Resource conflicts are on the rise as the forces of global growth collide with traditional cultures, climate change and urbanisation. The social sciences play an important role in helping to understand the full extent of these conflicts, the inequalities that result and how they may be resolved. Our two expert speakers have much to say on this pressing issue.

Dr Dustin Garrick, Research Fellow of Green Templeton College, Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, University of Oxford, focuses his work at the interface of water and the economy, specializing in political economy and institutional analysis of water allocation reform and water markets as responses to climate change, urbanization and sustainable development challenges. His research interests span Australia, California and global trends.

Dr Ariell Ahearn, School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford, has worked extensively in rural Mongolia with mobile pastoralist communities around land use and rural development issues. Ariell’s research focus has become concerned with understanding processes of engagement between rural households and governing entities such as corporations and state organizations, particularly concerning herder livelihoods and socio-economic changes in relation to the Oyu Tolgoi mega mine in the Gobi desert.

This event is part of the Green Templeton Social Science Seminar Series. The series aims to increase dialogue between the social science disciplines at Green Templeton and beyond.

The social sciences represent a diverse spectrum of disciplines ranging through population and demography, public health, anthropology, human geography, criminology and more. ‘Environment’ provides a common theme for debate, acting as a locus for inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue.