

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