anthropology

As part of the annual conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth (ASA), this panel discusses the relations between humans and water, and how the precious vitality of water is constituted, negotiated and strategically used.

The general conference theme is "Vital powers and politics: human interactions with living things" and therefore very relevant for critical approaches to environmental management.

This is a fairly large conference with social anthropologists from all over Europe, over 120 workshops crammed into three days. But lots of good stuff, also regarding critical perspectives on environmental management. Franz will participate in a workshop on "Water scenarios: Forecasting and liquid knowledge."
http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=668

Franz works at the Countryside and Community Research Institute, UK, in a project on Flood memories and community resilience. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, UK. In 2010, he was awarded a PhD for his research on uses and meanings of the Kemi River in Finnish Lapland, and the mutual influences of river dwellers and river.