Abstract

How do European tastes for fine cut beef transform Kalahari landscapes? Conversely, how do cattle from the Kalahari Desert play a role in shaping European agricultural and industrial landscapes? This presentation considers the socioecological changes brought about by preferential trade agreements that bring large quantities of beef from Botswana and Namibia to Europe. It builds on previous research in order to “track” the movement of knowledge, value, and species as they participate in the emergence of a noncontiguous zone of beef production/consumption that connects across the Global North and Global South in sometimes unexpected ways.

Short bio

Pierre du Plessis is an environmental anthropologist and multispecies ethnographer whose research has focused on the skilled practices of tracking and gathering as methods and analytics to describe more-than-human landscapes. He has developed this approach to critically explore contemporary transformations to landscapes that arrive with various growth industries. His current research examines more-than-human landscape transformations that emerge with the growth and development of industrial beef production in southern Africa and Europe. Before coming to AIAS he was a researcher at the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo.

What is an AIAS Seminar?

The AIAS Seminar Series is a session of seminars held by the AIAS fellows, AIAS Visiting or Tandem Fellows or by other speakers proposed by the fellows. In each seminar, a fellow will present and discuss her/his current research and work-in-progress to an interdisciplinary audience for 30 minutes, closing off with 30 minutes for questions, comments and discussion.

All seminars are in-person and held in English. To attend online, please contact Sofia Bentsen at sofia@aias.au.dk by 9:00am on the day of the semimar as the latest to request a link.