Enough! A Modest Political Ecology for an Uncertain Future

SCIS invites you to a seminar titled Enough! A Modest Political Ecology for an Uncertain Future, which will be presented by Professor Mary Lawhon on 20 Sep 2024

The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) invites you to a hybrid seminar with Professor Mary Lawhon titled Enough! A Modest Political Ecology for an Uncertain Future on 20 Sep 2024 on 20 September 2024, 09:00 - 10:30 (SAST).

Abstract:
There is enough for all! But how do ‘we’ make this happen? This talk, drawn from a recently published book, argues creating such a future is not about producing more or living with less. Instead, it starts with rethinking our politics, economics and approach to livelihoods. We will briefly chart the key contours of development and environmental studies (modernist and arcadian) before advancing the idea of a ‘modest imaginary’. The talk tacks between conceptual contours, concrete examples, proposed inventions, and personal narrative, and shows how the book is deeply rooted in Mary’s work in and beyond South Africa. Enough! proposes delinking livelihoods from work through a redistributive basic income, which enables enough without overreliance on modern states. It also enables us to prevent conflicts over jobs, reduce some types of production, and deploy resources towards building postcapitalist worlds.

About the speaker:
Mary Lawhon is a Professor of Political Ecology in the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests are in urban political ecology and theorizing from cities in the global south.  She has a PhD in Geography (Clark University), an MEnvDev from the UKZN, and a BSc in Environmental Studies (University of Kansas). Lawhon has published more than fifty articles and book chapters on topics such as urban infrastructure in African cities (particularly waste and sanitation), environmental politics in South Africa, and the politics of work and distribution. She has written two books (Making Urban Theory: Learning and Unlearning through Southern Cities and Enough! A Modest Political Ecology for an Uncertain Future), and is wrapping up a third (Environmental Solutions for the Anthropocene).

She is currently working with Professor Cathy Sutherland and colleagues at UKZN on the politics of off-grid sanitation in eThekwini. 

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