Drawing on thirty months of extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Peermade and Munnar tea belts of the South Indian state of Kerala, Plantation Crisis explores the collapse of the plantation system and the abandonment of its workforce during the recent crisis in the Indian tea economy. The colonial era plantation system in India – and its two million strong workforce – has, since the mid-1990s, faced a series of ruptures due to neoliberal economic globalisation.

In the global imaginary of climate change, Bangladesh holds a prominent position. Frequently described as the ‘world’s most vulnerable country to climate change’, the specter of Bangladesh underwater, wiped off the map by rising seas, has given birth to a crisis narrative that obscures how interventions in the environment and social life of the country have already transformed the landscape many times over. Today, development in Bangladesh is increasingly defined by and through an adaptation regime, which governs the landscape of possible intervention in anticipation of climate change.

Silvia Masiero will present her new book Unfair ID (Sage, Data Justice Series, October 2024). Using a data justice lens to explore narratives of unfairness in, and harm caused through digital ID, she will present some of the stories contained in the book, building on her 14-year research on the use of Aadhaar's biometrics in the Indian Public Distribution System (PDS). Based on this, she will discuss routes to build activist mechanisms to combat unfairness.

OxPeace (Oxford Network of Peace Studies) invites you to an intensive two-day (20 and 21 March, 09.30 to 17.30 each day) training workshop in international negotiation, mediation, and diplomacy, covering core concepts, lessons learned from the field and hands-on exercises. This year’s course will in particular focus on how to mediate conflict and negotiate with difficult actors, who resist agreements for mutual gain and disregard established international norms and principles.

Learning goals:

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/95465830050?pwd=C9bVWTjW7y8dWqi4qED0MgCvVkCrZG.1; Meeting ID: 954 6583 0050; Passcode: 867678

Abstract: The mega-election year of 2024 featured 31 direct presidential elections, with women winning just five contests—and only in two instances where the president is the sole or more powerful chief executive. This pattern persists even as public opinion shows increasing voter support for women leaders. Yet does this support persist once women express presidential ambition?