The Department of Global Studies' Colloquium Series is a lecture series, which has been made possible by the generosity of the Orfalea Endowment for the Master's Program in Global Studies.  The Colloquium Series strives to open and explore a wide range of interdisciplinary debates and their interaction and engagement with the global, hosting new guest speakers each quarter from UCSB and beyond.  The upcoming event will be hosted via Zoom on Wednesday, February 23th at 12:30pm. Zoom link is https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/84246564996 (Meeting ID: 842 4656 4996). Please see below for the featured talk:

Paul Bowles, In the Crucible of Globalization: Pipelines in Canada's Pacific Northwest

The long global commodities boom, rising energy demand from Asia and increasing U.S. energyindependence has profoundly disrupted energy markets in Canada over the past decade and a half. One of the main responses has been the search for tide water to transport fossil fuels from the Pacific coast to new markets in Asia. This has resulted in pipelines, proposed and actual, through the remote communities, unceded Indigenous territories and pristine environments of northwest British Columbia. The region has been and remains a site of contestation, mobilization and division. In this presentation, I will analyze the political economy of two major pipeline projects, the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil proposal and the Coastal GasLink LNG project, examining the local responses, the alliances that were formed and fractured in opposing the projects, and the roles of state and corporate actors.

Paul Bowles is Professor of Global Studies and Economics at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. He is visiting UCSB as a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in 2022. He has published widely on the political economy of China’s reforms, globalization, development, East Asian regionalism and, more recently, extractivism. Recent books include The Essential Guide to Critical Development Studies, 2nd edition, London, Routledge, 2022 (co-edited with H. Veltmeyer); Resource Communities in a Globalizing Region: Development, Agency and Contestation in Northern British Columbia, Vancouver, UBC Press, 2016 (co-edited with G. Wilson); Capitalism, 2nd edition, Seminal Studies in History Series, London, Pearson, 2012, 3rd edition in preparation.

For more information about the Colloquium Series, please contact Professor Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Global Studies Colloquium Director:
jnp@global.ucsb.edu