Developing socio-environmental research at the interface of interdisciplinarity and interculturality in the Amazon Rainforest.
We often hear of interdisciplinary research, where more than one disciplinary approach is used towards finding solutions to complex socio-environmental issues. Indeed, many benefactors now require applicants such as research bodies, businesses or NGO’s, to engage interdisciplinary and even multisector approaches in order to secure funding. There are many reasons for this, from quality control (the ability to triangulate data for example), equity (ensuring involvement of national or regional organizations or marginalized groups) and a bigger bang for their buck (financing one integrated project rather than a siloed, disconnected approach). However, this already ambitious expectation for complex collaboration is now confounded by new and critical engagement with interculturality, or cultural plurality and the inherent politics within. For example, why is thousands of years of indigenous engagement with the natural world called “knowledge” whilst in the West a similar type of knowledge is called “science”? And, how do we communicate across these different ways of understanding the world? High level forums such as the Biodiversity and Climate Conferences of the Parties, funding growth for initiatives that includes indigenous or local peoples and their own increased political presence are showing a push for interculturality to be included in the mixing pot with interdisciplinarity. But, can this be done in a meaningful and effective way? This talk will discuss how Dr. Aoife Bennett and her colleagues have grappled with these issues in their research in the Peruvian Amazon.
Date:
26 February 2025, 16:00
Venue:
Dyson Perrins Building, off South Parks Road OX1 3QY
Venue Details:
Diversity Room, School of Geography and the Environment
Speaker:
Dr Aoife Bennett (Research Lecturer in Environmental Social Sciences, University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Environmental Change Institute
Organiser:
Dr Avidesh Seenath (Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
avidesh.seenath@eci.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Dr Avidesh Seenath (Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford)
Part of:
ECM Brown Bag Seminar Series
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Avidesh Seenath
