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Climate change, unprecedented urbanisation, increasingly transnational flows of people, capital and materials are profoundly challenging a sustainable management of resources.
Stewardship is a way of responding to these challenges by invoking an ethics of responsible planning and management. Its application can be found in many areas of public life: in environmental policy, economics, health, theology, land use, planning & community. At the same time, it assumes a legitimacy to decide, intervene and control. Who decides, and how? How might sustain-able resources be governed and at what level? And what role is there for ethics, culture, business, politics and institutions?
On 6 & 7 November 2014, the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (UCL ISR) & UCL Grand Challenge of Intercultural Interaction (GCII) hosted a two day conference in London exploring the concept of stewardship for planet earth from a multitude perspectives: multidisciplinarity of research; international value chains and international relations; ethics; experience on the ground and in history and exploring new concepts of governing stewardship.
Many thanks to all those who attended and contributed to the symposium. The video recording and slides from the two-day programme will be available shortly.
Programme
The conference proceedings brochure containing the full programme from the symposium, as well as biographies for all of our speakers can be downloaded now:
Activities
Research Catalyst Grants
As part of this years symposium UCL ISR sought applications for grants of up to £10,000 from UCL staff. The grants are aimed at conducting innovative and cross-disciplinary research that contributes to the debate on Stewardship and the sustainable use of natural resources. The scheme will support five research projects from across UCL.
- 2014 grant winners
Congratulations to the winners of the UCL ISR/UCL Grand Challenge of Intercultural Interaction (GCII) Research Catalyst Grant call.
The call sought applications for grants of up to £10,000 from UCL staff, as part of the 2014 ‘Stewardship for Planet Earth: Sustainable Resources & Governance – Evidence, Challenges and Solutions’ symposium.
Catalyst Grants are aimed at enabling UCL researchers to develop realistic and relevant research partnerships across disciplines, and research strategies with the potential for significant national or international impact.
The scheme will support the following five research projects from across UCL. Grant winners will have the opportunity to present the findings of the research at the November Symposium.
Project Title Project Lead UCL Department Food versus Fuel: beyond biofuels Dr Julia Tomei UCL-Energy/UCL ISR Impact of Cultural & Political Perspectives in the Management of Natural Resources: the Case of the Chinese Emission Trading Pilot Schemes Dr Paolo Agnolucci UCL ISR Between Green & Blue: New Models Of Stewardship & Sustainability For Shellfish In The Intertidal Zone: Thames Estuary Dr Caroline Garaway UCL Anthropology Closing the loop - translating best practice across regional cultures Dr Joanna Williams Bartlett School of Planning Environmental & System Stewardship for Greenland’s Rare Earth Elements Beverley Gibbs UCL STEaPP
Outputs
- Symposium 2014 outcomes
Presentations
Exploring Geopolitics of Energy Resource Use, Trade and Security by Dr Catalina Spataru, UCL Energy Institute
Institutions and the governance of the resources nexus: the case of nitrogen fertilisers in China by Dr Philip Andrews-Speed, University of Singapore
Liberia’s Post Conflict Experience with Natural Resource Management by Rajkumar Mayank Singh, Overseas Development Institute
Unsustainable, but how long is long enough for a secure supply? The case for deep groundwater development in Bangladesh by Dr William Burgess, UCL Earth Sciences
New approaches to stewardship in the privately-owned rangelands of the Mara, Kenya by Claire Bedelian, UCL Anthropology
Collaborative Stewardship Lessons Learned and Adaption Challenges by Darien Simon, UCL Australia
Corporate Social Responsibility in the mining industry by Dr Oliver Heidrich, Newcastle University
Anthropocene futures and planetary stewardship by Professor Frans Berkhout, Kings College London
Stewardship for Planet Earth: Challenges and Opportunities in a World Hooked on Growth by Professor Kevin Urama, Quantum Global Research Lab
‘Bigger Cakes with Less Ingredients?' A Comparison of Material Use of the World Economy by Frank Pothen, Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
International Oil Prices and Conflict in Oil Producing Countries by Nando Lewis, UCL Political Science
The challenge to measure regional sink constraints by Ulrich Kral, Vienna University of Technology
Resource use – are we talking about the right thing? Dr Volker Zepf, University of Augsburg
Speakers
Professor Michelle Baddeley, Professor in Economics and Finance of the Built Environment, The Bartlett School of Const & Proj Mgt, UCL
Dr Graham Woodgate, Principal Teaching Fellow, UCL Institute of the Americas
Dr Mohammad Shamsudduha, Research Associate, Inst for Risk & Disaster Reduction, Department of Earth Sciences, UCL
Dr Jerome Lewis, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, UCL
Dr Philip Andrews-Speed, Principal Fellow & Head, Energy Security Division, National University of Singapore
Dr William Burgess, Senior Lecturer, Department of Earth Sciences, UCL
Rajkumar Mayank Singh, Fellow, Overseas Development Institute
Dr Catalina Spataru, Senior Research Associate, UCL Energy Institute
Dr Marc Brightman, Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, UCL
Dr Darien Simon, Research Associate International Energy Policy Institute, UCL Austrailia
Professor Frans Berkhout, Professor of Environment, Society and Climate, Kings College London
Professor Kevin Chika Urama, Executive Director, African Technology Policy Studies Network
Mr Frank Pothen, Researcher, Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
Dr Ulrich Kral, Postdoc Vienna University of Technology - Institute for Water Quality, Resources and Waste Management, Vienna University of Technology
Mr Nando Lewis, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Political Science, UCL
Dr Volker Zepf, Chair of Resource Strategy, University of Augsburg
Professor Dan Osborn, Professor of Human Ecology, Department of Earth Sciences, UCL
Dr Oliver Heidrich, Senior Researcher, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University
Rupert Howes, Chief Executive, Marine Stewardship Council
Steering group
Many thanks to the steering group committee and additional staff from across UCL for their contribution, overall guidance and feedback.
- Prof Raimund Bleischwitz, UCL ISR
- Prof Elizabeth Graham, UCL Institute of Archaeology
- Professor Maria Wyke, UCL Centre for Research on the Dynamics of Civilisation
- Professor Georgina Mace, Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research
- Professor Michael Rowlands, UCL Anthropology
- Prof Peter Jones, Dept of Civil, Environ & Geomatic Engineering
- Dr Caroline Garaway, UCL Anthropology
- Dr Liza Griffin, Development Planning Unit
- Dr Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, UCL Institute of Archaeology
- Dr Darien Simon, UCL Australia
- Dr Yijie Zhuang, UCL Institute of Archaeology
- Dr Vivienne Lo, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity
- Dr Adrianna Allen, Development Planning Unit
- Dr Lou Atkins, UCL Centre for Behaviour Change
- Dr Julia Tomei, UCL ISR
- Dr Charlotte Johnson, UCL ISR
- Alison Parker, UCL ISR
- Kiran Dhillon, UCL ISR
- Katherine Welch, UCL ISR
- Dr Ian Scott, GCII
- Dr Francois Guesnet, GCII
- Dr James Paskins, GCSC
- Michael Reade, GCII