"Can Development Policies Help Conserve Both Biological and Cultural Diversity?" with Prof. Laura Rival

Oxford Society for International Development

In what sense can it be said that indigenous people are ecologists and poor people environmentalists? How are continuities and discontinuities between humans, living kinds and other objects in the world established? How have people from different cultures perceived and acted upon the material properties of the biophysical world, and how do different social groups make sense of nature?

In this episode, our South America Events Officer, Jasmine Alexander, speaks to Professor Laura Rival about the challenge of conserving both biological and cultural diversity in South America. Professor Rival is Professor of Anthropology and Development at the University of Oxford, where she has been teaching and researching the anthropology of nature, society and development since 2001. Her current research builds on this expertise to address burning issues of development in the face of severe environmental degradation and accelerating climate change.

Interview by Jasmine Alexander. Music by Lorcan Cudlip Cook. Learn more about the Oxford Society for International Development at oxsid.org