The five-day intensive PhD workshop ‘Political Ecologies of Conservation: extinction struggles, neoliberal natures and convivial alternatives’ will be held from 8-12 April 2024 in Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The workshop gives motivated PhD students the chance to deepen their knowledge on diverse political ecological approaches to contemporary environmental crises, strategies for conservation and environmentalism in response to the crises, and the broader processes of transformation these are part of. One of the main crises relates to biodiversity, the very foundations of life on our planet, and the swiftly-changing conservation discourses, practices and ideologies that aim to respond to the crisis. Given rapidly changing material dynamics and academic and public debates that really go to the heart of contemporary extinction struggles and whether indeed the crisis is so severe that it endangers human societies themselves, it is important to take stock of where conservation is at and where it is going. Building on the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, there seems to be a renewed sense of purpose and direction in the international community, yet this is based on proposals that neatly resemble earlier protected areas based and neoliberal forms of conservation. At the same time, it became clear that indigenous and alternative conservation ideas have starting influencing the mainstream, if perhaps only in discourse so far, but certainly backed by a growing network of organisations and people aiming to do conservation differently. The political ecology of conservation has been a lively debate for the past decades, but needs constant updating and and rethinking to do justice to empirical changes and emerging themes and debates.

1. Extinction struggles

Over the last years, biodiversity declines have become more pronounced, leading to increased worries that we have entered the sixth mass extinction crisis in the history of the planet. The major difference with previous extinction crises that dramatically changed the evolution and make-up of life on earth is that this one has distinctly anthropogenic origins. Given the potential impacts of the extinction crisis, many ecologists and conservationists believe it to be as severe as the climate crisis. Indeed, central to both these and other connected ‘polycrises’ is an increasingly hectic sense of immanent collapse. While political ecologists have long studied the extinction of species, this was often in the shadows of a focus on conservation (interventions) and its complex relations to political economy, development and myriad social issues.

Over the last decade, however, this has changed. Principally spurred on by humanities scholars, there is now a rapidly growing political ecology literature on ‘extinction studies’, that investigates, amongst others: senses of loss, grief and anxiety communities experience around extinction processes, emotional-political and other responses to extinction as well as important more-than-human dimensions of extinction. At the same time, the relations between political economy, power and extinction need more attention, especially in understanding the relation between capitalist pressures and uneven geographical forms of extinction globally, regionally and locally. In addition, the historical contexts and dynamics through which the extinction crisis and conservation have emerged and influenced the present require deeper consideration. The Spring School will explore these debates and we will discuss how they can be taken forward.

2. Neoliberal natures

In tackling the extinction crisis, it is critical to further advance thinking on neoliberal natures and conservation. After all and despite the increasingly urgent and hectic calls for ‘transformative change’, most mainstream solutions to the extinction crisis remain firmly neoliberal, focusing on (privatized/commercialised) protected areas, payments for ecosystem services, natural capital and accounting, tourism, financialisation and more. Political ecologists, but also indigenous communities, activitists and others, have long critiqued such approaches for neither achieving their integrative conservation and development goals on the local level nor providing a structural alternative for conservation on the macro level. Yet and despite these critiques, neoliberal thinking in conservation and environmentalism remains dominant – to such an extend that Rob Fletcher recently characterised this tendency as ‘failing forward’.

What are the historical dynamics through which neoliberal conservation has emerged? How are neoliberal conservation mechanisms morphing and why do they continue to influence policy and practice so centrally? What are their empirical and conceptual effects on the extinction crisis in the context of a much broader ‘polycrisis’? And how do they work out differentially across diverse socio-ecological settings? These questions remain central to political ecology and will feature centrally in the Spring School.

3. Convivial alternatives

Given the above, the need for alternatives to the current neoliberal-capitalist ways of conserving biodiversity, avoiding extinction and to alienated human-nature relations more generally has never been more urgent. Political ecology has long contributed to thinking about alternatives, and over the last decade, this focus seems to have gathered significantly more steam. Inspired, amongst others, by indigenous scholars and epistemologies, new social-environmental movements and other radical thinkers in the past and present, political ecologists are debating how to bring together care for nonhuman others and social justice within broader contextual debates around degrowth, the pluriverse, decolonisation and postcapitalism. From radical ecological democracy to convivial conservation and more, the Spring school will build on critical thinking on the extinction crisis and neoliberal natures in order to debate and think through convivial, structural alternatives.

The PhD course aims to provide PhD candidates with an advanced introduction to these questions, themes, their interconnections, and current academic perspectives on both and allows PhD candidates to interact with the international team of cutting-edge scholars engaged in research concerning these issues that we have assembled to deliver the course. The spring school, as always, makes an explicit effort to combine and introduce different (Foucauldian, post-Marxian, more-than-human, ANT, feminist, decolonial and other) perspectives so as to develop a broader understanding of contemporary theoretical currents in the field of political ecology and the prospects for alternative futures.

In the introductions and discussions, the theme and practice of ‘contestation’ will be central. We will delve into the contestations entailed in development and analysis of our interrelated themes and employ them productively to get a handle on different trends and traditions in political ecology. Special emphasis will be on identifying contestations between and among different theoretical traditions, empirical settings, material resources and political objectives that inform, or form the subject of, various political ecology studies. What consequences do different choices with regard to these ‘ingredients’ have for the types of political ecology presented in the literature and presentations? And how can we harness the contestations inherent within them to inform our own understanding and use of political ecology in research and action? One of the objectives of the course, then, is to answer the question of how to start thinking about political ecologies of conservation, extinction and alternatives in the present era.

Besides looking for contestations in the literatures and presentations, we will also practice contestation. In small and large group discussions, we will aim to stimulate intellectual debate through various strands of argument and critique and problematize these from various angles. In this way, the course also explicitly incorporates development of academic debating skills.

Altogether, the workshop and these debates are also meant to support a second objective of the spring school, namely to contribute to a broader understanding of the meaning and nature of political ecology in the 21^st century.

Target group and learning outcomes

The course ‘Political Ecologies of Conservation: extinction struggles, neoliberal natures and convivial alternatives’ is intended for PhD candidates across the social and environmental sciences, especially anthropology, geography, political science, sociology and development studies, with an interest in political ecology. In this course, we will move between close reading of texts, workshops, discussions, and (possibly) a field trip. Students following this course will not only learn about contestations in relevant themes and new dynamics in political ecology, but will also become part of and interpret these contestations.

Students participating in this course are expected to write a short statement (max. 1 page A4) to: i) introduce who they are in terms of disciplinary background and education ii); outline how they (intend to) engage with the theme of life, death, biodiversity and extinction in political ecology; iii) outline questions or issues on these themes with which they would like to engage; and iv) offer expectations from the course.

After successful completion of this course students will be able to:

• Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of new dynamics in the thinking on conservation, extinction and alternatives, and the intersections among these;
• Critically reflect on different political ecology approaches to these themes and employ these in social science research;
• Broadly understand some of the main contestations around these themes in relation to theoretical traditions, empirical emphases, political projects and material resources;
• Formulate whether and how elements of these discussions and contestations could fit on and contribute to their own research projects;
• Engage in active learning, critical thinking and academic debating, especially by positioning oneself in (relation to) academic contestations.

Assumed prior knowledge

MSc in social sciences: anthropology, geography, political science, sociology or development studies.

Session Times/ Outline of the Course in Hours

Before starting the course, the students are expected to do several days of self-study to read the prescribed reading and write a 3–4-page annotated bibliography or ‘reflection document’ on the readings and how these (potentially) relate to their own research. In the week of the course, we will have lectures, group-work, a creative outdoor activity and discussions (8-12 April 2024).

(This is a tentative programme - an updated, detailed programme including readings will be communicated later)

Teaching methods

The course offers combination of different educational activities:

i)  Lectures to introduce and explain new dynamics and theoretical approaches

ii) Self-study to further develop the understanding of the new dynamics and theoretical approaches discussed.

iii) Assignments that address contestations regarding the new dynamics and theoretical approaches and apply these to the student’s own research

iv) Plenary discussions of literature and assignments.

v) Presentations by participants

Course fee

^{NB: for some courses, PhD candidates from other WUR graduate schools with a TSP are also entitled to a reduced fee. Please consult your Education/PhD Programme Coordinator for more information}

Cancellation conditions:

The participants can cancel their registration free of charge 1 month before the course starts. A cancellation fee of 100% applies if a participant cancels his/her registration less than 1 month prior to the start of the course.

The organisers have the right to cancel the course no later than one month before the planned course start date in the case that the number of registrations does not reach the minimum.

The participants will be notified of any changes at their e-mail addresses.