How are migration and ecology connected? Is it only through fears of apocalyptic futures of scarcity and ruin?
What can we learn from the patterns and intersections of movements of humans, pollen, seeds, birds and insects or indeed bodies of water?
Examples of Bristol’s work:
Water Futures: Exploring the sociodigital spaces of rivers and their communities
How does a qualitative, embodied approach to understanding/knowing water can be explored alongside the quantitative environmental data? How can we imagine and (re)-story water / rivers? What would a caring policy towards water look like? Is there a new space for policy within this affective domain between bodies and rivers? Link to Project Webpage
Natives as plants and humans?
Read Jane Memmott’s MMB blog post on Migration, mobilities and the ecological context. As Professor of Community Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Jane discusses the ways in which we species can be welcome or unwelcome depending on the context. Comparing mobility of humans and non-human species can be useful to help you reflect on the categories we ascribe to natural processes.
‘Border Economies / Capitalist Imaginaries’ – SPAIS Annual/Leverhulme 2024 Visiting Professor Lecture: Victoria Hattam
How do the contradictory demands of border walls and supply chains co-exist? Each of these political forces pushes in contradictory directions: sovereignty and walls seek to establish territorial limits while globalization, by definition, is a boundary crossing enterprise. Yet, both are flourishing simultaneously: how are the contradictory demands reconciled? Read more about the lecture here and listening to the recording (with slides) here.