The Transitions in Global South network successfully held a webinar on the 3rd of June as a first introductory session of the webinar series on the important topic of ”Sustainability transitions in the context of Covid-19”.
This event brought a global audience to Prof. Joyashree Roy, (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and Jadavpur University, India) Prof. Mark Swilling (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) and Prof. Adriana Marotti de Mello, (University of Sao Paulo, Brasil)’s discussion on challenges and prospects of sustainability transition in post-pandemic world, offering insights from their regional contexts of South Asia, Africa and Latin America. Over 150 individuals joined the webinar from different parts of the world.
The full recording is available here.
Dr Bipashyee Ghosh, SPRU Research Fellow on TIPC and Deep Transitions, is one of the key organisers of the webinar series. She commented on the warm reception of the first webinar, which she enjoyed both as an organiser and as a research scholar studying Transitions in Global South.
“I am very happy to see so many colleagues joined the webinar from all corners of the world. As a researcher, listening to the panellists and the Q&A was an enriching experience as I learnt about specific issues and examples from India, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil and many other countries. I realised, there are very similar socio-economic and environmental challenges in all these countries, which we need to tackle collectively and globally. At the same time, there are unique innovations and diverse bottom up initiatives at very local levels in each country – which is something other countries’ governments, businesses and civil societies can learn from. It is about time that we enable south-south learning to address global sustainability challenges. Join me for upcoming webinars of the series to continue this learning journey.”
Panellists and participants contributed to identifying and refining the following themes, which will be discussed in depth in future thematic webinars:
- Impact of existing socio-economic inequalities on post Covid19 transitions
- Impact of fragility of states and weak institutions on post Covid19 transitions
- Comparative policy learning for sustainability transitions post Covid19
- Role of experimentation and frugal innovation on sustainability transitions beyond the current crisis
- Role of Informal practices and institutions on sustainability transitions beyond the current crisis
- Understanding emerging social practices and new social relations in response to the crisis
If you are a researcher working in these areas, considering the context of the current Covid-19 crisis, and interested in sharing your thoughts and insights in future webinars, please email transitions.globalsouth@gmail.com or fill out this form to express interest.
The next webinar will be held on one of these themes on July 8th, 1400 CET on Zoom and Youtube Live.
Follow the Transitions in Global South network on twitter. If you would like to sign up for the mailing list, please write to the above mentioned email address or contact Dr. Bipashyee Ghosh directly (B.Ghosh@sussex.ac.uk).