Tuesday, 27 October 2026
10:00 to 13:00 CAT
Register on zoom
Abstract
In this Masterclass we explore the institutionalization of borders in ecologically inspired landscapes and this process impacts mobilities in the human and non-human worlds. The discussions are structured around four thematic areas: the epistemologies of borders and fences in the context of environmentalism; reading and reimagining planetary limits as social limits; and the production of transnational environments. At the end of the Masterclass, participants should be able to identify cases in which multiple logics are mobilized to create new categories of mobilities in conservation landscapes.
Suggested Readings:
Huang RM, van Aarde RJ, Pimm SL, Chase MJ, Leggett K (2022) Mapping potential connections between Southern Africa’s elephant populations. PLoS ONE 17(10): e0275791. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275791
Mogiani, M., 2023. Studying borders from the border: Reflections on the concept of borders as meeting points. Geopolitics, 28(3), pp. 1323–1341.
Ramutsindela, M., 2017. Greening Africa’s borderlands: The symbiotic politics of land and borders in peace parks. Political Geography, 56, pp.106-113.
Sheller, M. and Urry, J., 2016. Mobilizing the new mobilities paradigm. Applied mobilities, 1(1), pp.10-25.
Yarrow, M.M. and Marín, V.H., 2007. Toward conceptual cohesiveness: a historical analysis of the theory and utility of ecological boundaries and transition zones. Ecosystems, 10(3), pp.462-476.
Maano Ramutsindela is Professor of Human Geography at UCT’s Department of
Environmental and Geographical Science, Extraordinary Professor in the Department of
Geography, Geoinformatics, and Meteorology at UP, and the UP-UCT Future Africa
Research Chair in Sustainability Transformations. He is the co-lead of the Africa-Europe
Cluster of Research Excellence on the politics of sustainable development and co-chair of
the Future Earth Africa Hub. Ramutsindela has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University
and the University of Western Australia, Inaugural Visting Professor at the University of
Geneva, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Distinguished Chair at Macalester College. His
current research focuses on socioecological debt and transfrontier conservation. He is the
author of Transfrontier Conservation in Africa: At the Confluence of Capital, Politics, and
Nature and co-editor of The Violence of Conservation in Africa: State, Militarization, and
Alternatives. His most recent book is the Political Ecology of African Peace Parks.
