Negotiating nature(s) - Decision-making on mining projects through a multi-dimensional environmental justice lens

Mirja’s lecture explores decision-making on mining projects. Combining high hydrosocial stakes with a strongly unequal playing field for different interest parties, decision-making on the extraction of metals and minerals offers a window into key questions for the pursuit of environmental justice. Who is recognized as a political subject with voice and authority in these processes? Whose/which understandings of hydrosocial interactions are endorsed or dismissed? And how do the contexts into which they are embedded shape the actions of seemingly powerful decision-makers? By looking at these questions based on field research conducted in Mongolia, the lecture demonstrates how a misrecognition of ontological difference can shape distributive and procedural outcomes and complicates simplistic narratives about the roles of “the state” vs. “the community” in water and mining conflicts.

You can register for this session here.

0.5 ECTS credits after participation to more than 80% of the sessions and engagement with assigned readings

About the speaker

Mirja Schoderer works as a researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and as an Assistant Editor for World Development. Through her work, she aims to promote transition to more just and sustainable social-environmental interactions through high-quality, inter- and transdisciplinary research by collaborating with various knowledge holders and providers. In her PhD research, Mirja looks at water and mining conflicts with an Environmental Justice lens. The underlying goal is to understand: (i) what causes conflicts to escalate; (ii) to what extent different understandings of water are reflected in legal frameworks and recognized in consultation processes; and (iii) how juster ways of managing water in mining contexts can be achieved.

This webinar is the opening session of the Water Security & Justice webinar series that takes place between 21 February and 1 May. Please visit this page to see more information about the series and the full program.