Workshops and Panels organized by the Lands of the Future Intitiative

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ICES 20 - 20th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Mekelle 2018
Lands of the Future. Time for Innovation.
Can Ethiopia’s developmental politics still set a global example of equitable development?


International Workshop “Transformations and Visions: responses, alternative and resistances to large scale and deals in the Global South” Halle/Saale, May 23-25, 2018, in cooperation with McGill University and the International Canopy of Conservation, Canada at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, May 23-25, 2018

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IUAES 2016 - Inter Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Dubrovnik 2016
Lands of the future – Means and ends of pastoralism in a globalizing world


ICES 19 - 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Warsaw 2015
Power, Peripheries and Land: Development across the last frontiers of Ethiopia


AAA 2014 - American Anthropological Association,  Annual meeting, Washington DC. 2014
Anthropologists and the Global Land Grab in Eastern Africa: Research and Advocacy


VAD Congress 2014 - Association of African Studies Germany, Bayreuth 2014
„Lands of the Future“ - Pastoralism, Land and Investment in Africa


Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology 2013
Lands of the Future Workshop




upcoming: ICES 20 - 20th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Mekelle 2018

Call for Papers

Panel ID 0305

Lands of the Future. Time for Innovation.

Can Ethiopia’s developmental politics still set a global example of equitable development?

Convenors:

Dr. Echi Christina Gabbert, Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Goettingen, Germany/ Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany

Dr. Fana Gebresenbet , Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Dr. Edward (Jed) Stevenson, University College London

Ethiopia’s culturally diverse regions and populations provide unique resources of political, philosophical and socio-ecological knowledge, with century-tested agricultural and agro-pastoral production techniques still active. Yet the implementation of developmental land use schemes in Ethiopia in the last decade, understood to create benefit for all, has been overshadowed by approaches that often disregard local knowledge and cultural particularities without being suitable to decrease socio-economic inequality and ecological hardship. But how can we meet the needs of all within the needs of the country and the planet? Can Ethiopia still set a much needed, much different and innovative example that seriously integrates local knowledge and cultural particularity in a globalizing world? What good could come out from recent changes in land lease policies, e.g. by giving more agency to the respective regions? Are international norms and principles, enshrined in the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems and Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure practicable? Can local knowledge inform national and global planning for food security, as realized e.g. in agroecology?

To address these questions we are interested in bold and original contributions that discuss innovative and peaceful solutions on the local, national and global scope. We will look at national and international power relations while reflecting on cultural particularities and possibilities for mutual knowledge exchange and respectful communication in land use and development politics in Ethiopia. We want to share lessons drawn from particular cases in Ethiopia to a global audience and examine how ideas and principles at the global level are accepted and implemented at national and local levels. Topics of interest are: land use, resource management, local knowledge and livelihoods, centre-periphery relations, agro-pastoralism, human-nature relations, biodiversity, global markets, investment, climate change, drylands, conflict and peace. We especially welcome examples of innovative, integrative, cooperative and equitable development without asking for blue print solutions.  This panel will also bring together researchers from two interdisciplinary networks  - the Lands of the Future Initiative and the Omo-Turkana Research Network.

Empirical and theoretical works from different academic backgrounds, including anthropology, political science, economics and development studies are welcome.

For sending your abstracts (Panel ID 0305), please visit the ICES website

http://www.ices20-mu.org/abstract.html


IUAES Inter Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Dubrovnik 2016

Lands of the future – Means and ends of pastoralism in a globalizing world

organized by Echi Christina Gabbert and Nikolaus Schareika

IUAES – Inter Congress: World Anthropologies and privatization of knowledge: engaging anthropology in public, Dubrovnik, May 4-9, 2016  

Pastoralists are facing times of turbulent transition. In the past decade global economic trends have increasingly become investment reality in pastoralists’ territories. Changing land use patterns and commercialization of livestock markets create disturbances to the environment and livelihoods of nomadic, transhumant and (agro-) pastoralist people throughout the world.

In some areas where agro-pastoral territories are turned into industrial zones in the course of large-scale agricultural projects, political rhetorics declared agro-pastoralist territories as empty land or fragile ecosystems and handle pastoralism as outdated practice, resulting in new land uses, sedentarization of pastoralists accompanied by destocking, de- and (sometimes) ‘reskilling’ of pastoralists as labourers. In other areas, the commercialization and globalization of livestock markets leads to a radical change from local knowledge based family production to industrialized animal husbandry for national and international meat markets.

On the other side of these developments stand voices to remind that agro-pastoralist expertise is crucial not only for livestock production but also for ecological sound and sustainable use of arid and semiarid lands. Pastoralists, who embed ecologic and climatic variability in their production systems are highly adaptive especially in areas in which production systems which depend on stability must fail (Krätli 2015). To eradicate these systems would lead to ecological and social degradation and possible impoverishment of local populations. But also a realistic approach on industrial meat productions systems in comparison with highly efficient traditional livestock systems is necessary to weigh costs and benefits before ending or changing pastoralism for hastily calculated means.

ICES19 - 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Warsaw 2015

Power, Peripheries and Land: Development across the last frontiers of Ethiopia

organized by Echi Christina Gabbert and Dereje Feyissa

19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies ICES: Ethiopia – Diversity and Interconnections through Space and Time, Warsaw, August 24-28, 2015

In the last decade, peripheral regions of Ethiopia have become subject of development planning of the Ethiopian government.  In the course of fast track development plans, regions mainly home to pastoral and agropastoral people practising subsistence  economies are mapped out for and turned into investment zones for commercial use for national and international investors. Different actors and groups of actors represent divergent views on these development  efforts and more than often their views seem irreconcilable moving between hope, fear, and anger. Whereas some calculations promise benefit for all through overall economic gain, others foresee a sell-out of Ethiopian natural and cultural resources and resulting impoverishment of people. Especially the establishment of new commercial farms have already induced new sources of violent conflict (e.g. in Gambella and SNNPR)

The contributions to this panel, empirical and theoretical, discussed examples and divergent views  on livelihoods and development planning  in Ethiopia, encompassing policies, economic, juridical and cultural considerations across the „last frontiers of Ethiopia“ (Markakis 2011). We want to discuss how the present development dynamics mirror centre-periphery relations and how historical responsibilities as layed out in the Ethiopian Constitution may help to reflect on emergent pathologies of development schemes to work out constructive criticism on  contested arenas of development. Questions for discussions were: How can we integrate divergent interests  to gain a realistic overview of the situation?  How measurable and accountable are cost- benefit calculations? Which relevant points of historical  responsibilities need to inform feasable policies for the peripheries? Can Ethiopia still set an example for sustainable development that does not repeat mistakes made at other places and/or at other times and if so how can this be achieved?



AAA - American Anthropological Association,  Annual meeting, Washington DC. 2014

Anthropologists and the Global Land Grab in Eastern Africa: Research and Advocacy

organized by John Galaty and Echi Christina Gabbert 

AAA American Anthropological Association 2014 Annual meeting: Producing Anthropology, Washington DC., December 3-7, 2014

Land holding and land use is rapidly changing, not least because of the arrival of global investors on the scene where peasant farmers and pastoralists have long pursued their livelihoods.  On terrain long the object of debate between land holders and development projects, diverse and divergent voices are now heard about the implications of investments for development.  These include representatives of governments, corporate investors, local community members and leaders, NGO’s, academians, environmentalists, churches and human rights organizations.  The complexity of viewpoints heard is matched by the range of interests currently engaged in acquiring land.  Africa is now experiencing what has been called the second great African land grab, the first having been the massive acquisition of land at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when colonial settlement was established.

 What is at stake in the large-scale acquisition of land by local and international investors is itself under debate, as apparently irreconcilable voices make claims and arguments.  Anthropologists have been part of emerging discussions about new land uses. They have established new research networks that analyze new land uses (e.g., Future Agricultures Consortium, Lands of the Future), engage with human rights organizations and serve as consultants for governments, investors and NGOs. Indeed, anthropologist seem predestined to engage with the topic as the territories concerned often are the same peripheral regions where they have for generations conducted long-term fieldwork, such as the regions inhabited and used by peasants, pastoralists and agro- pastoralists in Northeastern Africa and elsewhere on the continent.  If for investors central questions concern returns on the land from commercial agricultural ventures or the utility of international conservation enterprises, for anthropologists it is usually the well-being of communities who often face dispossession as their lands are “repurposed”.

The panel examined two intertwined issues, the politics underlying this “repurposing” of land through the mediation of large-scale land acquisitions, and the complex roles played by anthropologists, and Anthropology more generally, in the mediation between communities and diverse agents of change. While investigating changing forms of land use and land tenure in the wake of land acquisitions by outside interests, researchers can quickly find themselves in dilemmas that are symptomatic of the opposed positions of stakeholders, partners and audiences in globalizing arenas.  Anthropologists are often obliged to “position” themselves in relation to these diverse interests since the linkage between land acquisitions and the dispossession and displacement of local communities introduces a critical moral dimension that cannot be ignored.  In this sense, new land uses and conflicting land rights raise critical questions of human rights and cultural rights that often clash with development policies and global market dynamics. The panel will examine cases where moral and pragmatic issues are highlighted both in the political dynamics of land grabbing and in the multiple roles anthropologists play in this important venue in which the very nature of Anthropology is at play.


VAD Congress 2014 - Association of African Studies Germany, Bayreuth 2014

„Lands of the Future“ - Pastoralism, Land and Investment in Africa

organized by Echi Christina Gabbert and Shauna LaTosky

Conference "Future Africa", Association of  African Studies Association Germany (VAD), Bayreuth University, June 11-14, 2014

In the past decade global economic trends have increasingly become investment reality in pastoralists’ territories in Africa. Changing land use patterns and disturbances to the environment and livelihoods of pastoralists are obvious e.g., in Northeast Africa which is home to one of the largest concentrations of (nomadic, transhumant and agro-) pastoralists in the world. The relation of local populations to national and international investors poses a special challenge, as the politics, economies and fates of people who have never met are merged through global economy rather than through human encounter. Investors often have never visited the territories their companies invest or work in, yet their presence can have a significant impact on people’s lives. Contributions to the panel presented different positions on investment in pastoral areas and discuss visions and recommendations to address emergent conflicts of changing land uses.


Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology 2013

Lands of the Future Workshop

organized by Günther Schlee, Echi Gabbert and Shauna LaTosky

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, March 4-5, 2013

This workshop addressed issues of large scale land acquisition and other forms of investment in North East Africa to discuss various possible strategies for raising levels of pertinent knowledge about the agro-pastoral and pastoral groups involved. Our aim was to build a supportive network of scholars from different disciplines including agro-pastoralists to gather, exchange and compare data, publish in different media and cooperate with other initiatives and projects. We envisaged regular meetings and an accompanying  website to carry news and information about our activities and encourage more scholars and practicioners to join and actively exchange.

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