Department of social anthropology seminar with Paige West

The Department of Social Anthropology has the pleasure to invite you to a seminar with Paige West from the Department of Anthropology, Barnard College, Columbia University. She will present the following paper:


"Accumulation by Dispossession and the Elusive Concept of 'Capacity Building' in Papua New Guinea"

Abstract
In the past two decades conservation interventions have been key sites for the investment of capital driven by eco-neoliberal ideology. People living in places with high levels of in situ biological diversity and high rates of endemism have had to, and in some cases have chosen to, incorporate external capital investments in the form of ecotourism development, agricultural certification processes, carbon sequestration projects, and the like, into their day-to-day lives in order to access goods, services, and cash income. The processes and the institutions that deploy these strategies of eco-neoliberalism have been well documented by anthropologists. These anthropological analyses have often been focused on the socio-ecological effects of these processes on local landholders in the global south. Neoliberal capitalism has also transformed the world in ways that encourage, develop, and privilege the growth of science and scientific expertise in the global north while at the same time restricting and distorting the growth of science and scientific expertise in the global south. This is a form of uneven development. In this paper I contribute to the general theory of uneven development as used by neoliberal capitalism through the analysis of accumulation by dispossession and the development of scientific knowledge about the island of New Guinea. I do this through the juxtiposition of scientific stories about why some places and some species are valuable and indigenous stories about why some places and some species are valuable.

Bionote
Professor Paige West is an associate professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University. Dr. West is also a member of the Columbia University Graduate Faculties in Anthropology and Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. Dr. West is the president of the Anthropology and Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association and the co-founder and co-editor of the journal Environment and Society.

All interested are welcome!

Best regards
BSAS Comittee