Traditional Knowledge, Environment
Protection and Human Rights
Thursday, May 20: 1:30 AM PDT / 9:30 AM BST / 2:00 PM IST
Pooran C. Joshi, University of Delhi, India
Bio: Professor P. C. Joshi is a distinguished medical anthropologist working at the interface of culture, climate change and public health. He was a delegate to United Nations Framework Climate Change Conference in 2008 and the recipient of the Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra National Award. Professor Joshi has served in various government advisory positions in India, and is currently Acting Vice-Chancellor at the University of Delhi.
Abstract: Environment protection is largely addressed in the language of science. In the context of climate change, unpredictability of the environment and its disastrous consequences, scientific knowledge is considered as the only way to deal with this issue. This has led to scientism where-in a hegemony is created between the possessor of such knowledge and the ‘others.’ On the pretext of managerialism and conservation, alternative ways and knowledge of relating to the environment has been overlooked.