THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES GROUP FALL 2019 COLLOQUIUM SERIES PRESENTS: SPEAKER: DR. BEATRIZ RODRÍGUEZ-LABAJOS Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow, UC Berkeley Autonomous University of Barcelona DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 2019 TIME: 4:00-5:30pm PLACE: 126 Barrows TITLE: The critique of growth and environmental justice movements in the Global South: Is it really a natural alliance? DESCRIPTION: Activists and environmental defenders in the Global South promote transformations against dispossession in a variety of fields, from food to energy production. Ecological economic scholars argued in favor of an obvious alliance between environmental justice movements in the South and criticism of economic growth. Yet, collaborative research unveiled activists’ concerns about the plausibility of alliances until significant divergences are examined and reconciled. The presentation will summarize tensions and possible analogies between the scope of action of EJ organizations across the globe and the main propositions of the Degrowth movements (see more at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.11.007). SPEAKER: Beatriz Rodriguez-Labajos is an ecological economist and environmental scientist with interest in water justice, and with field experience in Europe, Latin America, and South East Asia. She has coordinated collaborative research projects with environmental defenders in the Global South (e.g., EJOLT). She is currently a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow affiliated with UC Berkeley and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her current project, CLAMOR, analyzes forms of creative activism in four emblematic cases from California and Colombia. The project aims at compiling evidence about transformative or restorative effects of cultural expressions in coal- and water-related conflicts.