The Nexus, resource conflicts and social justice workshop was led by Professor Lyla Mehta from the Institute of Development Studies, and was held at IDS, Brighton, Sussex, UK. We invited participants from academia, policy, business and the third sector.
Date: Monday 29 February 2016.
Venue: Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK.
aims
In recent years, the notion of the nexus has gained traction in the domain of natural resource governance. While nexus thinking has highlighted the importance of integration across diverse sectors, debates have tended to be abstract. The purpose of this workshop is to ground these debates and hammer out the implications for local resource users.
Issues
The workshop addressed the following questions:
- What are the on-the-ground challenges of integration across food, water, energy etc across diverse scales? How is nexus thinking being picked up in bureaucracies, institutions and scientific bodies, especially in the global South where capacity can be weak?
- Can nexus thinking be used to achieve social justice in resource management?
- How are competing trade-offs and their ensuing resource conflicts dealt with across local and national scales?
- What does it mean to securitize water, food, energy and the climate? Is this securitization enhancing local people’s wellbeing and rights or is it allowing new actors to increase the insecurities of poor and marginalised people?
Speakers
Speakers for the event included:
- Rosaleen Duffy, Professor in the Political Ecology of Development, SOAS, University of London.
- Yacob Mulugetta, Professor of Energy and Development Policy, University College London.
- Dorothy-Grace M. Guerrero, Transnational Institute (TNI), based in the Netherlands.
- Stefan Bouzarovski, Professor of Geography, University of Manchester.
- Amber Huff, social anthropologist and political ecologist, Institute of Development Studies.
- Alex Bolding, Wageningen UR.
- Nick Hildyard, Cornerhouse.
- Steffen Böhm, Director, Essex Sustainability Institute.
- Mike Bradshaw, Warwick Business School.
- Jeremy Allouche, water governance, security and development, Institute of Development Studies.
