The Australasian Science and Technology Studies conference will be held in Wellington in November — the first time it has come to Aotearoa. This year’s theme is ‘Antipodean Interruptions’. Submissions are now invited for presentations, written workshop papers, meet-ups, and Making and Doing sessions. Please submit proposals via this form. The CFP will be open until Friday 3 April (11:59pm NZST). …
Bram Büscher on Unsettled Conservation
Bram Büscher – Professor and Chair of the Sociology of Development and Change at Wageningen University in the Netherlands – will visit Massey’s Manawatū campus next week. Prof Büscher will provide the closing keynote at the The 2025 Aotearoa SDG Summit at Massey University (4–5 September), which “brings together leaders from across Aotearoa to drive urgent action on sustainability”. He …
Upcoming Event: Environmental Futures Seminar Series
2025 marks ten years of Massey’s Political Ecology Research Centre! We are celebrating the occasion by holding a seminar series based on the theme of ‘Environmental Futures’. In this series, we will be reflecting on the developments and conversations that have followed on from PERC events and looking toward the future. Starting on Wednesday 6 August, PERC are holding fortnightly seminars with …
Webinar: Compound exposure in the Pacific
The Massey University School of People, Environment and Planning invite you to a webinar “Compound exposure in the Pacific: how our solution to climate change could make things worse” given by Associate Professor Nick Bainton from Austrailain National University. Nick is an anthropologist at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet). He has spent the last 20 years …
Event: The SDGS and the High Seas
The Massey University School of People, Environment, and Planning extend an invite to a webinar by Erica Dawson this Thursday afternoon: “The SDGs and the High Seas: Experiences of an Olympic sailor/ MSDG student.” Erica is a 2 time Olympian and New Zealand representative sailor. She recently won a bronze medal alongside her team mate Micah Wilkinson in the Nacra …
Recrafting the narrative of mining in New Zealand: Is Shane Jones a closet post-structuralist?
This is an opinion piece written by PERC member Professor Glenn Banks. It was originally published on the Massey University website. Okay, hands up if you’re a post-structuralist? Not sure what one of them looks like? Essentially post-structuralists argue that the way we see and know the world is socially created – and it is socially created through words, narratives …
Luxon goes all out for growth in mining and tourism – we should be careful what he wishes for
PERC member Glenn Banks has written a piece for The Conversation with Regina Scheyvens responding to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s state-of-the-nation address – “Luxon goes all out for growth in mining and tourism – we should be careful what he wishes for“. The authors argue: “We shouldn’t rush to judgement, but at least one prominent financial commentator has concluded the maths behind the goals …
What can we really expect from an expanded mining industry?
PERC member Glenn Banks has published a piece in The Spinoff analysing Shane Jones’ “mining boosterism” and the debate around “critical minerals”. He argues: “The minister’s references to the need for New Zealand to “do our bit” in terms of the production of “critical minerals” is used as an additional justification for the expansion of the sector. The problem is …
Alice Beban’s ‘Unwritten Rule’ wins book awards
PERC member Alice Beban’s book Unwritten Rule: State-Making through Land Reform in Cambodia (Cornell University Press) has won two prizes in 2023: The Benda Prize and the NZASIA Book Award. The Benda Prize “is given annually to an outstanding newer scholar from any discipline or country specialization of Southeast Asian studies for a first book in the field”. Alice’s work was recognised …
Diverse Experiences of Farming
Diverse Experiences of Farming surveyed and interviewed over 1,300 New Zealanders, and asked them – urban and rural – what they really think about farming. The results might surprise you! PERC member Alice Beban is involved with an interactive exhibit being hosted at the Palmerston North City Library from November 13, 2023 telling the diverse stories of our connections with …