Upcoming Research Cluster Events

Rachel O'Dwyer on 'Tokens:  The Future of Money  in the Age of the Platform'

Location: Wednesday 29^th November, 13.30-15.00, Geography (West) Building: W007

Description:

Rachel O’Dwyer will talk about selected material from the recently published book, Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform (Verso). Digital platforms are issuing new kinds of money-like things: phone credit, shares, gift vouchers, game tokens, customer data, and so on. This is a development challenging the balance of power between online empires and the state. O’Dwyer will ask what does it mean when online platforms become the new banks? What new types of control and discrimination emerge when money is tied to specific apps or actions, politics or identities?

Rachel O’Dwyer is Lecturer in Digital Cultures, School of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

Event Contact: Professor Paul Langley

Event Sponsor: Economy and Culture Research Cluster, Durham Geography

This in-person only event is open to staff and postgraduate researchers from Durham University. External attendees are welcome, but should contact the event organizer to secure an invitation.

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Jan Selby on 'An International Political Ecology of Climate Change, Water and Security' 

Location: 7 February 2024, 14:00-16:00, Geography (West) Building: W007

Description:

This seminar will be given by Professor Jan Selby (Professor of International Politics and Climate Change, University of Leeds). Professor Selby will be giving an account of his recently published, co-authored book Divided Environments: An International Political Ecology of Climate Change, Water and Security (Cambridge University Press, 2022; co-authors G. Daoust and C. Hoffman). The book is an empirical study debunking the idea that climate change is a driver of social and political outcomes (e.g., violence, migration) in the MENA region, specifically Israel-Palestine, Syria, Cyprus, Sudan-South Sudan and Chad. This is the first ever use of ‘international political ecology’ for challenging the conventional, if all too fraught, assumptions linking climate change, water and violence. The seminar will be of interest to colleagues across the Geographies of Life and Politics-State-Space research clusters and to anyone with an interest in the political geography and ecology of climate change. The talk will be followed by, ideally, interventions from a discussant(s), and a Q&A. Tea/Coffee from 2pm.