To mark the start of the Autumn 2021 semester, fourth Zennström Professor in Climate Change Leadership Stefania Barca delivered the CEMUS start up lecture to a collection of students both in person and online.
You can watch a recording of the talk, ‘Climate, Covid and the Global Care Crisis – New Pathways to a Just Transition,’ below.
Former MSc in Sustainable Development student Juliane Höhle made a graphic recording of the session, found below.
In her book “Forces of Reproduction. Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene” (2020), Stefania Barca, drawing on a materialist eco-feminist analysis of the world, proposes a counter-narrative to the hegemonic one around the Anthropocene. She questions the exclusionary and normative character of the dominant narrative and, thus, she challenges the very foundations of capitalist/industrial modernity. In doing so, by bringing forward a narrative justice, she makes visible and accounted for those who have been removed, silenced, denied existence. These other-than-master subjects and beings are what she calls “the forces of reproduction” – those who do the work of sustaining life in its material and immaterial needs. These life-enhancing forces are, for Stefania, “a queer political subject” and a “political subject in the making”.
In her keynote talk, listen below, she focuses on the above and shows how we need to dismantle the master’s house, by undoing the [hegemonic] Anthropocene.
In her book Forces of Reproduction: Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene (2020), Stefania Barca, drawing on a materialist ecofeminist analysis of the world, proposes a counter-narrative to the hegemonic one around the Anthropocene. She questions the exclusionary and normative character of the dominant narrative and, thus, she challenges the very foundations of capitalist/industrial modernity. In doing so, by bringing forward a narrative justice, she makes visible and accounted for those who have been removed, silenced, denied existence. These other-than-master subjects and beings are what she calls “the forces of reproduction” – those who do the work of sustaining life in its material and immaterial needs. These life-enhancing forces are, for Stefania, “a queer political subject” and a “political subject in the making”.
Throughout this year Stefania has been involved in a number of events discussing the themes of her book. You can watch the different recordings below. Thank you to all involved for the opportunity to be part of these events!
In April Stefania was invited into a dialogue with Nancy Fraser, Hedda Andersson visiting Professor at LUCSUS, Lund University. The dialogue featured a book presentation by Stefania, followed by a discussion by Nancy Fraser. The event was moderated by Vasna Ramasar(Associate Senior Lecturer at Lund University) and organised by The Pufendorf IAS Advanced Study Group on Social Reproduction and Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS).
In her June keynote talk for the University of Coimbra, she discussed her analysis of reproductive forces, showing how we need to dismantle the master’s house, by undoing the [hegemonic] Anthropocene.
In February, Stefania also gave a seminar about her book for the Environmental Justice research group at ICTA, the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB).
On May 24, 2011, Maria do Espirito Santo and Zé Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, nut collectors and members of the agroforestry project (Projeto Agro-Extractivista, PAE) of Praialta Piranheira in the Brazilian Amazon, were brutally murdered as a consequence of their engagement in protecting the forest from illegal logging and timber trafficking. Making their lives out of a non-exploitative and regenerative relationship with the forest, and passionate about the defence of the rights of both Amazonia and its people, Maria’s and Zé Cláudio’s deaths belong to the number of earth defenders whose lives are being taken, year after year, for opposing the infinite expansion of global economic growth and social metabolism (Global Witness 2019). In 2012, the pair were posthumously recognised as Forest Heroes by the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat for their work fighting illegal forestry.
This May we honoured their memory and talked about their legacy for environmental justice struggles in Brazil and beyond. Zennström Professor in Climate Change Leadership, Stefania Barca, and Bartira Fortes, representative of Latinamerikagrupperna, held a moderated discussion with:
You can find recordings from the event in English and Portuguese here.
The tragedy of Zé Cláudio and Maria’s murder is not in isolation. In 2019 alone, it is estimated that over 200 environmental defenders were killed as a consequence of their commitment to protect the environment and indigenous lands. Indigenous leaders and Indigenous women leaders in particular have been at the forefront of this struggle. How can we make sense of the violence against earth defenders in a time when their work is all the more important in the context of climate change? What can we learn from their stories about the transition to a post-carbon future?
We strongly encourage watching the freely available 60min documentary film from Vice Magazine, Toxic Amazon, to give context for the discussion. You can also watch Claudelice’s speech at the European Parliament here (begins at approximately 15:25, select your choice of language.) We also recommend reading more about Maria and Zé Cláudio’s story and other environmental defenders to learn more about the context. This recent book, Environmental Defenders : Deadly Struggles for Life and Territory, includes contributions by Claudelice and Felipe.
This event was a collaboration between Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University and Latinamerikagrupperna.
Last week Stefania Barca, Zennström Professor in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University gave a talk at Uppsala Klimatveckan 2021, which set the stage for the next 15 months of her professorship. The topic was on the Anthropocene and drawing out the masters narrative of such a concept. From this starting point, the arguments to decolonise climate change leadership compel us to reflect upon the assumptions and narratives that frame our ways of understanding and engaging with the world. You can watch the full talk below.
This talk invited members of the public to work through this challenge with us: how can we consider the ways in which we approach the decolonising challenge? What are the core assumptions we carry with us in our methods of engagement? How to we recognise these and counter (or work through) them?
We will shortly release a statement that responds more fully to the questions we were given by Uppsalabo, along with further resources we find helpful. Please check back here shortly.
If you are interested in getting involved with this process, please do reach out to us. We are eager to learn from your ideas!
To read more about Stefania Barca’s approach to Climate Change Leadership we encourage you to read her statement on Just Transition.
We are so pleased to announce the arrival of our fourth professor in Climate Change Leadership: Stefania Barca.
Stefania Barca is a scholar in Environmental History from Coimbra University. With a particular focus on social movements and Just Transition, Stefania will be bringing diverse and highly engaged networks from the Global South into dialogue with European environmental and workers rights organisations to work through the tricky questions of a Just Transition.
Her professorship begins with a series of conversations in Uppsala in relation to climate fiction, the arts and films. These explore the different methods and messages that can emerge from creative and participatory conversations. Her professorship will culminate in a conference on Just Transition in spring 2022.
You can read more about her background and planned activities here.
Läs mer om Stefania här (på svenska).
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