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Kenneth MacDonald

Associate Professor, Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies
Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography (UTSC)
ken.macdonald@utoronto.ca
416-287-7313
www.cdts.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/kenneth-macdonald
Kenneth MacDonald headshot

Areas of interest

  • Cultural identity Politics
  • Culture and Biodiversity Conservation
  • Environment and Development
  • Ethics and Development
  • Exploitation of Mountaineering Porters
  • Kashmir
  • Natural Hazards and Vulnerability

Biography

Main Bio

Professor MacDonald teaches in the Dept. of Geography and Program in Planning at the University of Toronto. He is also core faculty in two interdisciplinary programs: the Centre for Critical Development Studies and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. Most of his research is ethnographically grounded and he has ongoing research interests in a number of areas that seek to understand the role of transnational processes in the reproduction of cultural formations. Some of this work includes: a) the role of transnationalism and transnational ideologies in the production of cultural identity; b) the production and configuration of transnational cultural economies; c) the postcolonial politics of development; d) the cultural politics of biodiversity conservation; and e) the ethnographic study of transnational institutions of environmental governance, primarily the Convention on Biological Diversity. This latter work has involved (with colleagues) the development of a new methodological approach that called Collaborative Event Ethnography.

Select publications

Refereed Articles:

  • (2014) Studying Global Environmental Meetings to Understand Global Environmental Governance: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Global Environmental Politics, 14(3) pp. 1-20. (with  Corson, C., Campbell, L and Brosius, P.).
  • MacDonald, K. I., Corson, C., Campbell, L. 2014. Capturing the Personal in Politics: Ethnographies of Global Environmental Governance. Global Environmental Politics.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2013. Grabbing ‘Green’: Cynical Reason, Instrumental Ethics and the Production of ‘The Green Economy’, Human Geography 6(1) 46-63.
  • MacDonald, K. I., Corson, C. and Niemark, B.  2013. (with Catherine Corson and Benjamin Neimark) Grabbing “Green”: Markets, Environmental Governance and the Materialization of Natural Capital Human Geography 6(1) 1-15.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2013. The Morality of Cheese: The Paradox of Defensive Localism in a Transnational Cultural Economy. Geoforum, 44, 93-102.
  • MacDonald, K. I. with Corson, C. 2012. Enclosing the Global Commons: the Convention on Biological Diversity and Green Grabbing. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(2) 263-283 (invited contribution, 50% responsibility)
  • MacDonald, K. I. with  Corson, C. 2012. ‘TEEB Begins Now’ A Virtual Moment in the Production of Natural Capital. Development and Change 43(1) 159-184. (invited contribution, 50% responsibility)
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2010. Business, Biodiversity and New ‘Fields’ of Conservation: The World Conservation Congress and the Renegotiation of Organizational Order. Conservation and Society, 8(5) 256-275.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2010. The Devil is in the (bio)Diversity: Private Sector ‘Engagement’ and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation. Antipode, 42(3), 512-49.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2006. Memories of Tibet: Transnationalism, Transculturation and the Cultural Politics of Identity Production in Northern Pakistan, India Review 5(2),190-219. (Invited contribution)
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2005. “Global Hunting Grounds: Power, Scale and Ecology in the Negotiation of Conservation”. Cultural Geographies 12(3), 259-291.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2002. Epistemic Violence: The Body, Globalization and the Dilemma of Rights, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems 12(1), 65-87. (Invited Contribution)
  • MacDonald, K. I.  with Butz, D. 2001.“Serving Sahib With Pony And Pen: The Discursive Uses Of Native Authenticity.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 19(1), 179-201.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 1998. “Rationality, Representation, and the Risk Mediating Characteristics of A Karakoram Mountain Farming System.” Human Ecology, 26(2), 287-322.
  • MacDonald, K. I. with Butz, D. 1998. “Investigating Portering Relations As A Locus For Transcultural Interaction In The Karakoram Region Of Northern Pakistan.” Mountain Research and Development. 18(4) 333-343.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 1998. “Push and Shove: Spatial History and the Construction of a Portering Economy in the Karakoram Himalaya”.  Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(2), 287-317.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 1996. “Population Change In The Upper Braldu Valley, Baltistan, 1901-1990: All Is Not As It Seems” Mountain Research and Development 16(4): 351-66.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 1989. “The Impact of Large Landslides on Human Settlements at Hopar, Karakoram Himalaya, Northern Pakistan” Annals of Glaciology13: 185-89.

Book Chapters:

  • MacDonald, K. I. 2014. Scales of Environmental Governance and the Configuration of Transnational Institutional Space. In B. Müller (ed) The Anthropology of International Organizations: The Inner Workings of a Global Ideal. London: Pluto Press. Pp. 227-254.
  • MacDonald, K. I. with Corson, C. 2014. (with Catherine Corson) Orchestrating Nature: Ethnographies of Nature™ Inc. In B Büscher , W. Dressler and R. Fletcher, (eds) Nature™ Inc: New Frontiers of Environmental Conservation in the Neoliberal Age. London: Oxford University Press
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2008. Baltistan as a Contact Zone: The Use of Space in the Negotiation of Identity. In Israr-ud-Din (ed) Proceedings of the Third International Hindu Kush Cultural Conference. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2004. Developing ‘Nature’: Global Ecology and the Politics of Conservation In Northern Pakistan.  In James Carrier (ed) Confronting Environments: Local Environmental Understanding In A Globalising World. Lantham: AltaMira Press.
  • MacDonald, K. I. 2002. “Producing ‘The Karakoram’” In Proceedings of the International Mountain Research Workshop, Autrans, France. 3-7 June 2000 Grenoble: Grenoble Pôle Européen Universitaire et Scientifique/Institut de géographie alpine.

Awards & recognition

  • 2008 SSHRC Grants in Aid of Workshops and Conferences. $18, 000.
  • 2008 The Christensen Fund, Werner Gren Foundation, National Science Foundation (with Eleanor Sterling, American Museum of Natural History, Luisa Maffi, Terra Lingua) $180, 000.
  • 2007 University of Toronto Connaught New Staff Matching Grant. $55, 026.