LUCSUS Seminars at Lund University

Issues ranging from climate change and pandemics to finance and digitalization often evoke notions of ‘the global’. Yet, though global, these processes are always grounded in the local; emerging from, having an impact on, and transformed by concrete local contexts and experiences. Connecting the global with the local is central to LUCSUS research and teaching. With this seminar series, we zoom in on the situated experiences, follow the connections, and tease out the relations that link-local with the global.

The seminar series covers topics ranging from climate justice, activism, and decolonization, to governance, health, and digitalization. The LUCSUS seminars are open for the public, held online and take place Thursdays from 11 am to 12 noon.

Seventh Seminar – “Maladaptation and governing climate science in developing countries”

Maladaptation to climate change is often portrayed as a failure of project planning and insufficient consultation with vulnerable communities. Drawing on insights from science and technology studies, this paper urges more attention to the role of underlying models of risk, which shape “who” and “what” should be targeted by adaptation interventions. Using research in South and Southeast Asia, the paper argues that “co-production” is not simply consultation with affected groups, but a deeper and less cognitive mutual production of social norms and environmental knowledge. These insights raise important questions for how to engage communities within climate change policy, and for how expert bodies can integrate scientific research with valued outcomes to make adaptation interventions more locally meaningful.

Speaker

Tim Forsyth is Professor of Environment and Development at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research focuses on understanding contested science and risk within environmental governance, analysing two themes: the politics and policy processes of contested environmental debates in rapidly developing countries; and the evolution of new multi-actor, multi-level forms of governance such as cross-sector partnerships or deliberative forums. He has written on climate change governance, forest policies in Asia, and social movements and local governance. He is Special Adviser to the UK Parliament International Development Committee on climate change and to the UK House of Commons International Development Committee on climate change and aid, and his work has been cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

Registration

To join the seminar online please sign up here. You will then receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link to the seminar.