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August 01 2014

Studying Global Environmental Meetings to Understand Global Environmental Governance: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Lisa M. Campbell,

Lisa M. Campbell

Lisa M. Campbell is the Rachel Carson Associate Professor in Marine Affairs and Policy, in the Nicholas School of Environment, Duke University. For a variety of marine topics, she studies the interactions of policy-making and practice across local, regional, national, and international governance levels, and she is particularly interested in how science informs such interactions. She has published widely in geography and interdisciplinary journals, including Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Geoforum, Conservation Biology, Ecology and Society, and Conservation and Society.

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Catherine Corson,

Catherine Corson

Catherine Corson is the Miller Worley Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Mount Holyoke College. As a political ecologist, she has conducted field research in Zimbabwe, Australia, and Madagascar, and her current research explores the rise of market-based environmentalism and associated shifts in environmental governance. She has published on topics such as struggles over resources in Madagascar, the politics of US environmental foreign aid, and collaborative event ethnography in journals such as Antipode, Development and Change, Human Geography, Journal of Peasant Studies, Society and Natural Resources, Global Environmental Change, and Conservation and Society. Prior to receiving her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, she spent a decade working as an environment and development policy analyst.

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Noella J. Gray,

Noella J. Gray

Noella J. Gray is assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph, Canada, where she contributes to the environmental governance program. Her research examines the politics of marine conservation and governance across scales, focusing on international institutions as well as marine protected areas and volunteer tourism in Belize. Her work has been published in Conservation Biology, Conservation and Society, Conservation Letters, Ecology and Society, and Marine Policy.

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Kenneth I. MacDonald,

Kenneth I. MacDonald

Kenneth Iain MacDonald is an associate professor in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto, and is core faculty in the Centre for Critical Development Studies and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. A political ecologist by training, he has conducted research in northern Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Europe. Most of his research is ethnographically grounded and he has ongoing research interests in a number of areas that seek to understand the role of transnational processes in the reproduction of cultural formations. His work has appeared in Comparative Studies in Society and History, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Antipode, Geoforum, and the Journal of Peasant Studies, among other journals.

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J. Peter Brosius

J. Peter Brosius

J. Peter Brosius is professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Integrative Conservation Research at the University of Georgia. His research interests include the cultural politics of conservation, transnational environmental movements and institutions, hunter-gather societies, and tropical adaptations, with geographic expertise in insular Southeast Asia. He has published extensively in books and journals, including in Current Anthropology, Conservation Biology, and Human Ecology. His co-edited book, Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management, is widely cited across disciplines.

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Author and Article Information

Lisa M. Campbell

Lisa M. Campbell is the Rachel Carson Associate Professor in Marine Affairs and Policy, in the Nicholas School of Environment, Duke University. For a variety of marine topics, she studies the interactions of policy-making and practice across local, regional, national, and international governance levels, and she is particularly interested in how science informs such interactions. She has published widely in geography and interdisciplinary journals, including Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Geoforum, Conservation Biology, Ecology and Society, and Conservation and Society.

Catherine Corson

Catherine Corson is the Miller Worley Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Mount Holyoke College. As a political ecologist, she has conducted field research in Zimbabwe, Australia, and Madagascar, and her current research explores the rise of market-based environmentalism and associated shifts in environmental governance. She has published on topics such as struggles over resources in Madagascar, the politics of US environmental foreign aid, and collaborative event ethnography in journals such as Antipode, Development and Change, Human Geography, Journal of Peasant Studies, Society and Natural Resources, Global Environmental Change, and Conservation and Society. Prior to receiving her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, she spent a decade working as an environment and development policy analyst.

Noella J. Gray

Noella J. Gray is assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph, Canada, where she contributes to the environmental governance program. Her research examines the politics of marine conservation and governance across scales, focusing on international institutions as well as marine protected areas and volunteer tourism in Belize. Her work has been published in Conservation Biology, Conservation and Society, Conservation Letters, Ecology and Society, and Marine Policy.

Kenneth I. MacDonald

Kenneth Iain MacDonald is an associate professor in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto, and is core faculty in the Centre for Critical Development Studies and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. A political ecologist by training, he has conducted research in northern Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Europe. Most of his research is ethnographically grounded and he has ongoing research interests in a number of areas that seek to understand the role of transnational processes in the reproduction of cultural formations. His work has appeared in Comparative Studies in Society and History, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Antipode, Geoforum, and the Journal of Peasant Studies, among other journals.

J. Peter Brosius

J. Peter Brosius is professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Integrative Conservation Research at the University of Georgia. His research interests include the cultural politics of conservation, transnational environmental movements and institutions, hunter-gather societies, and tropical adaptations, with geographic expertise in insular Southeast Asia. He has published extensively in books and journals, including in Current Anthropology, Conservation Biology, and Human Ecology. His co-edited book, Representing Communities: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management, is widely cited across disciplines.

^* This research was supported by the US National Science Foundation (awards 1027194 and 1027201). We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Collaborative event ethnography relies on collaboration in coordinating fieldwork, collecting and analyzing data, and thinking through meaning. This article reflects the efforts of the larger team working on site in Nagoya. The CBD COP10 CEE team is J. Peter Brosius, Lisa M. Campbell, Noella J. Gray, Kenneth I. MacDonald, Maggie Bourque, Catherine Corson, Juan Luis Dammert B., Eial Dujovny, Shannon M. Hagerman, Sarah Hitchner, Shannon Greenberg, Rebecca Gruby, Edward M. Maclin, Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya, Deborah Scott, Daniel Suarez, and Rebecca Witter.

Online ISSN: 1536-0091

Print ISSN: 1526-3800

© 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2014

Global Environmental Politics (2014) 14 (3): 1–20.

https://doi.org/10.1162/GLEP_e_00236

Abstract

This special issue introduces readers to collaborative event ethnography (CEE), a method developed to support the ethnographic study of large global environmental meetings. CEE was applied by a group of seventeen researchers at the Tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) to study the politics of biodiversity conservation. In this introduction, we describe our interests in global environmental meetings as sites where the politics of biodiversity conservation can be observed and as windows into broader governance networks. We specify the types of politics we attend to when observing such meetings and then describe the CBD, its COP, challenges meetings pose for ethnographic researchers, how CEE responds to these challenges generally, and the specifics of our research practices at COP10. Following a summary of the contributed papers, we conclude by reflecting on the evolution of CEE over time.

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Author notes

^* This research was supported by the US National Science Foundation (awards 1027194 and 1027201). We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Collaborative event ethnography relies on collaboration in coordinating fieldwork, collecting and analyzing data, and thinking through meaning. This article reflects the efforts of the larger team working on site in Nagoya. The CBD COP10 CEE team is J. Peter Brosius, Lisa M. Campbell, Noella J. Gray, Kenneth I. MacDonald, Maggie Bourque, Catherine Corson, Juan Luis Dammert B., Eial Dujovny, Shannon M. Hagerman, Sarah Hitchner, Shannon Greenberg, Rebecca Gruby, Edward M. Maclin, Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya, Deborah Scott, Daniel Suarez, and Rebecca Witter.

© 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2014