Conference on “Critical Margins – Politicizing the Crisis”

This eye-opening event was held from 15-17 June 2022 in Trento. It was co-organized by the European Sociological Association Research Network on Social Movements, the European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on Participation and Mobilization, and the UniTrento Department of Sociology and Social Research. The conference provided a space to discuss how crises are politicized and which phenomena anticipate what is coming next for collective action, bridging social movements and political participation research.
I participated in a panel on “Agricultural and environmental contentious politics between grassroots and international law,” alongside amazing colleagues, and presented on agrarian movements in international law.

My presentation
More information on the conference

More images from Trento

SCELG Anniversary Colloquium

On 4 May 2022, the University of Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) held its X Anniversary Colloquium. SCELG members shared theoretical and practical insights reflecting on the
following question: 2022 marks 50 years from Stockholm and 30 years from Rio. How will global environmental law and governance be shaped and developed over the next 30/50 years?
I was invited to participate in a session on “Regulation and innovation: trends and challenges in environmental law and governance” and presented on the case of synthetic biology. The event featured fascinating discussions on different aspects and the future of global environmental law.

My presentation
The Colloquium’s programme

Images from Glasgow

Rabitz F, Reynolds J, Tsioumani E “Emerging technologies in biodiversity governance: gaps and opportunities for action” in Visseren-Hamakers I and Kok M (eds) Transforming Biodiversity Governance, Cambridge University Press 2022, 137-154 (open access)

Emerging technologies potentially have far-reaching impacts on the conservation, as well as the sustainable and equitable use, of biodiversity. Simultaneously, biodiversity itself increasingly serves as an input or source material for novel technological applications. In this chapter, we assess the relationship between the regime of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the governance of three sets of emerging technologies: geoengineering, synthetic biology and gene drives, as well as bioinformatics, addressed in debates on digital sequence information on genetic resources. While the linkages between biodiversity and technology go beyond these cases, we focus on technologies that have been subject to extensive debate and rule-making activity under the CBD.

The chapter is part of a timely, open access book, which argues that transformative biodiversity governance means prioritizing ecocentric, compassionate and just sustainable development. This involves implementing five governance approaches – integrative, inclusive, adaptive, transdisciplinary and anticipatory governance – in conjunction and focused on the underlying causes of biodiversity loss.

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Kok M, Tsioumani E, Bliss C, Immovilli M, Keune H, Morgera E, Rüegg S, Schapper A, Vijge M, Zinngrebe Y, Visseren-Hamakers I “Enabling transformative biodiversity governance in the post-2020 era” in Visseren-Hamakers I and Kok M (eds) Transforming Biodiversity Governance, Cambridge University Press 2022, 341-360 (open access)

Part of the same book, this chapter offers strategic reflections on key questions related to transformative biodiversity governance. It summarize some of the insights from the various chapters regarding the operationalization of the main concepts of the book; and highlights challenges and opportunities for transformative governance presented by the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity, arguing that the GBF should not only be transformative but also be governed transformatively.

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