Medieval Rationalities and Modern Moralities of Land Use

In Rome’s aftermath, monks and warlords hungry for land and resources fought for dominion in the regions to the north and east of the old imperial heartlands. They wrote of their ambition to tame the populations and ecologies of these ‘pagan’ wildernesses in a virtuous language of agricultural productivity. They presented themselves as workers in the field, rooting out indigenous plants, ploughing up the exposed earth, seeding it with the monocrop of Christian doctrine, and labouring for a great harvest of souls to enrich the granary of the Lord.

Devon Matthews of LGBT+ refugee rights charity Rainbow Railroad, in conversation

In honour of LGBT+ History Month, the Refugee Studies Centre is excited to host Devon Matthews, the Director of Programs at Rainbow Railroad, for an online conversation with Samuel Ritholtz (DPhil student, ODID/RSC). Rainbow Railroad is an international charitable organisation that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries.

Multidimensional Poverty in Brazil in the Early 21st Century. Evidence from the Demographic Census

This paper examines multidimensional poverty in Brazil in 2000 and 2010, based on the microdata of the Demographic Censuses. Our analysis is disaggregated into five classes of municipalities according to their degree of urbanisation and remoteness, highlighting wide rural–urban inequalities in the levels and dynamics of poverty. We compare estimates of traditional monetary poverty with multidimensional poverty measures based on two methods: (i) the Alkire-Foster counting identification approach; and (ii) the Permanyer two-stage poverty identification approach.

Indian farmers' struggle and climate change: Defending small farming against agro-business takeover

Climate change has both direct and indirect effects on agricultural productivity, effects that are predicted to increase significantly after 2050 if no mitigating measure is taken with immediate effect. Agriculture, on the other hand, could play a key role in lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 50% in the next decade, the target agreed under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

This talk will examine the implications for countries in the global South of climate science and international policy on agriculture, food security, and rural policy by focusing on the Indian farmers’ movement.

Panel Discussion: 'Fleshing out a future COP' (Online only)

The food system generates around a third of human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

With about half of these attributable to animal production; and yet food was markedly absent from official discussions at COP26. This, for many analysts, represented not only a major climate-relevant omission but also a missed opportunity for reshaping the food system in ways that could achieve broader set of social, environmental and economic benefits.
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