Institute of Social Anthropology

Staff

Jevgeniy Bluwstein joined the Institute of Social Anthropology as Ambizione Research Fellow in 2023. He leads the Swiss National Science Foundation funded four-year project on the Juridification of climate politics through climate activism and litigation in Switzerland. Based on insights from legal anthropology and political ecology, and drawing on empirical and ethnographic research, this project examines i) how Swiss climate politics and activism are increasingly juridified and judicialized through litigation in the courts, ii) what role social movements, the judiciary, and the state play in this contested process of juridification and judicialization, and iii) what the effects juridification and judicialization of climate politics and activism entail for climate governance and civil liberties.   

Before joining the University of Bern, Jevgeniy was a lecturer in human geography at the University of Fribourg (2018-2022), a PhD fellow at the University of Copenhagen (2015-2018), and a research assistant (2013-2014) within the international research project PIMA (Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Area impacts on livelihoods and ecosystem, PI Katherine Homewood, UCL).

Jevgeniy teaches political ecology, environmental geography, climate politics.

Jevgeniy holds a PhD from the University of Copenhagen on the (bio)political ecology of conservation in Tanzania, where he examined land and resource conflicts around protected areas and landscape conservation initiatives. His work on conservation politics appeared in the Journal of Political Ecology, World Development, Journal of Agrarian Change, and Geoforum, amongst others.

Current research projects:

Current research interests:

  • Conservation politics/governmentality/biopolitics/labor
  • Climate litigation, climate justice, climate politics

Jevgeniy is Associate Editor of Geographica Helvetica

ResearchGate

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Current Research Project

Juridification and Judicialization of Climate Politics through Climate Litigation

Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein, Lucie Benoit, MSc

Principle Investigator, SNF Ambizione Project (208679)

When the state sues climate activists in criminal courts, new opportunities for political and public communication open up for the climate movement. However, the juridification and judicialization of climate politics and activism through civil disobedience not only creates new opportunities, it also entails risks: does civil disobedience contribute to the criminalization of political protest, or can it legitimize new spaces for political protest? Can the existing legal system be transformed by climate activism, or are activism and political protest depoliticized through judicialization? How do new forms of political protest and communication (including in courtrooms) affect social debates, perceptions and discourses about climate change? How does the state, through the institutions of the police and the judiciary, react to climate activism that relies on means of civil disobedience? How are different strategies of juridification and judicialization (e.g. strategic climate litigation against the state or against companies, civil disobedience) promoted by different social actors (inside and outside the climate movement)? What can climate litigation achieve and what are the limits of climate litigation?

Based on the findings and theories from legal anthropology and political ecology, these and other questions are discussed using methods of qualitative empirical social research (participant observation, interviews, discourse analysis)

Keywords: Climate litigation, social movements, climate politics, climate justice, political ecology, legal anthropology

Project leader: Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein

Scientific collaborator and PhD student: Lucie Benoit

Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation

 

Report (2023.5.17): Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Demay, Clémence; Benoit, Lucie (2023). Civil disobedience and climate trials in Switzerland - What are they fighting for in the Swiss courts? Bern: humanrights.ch (pdf EN/FR/DE)

Blog (2023.9.29): Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Demay, Clémence; Benoit, Lucie (2023). Civil Disobedience on Trial in Switzerland, Verfassungsblog:  https://verfassungsblog.de/civil-disobedience-on-trial-in-switzerland/

 

Conservation Labor (CONLAB)

Co-Investigator

CONLAB seeks to advance interdisciplinary research on labor (e.g. labor geographies) and conservation science (e.g. political ecology) by examining how biodiversity conservation policies, initiatives and projects shape labor dynamics in affected communities across the Global South. Theoretically, we conceptualize conservation as a mode of production that requires and generates value from different forms of paid and unpaid work. We situate conservation labor and theorize it in the broader context of an international conservation labor regime. This labor regime is underpinned by a particular division of labor and labor dynamics in capitalist societies and postcolonial contexts that are characterized by entrenched social hierarchies cutting across gender, class, caste, race and ethnicity. From this vantage point, CONLAB examines the division of labor and labor dynamics i) within and outside of the conservation sector, ii) across social identities of gender, class, caste, and race, and iii) across hierarchies of paid, underpaid and unpaid work for conservation.

Project members: Dr. Anwesha Dutta (PI, Christian Michelsen Institute, Norway), Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein (Co-I, University of Bern, Switzerland), Dr. Amber Huff (Co-I, Institute of Development Studies, UK), Dr. Francis Masse (Co-I, Northumbria University, UK)

Research Funding: Norwegian Research Council

Perspective in Current Conservation 2023: Labour perspectives on frontline conservation work

 

Publication of Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein

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2024

Hilbrandt, Hanna; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Cima, Ottavia; Duplan, Karine; Marquardt, Nadine; Péaud, Laura; Pütz, Marco; Véron, René; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2024). Editorial: Expanding knowledge geographies. Geographica Helvetica, 79(3), pp. 239-240. Copernicus 10.5194/gh-79-239-2024

Poudyal, Mahesh; Kraft, Franziska; Wells, Geoff; Das, Anamika; Attiwilli, Suman; Schreckenberg, Kate; Lele, Sharachchandra; Daw, Tim; Torres-Vitolas, Carlos; Setty, Siddappa; Adams, Helen; Ahmad, Sate; Ryan, Casey; Fisher, Janet; Robinson, Brian; Jones, Julia P. G.; Homewood, Katherine; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Keane, Aidan; Macamo, Celia; ... (2024). Nature’s contribution to poverty alleviation, human wellbeing and the SDGs. Scientific data, 11(1) Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/s41597-024-02967-0

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; De Rosa, Salvatore Paolo (2024). Political ecologies of the future: Introduction to the special issue. Geoforum, p. 104023. Elsevier 10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104023

2023

Simlai, Trishant; Dutta, Anwesha; Huff, Amber; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Massé, Francis; D'Souza, Pearl (2023). Labour perspectives on frontline conservation work. Current Conservation, 17(1), pp. 19-23.

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Demay, Clémence; Benoit, Lucie (2023). Civil disobedience and climate trials in Switzerland - What are they fighting for in the Swiss courts? Bern: humanrights.ch, jusletter.ch

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Cavanagh, Connor; Fletcher, Robert (2023). Securing conservation Lebensraum? The geo-, bio-, and ontopolitics of global conservation futures. Geoforum, 153, p. 103752. Elsevier 10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103752

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Cavanagh, Connor (2023). Rescaling the land rush? Global political ecologies of land use and cover change in key scenario archetypes for achieving the 1.5 °C Paris agreement target. The journal of peasant studies, 50(1), pp. 262-294. Routledge 10.1080/03066150.2022.2125386

Shackleton, Ross T.; Walters, Gretchen; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Djoudi, Houria; Fritz, Livia; de Micheaux, Flore Lafaye; Loloum, Tristan; Nguyen, Thi Hai Van; Sithole, Samantha; Andriamahefazafy, Mialy; Kull, Christian (2023). Navigating power in conservation. Conservation science and practice, 5(3) Wiley 10.1111/csp2.12877

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Demay, Clémence; Benoit, Lucie (2023). Civil Disobedience on Trial in Switzerland. In: Verfassungsblog.

2022

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2022). Making sense of (the Russian war in) Ukraine: On the politics of knowledge and expertise. Political geography, 98, p. 102700. Elsevier 10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102700

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2022). Historical Political Ecology of the Tarangire Ecosystem: From Colonial Legacies, to Contested Histories, Towards Convivial Conservation? In: Kiffner, Christian; Bond, Monica L.; Lee, Derek E. (eds.) Tarangire: Human-Wildlife Coexistence in a Fragmented Ecosystem. Ecological Studies: Vol. 243 (pp. 25-46). Cham: Springer 10.1007/978-3-030-93604-4_2

2021

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2021). Colonizing landscapes/landscaping colonies: from a global history of landscapism to the contemporary landscape approach in nature conservation. Journal of political ecology, 28(1) University of Arizona 10.2458/jpe.2850

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2021). Transformation is not a metaphor. Political geography, 90, p. 102450. Elsevier 10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102450

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2021). Decolonising Conservation Science and Practice in Tanzania. Conservation and society, 19(2), pp. 130-132. Wolters Kluwer 10.4103/cs.cs_8_21

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2021). Book review: Power in Conservation. Environmental Anthropology Beyond Political Ecology. Carpenter C. 2020. Routledge. Geographica Helvetica, 76(1), pp. 47-49. Copernicus 10.5194/gh-76-47-2021

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Asiyanbi, Adeniyi P.; Dutta, Anwesha; Huff, Amber; Lund, Jens Friis; De Rosa, Salvatore Paolo; Steinberger, Julia (2021). Commentary: Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future. Frontiers in conservation science, 2 Frontiers Media 10.3389/fcosc.2021.666910

2020

Keane, Aidan; Lund, Jens Friis; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Burgess, Neil D.; Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt; Homewood, Katherine (2020). Impact of Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Areas on household wealth. Nature sustainability, 3(3), pp. 226-233. Springer 10.1038/s41893-019-0458-0

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2020). Book review: Postwachstumsgeographien: Raumbezüge diverser und alternativer Ökonomien. Geographica Helvetica, 75(4), pp. 369-370. Copernicus 10.5194/gh-75-369-2020

2019

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2019). Resisting Legibility: State and Conservation Boundaries, Pastoralism, and the Risk of Dispossession through Geospatial Surveys in Tanzania. Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, 6(1) Stockholm University Press 10.16993/rl.53

2018

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Homewood, Katherine; Lund, Jens Friis; Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt; Burgess, Neil; Msuha, Maurus; Olila, Joseph; Sankeni, Sironka Stephen; Millia, Supuku Kiroiya; Laizer, Hudson; Elisante, Filemon; Keane, Aidan (2018). A quasi-experimental study of impacts of Tanzania’s wildlife management areas on rural livelihoods and wealth. Scientific data, 5(1) Springer Nature 10.1038/sdata.2018.87

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis; Askew, Kelly; Stein, Howard; Noe, Christine; Odgaard, Rie; Maganga, Faustin; Engström, Linda (2018). Between dependence and deprivation: The interlocking nature of land alienation in Tanzania. Journal of agrarian change, 18(4), pp. 806-830. Wiley 10.1111/joac.12271

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2018). From colonial fortresses to neoliberal landscapes in Northern Tanzania: a biopolitical ecology of wildlife conservation. Journal of political ecology, 25(1), pp. 144-168. University of Arizona 10.2458/v25i1.22865

Lund, Jens Friis; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2018). When conservation research goes awry: A reply to Mascia and Mills (2018). Conservation letters, 11(3), e12461. Wiley 10.1111/conl.12461

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis (2018). Territoriality by Conservation in the Selous–Niassa Corridor in Tanzania. World development, 101, pp. 453-465. Elsevier 10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.09.010

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2018). Biopolitical Landscapes. Governing People and Spaces through Conservation in Tanzania (Unpublished). (Dissertation, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Food and Resource Economics)

2017

Rutt, Rebecca L.; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2017). Quests for Justice and Mechanisms of Suppression in Flint, Michigan. Environmental justice, 10(2), pp. 27-35. Mary Ann Liebert 10.1089/env.2016.0047

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2017). Creating ecotourism territories: Environmentalities in Tanzania’s community-based conservation. Geoforum, 83, pp. 101-113. Elsevier 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.04.009

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2017). Book Review: Benjamin Gardner , Selling the Serengeti: the cultural politics of safari tourism. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press (hb US$79.95 – 978 0 8203 4507 9; pb US$25.95 – 978 0 8203 4508 6). 2016, xxviii + 208 pp. Africa, 87(3), pp. 647-649. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0001972017000250

2016

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2016). Problematizing debates on wildlife conservation and the war on poaching. Conservation biology, 30(4), pp. 692-693. Wiley 10.1111/cobi.12751

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis (2016). Unpacking the Political Economy of Lion Trophy Hunting in Tanzania. Conservation biology, 31(2), pp. 486-487. Wiley 10.1111/cobi.12848

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Moyo, Francis; Kicheleri, RosePeter (2016). Austere conservation: understanding conflicts over resource governance in tanzanian wildlife management areas. Conservation and society, 14(3), pp. 218-231. Wolters Kluwer 10.4103/0972-4923.191156

2015

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Braun, Martin; Henriksen, Christian Bugge (2015). Sustainable Extensification as an Alternative Model For Reducing GHG Emissions From Agriculture. The Case of an Extensively Managed Organic Farm in Denmark. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 39(5), pp. 551-579. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/21683565.2015.1013240

2014

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis; Balooni, Kulbhushan (2014). In search of conservation impact. A comment on Schusser 2012: Who determines biodiversity? An analysis of actors' power and interests in community forestry in Namibia. Forest policy and economics, 38, pp. 227-228. Elsevier Science 10.1016/j.forpol.2013.07.007