UPCOMING EVENTS
On-campus event (seating limited, please RSVP)
Beyond 'Job Counting:' An exploration of the social and cultural dimensions of just transitions.
To ensure that the transition to a low-carbon society is implemented in a just way, it is important that workers in high-carbon industries are not left behind. However, ‘job counting’ approaches that focus primarily on the number of jobs lost and created risk ignoring the many other ways in which work matters in workers lives. In this presentation I will explore some of the social & cultural dimensions that shape how workers’ think about work and the role it plays in their lives. Based on qualitative research with workers in the energy and steel industry in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada I will show that paying attention to factors such as identity, pride, and social connections can help understand how workers perceive and navigate change, and how a Just Transition can be achieved.
Speaker: Dr. Bregje van Veelen, Associate senior lecturer, Centre for Sustainability, University of Lund
Date:
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
12-1 p.m.,
Location:
Rose Garden Cottage boardroom, Royal Roads University
RSVP to [email protected] to reserve your seat.
PAST EVENTS
Recording now available here.
Since the start of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, analysts have expressed puzzlement at President Vladimir Putin’s actions. Even if ultimately able to achieve some kind of advantageous ceasefire, Russia has been substantially harmed by the war, with huge Russian casualties in the military campaign, progressively severe damage to the Russian economy, a growing Russian dependence on China, Iran, and North Korea, and the strengthening and expansion of NATO. In this talk, speaker Jonathan Leader Maynard will suggest that this puzzle is largely explained by the growing role of ideological competition in global politics in the 21st Century. Maynard stresses two key points: first, that ideological changes within Russia are key to understanding how Russia has come to perceive itself as increasingly threatened by external ideological forces; second, that Russia has further been emboldened by transnational ideological linkages between ultraconservatism in Russia and populist authoritarian trends in Europe and North America. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this actually makes ideological competition more destabilising in 21st Century politics than in the Cold War. These factors are crucial to explaining the difficulty of what would otherwise be a relatively simple task – containing Russia’s revisionist ambitions – and point to important broader fractures within the international system.
Speaker:
Dr. Jonathan Leader Maynard
Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Department of Political Economy, King's College London
Parliamentary Academic Fellow, International Affairs Unit, UK Parliament
Date:
Thursday, January 16, 2025, 1:00-2:30 p.m. PST
