Leading scholars in political ecology and environmental justice

The seminar will bring together Dr Mariana Walter, Dr Marcel Llavero-Pasquina and Professor Joan Martínez-Alier (joining online), three leading scholars in political ecology and environmental justice. The event is open to UvA researchers, students and staff interested in environmental justice, the energy transition, critical minerals, and global development.

Please register via the link below.

Using the EJAtlas for teaching, policy and activism

The morning programme will open with a session introducing the EJAtlas platform and its methodology. Participants will explore how the atlas has been used in university teaching, public policy and activist contexts, drawing on concrete case studies from different regions of the world. A dedicated Q&A segment will give space to discuss how the EJAtlas could be adapted to specific teaching needs or societal engagement activities at UvA.

Researching environmental conflicts with the EJAtlas

The second part of the morning will focus on the EJAtlas as a research infrastructure. The speakers will present a global overview of nearly one hundred academic publications produced by the EJAtlas research team over the past decade, with particular attention to the development of statistical political ecology as a method for analysing environmental conflicts at scale.

Three thematic blocks will highlight recent EJAtlas-based research. These include work on critical minerals and mining linked to the energy transition, research on energy infrastructures and fossil fuel companies, and studies of renewable energy, climate conflicts and corporate power. The aim is not to provide an exhaustive overview, but to demonstrate the flexibility of the EJAtlas as a tool for comparative, interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research.

Collaboration and future research

Following lunch, Dr Walter and Dr Llavero-Pasquina will be available for meetings with CSDS research groups and individual researchers. These sessions will focus on exploring how ongoing research at UvA could connect to the EJAtlas, identifying shared questions, and discussing opportunities for collaboration, joint projects and external funding.

Meetings can be pre-arranged by CSDS groups or organised informally during the afternoon.

A global resource for environmental justice

Since its creation, the EJAtlas has become a key reference for researchers, civil society organisations and policymakers working on environmental justice. It brings together thousands of documented cases of environmental conflict, from mining and fossil fuels to dams, renewable energy projects and urban infrastructure, offering a unique window into how ecological change, social inequality and political power are connected.

The seminar will draw on recent EJAtlas research published in leading international journals, including work on extractivism, Indigenous rights, gendered violence, corporate power and the political economy of the energy transition.