Research Seminar Series: Peter Bille Larsen
Extractivism, Defenders and Developmentalized Violence in Peru
Speaker: Peter Bille Larsen, Senior Lecturer and Associate Researcher, The Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Institute and Department of Sociology, University of Geneva
Title: Extractivism, defenders and developmentalized violence in Peru
Abstract: How to make sense of violence against environmental defenders in extractive industry contexts? This industry is identified as one of the most violent, even lethal, sectors for environmental protest, but what different forms and practices do violence against environmental activists take? Building on recent engagements with environmental defender issues (Larsen et al, 2021) and long-term involvement with environmental governance and indigenous rights, this presentation aims to shed light on the changing forms of violence taking place in the context of post-frontier regimes (Larsen 2015). The presentation zooms in on on-going research undertaken in collaboration with Peruvian colleagues from the Instituto Internacional de Derecho y Sociedad (IIDS) about large-scale mining and environmental defenders. The presentation seeks to juxtapose several forms of violence from harassment and legal attacks to structural forms. Connected to a broader conversation on the capture of global sustainable development agendas (Larsen, Haller and Kothari 2022), we bring in ethnographic material to revisit how violence and development relate to each other in multiple ways.
Bio: Peter Bille Larsen is a senior lecturer and researcher with the Universities of Geneva and Zürich and currently 4EU+ visiting professor with the Centre for Global Criminology and the Department of Anthropology in Copenhagen. Initiator of the Geneva Heritage Lab and active member of the Swiss Commission for UNESCO, his work combines research, grassroots level engagement and international governance around the intersections between environmental politics, social justice and wider sustainability thinking. Current collaborative research initiatives include work on environmental defenders in Kenya, Philippines and Peru together with work on heritage and development politics in Vietnam.
Everyone is welcome!