Research Interests
I am interested in the politics of nature and the economic life of marginalized groups. My recent research focuses on the social relations of power, knowledge, and technology that are involved in establishing carbon offsets among indigenous smallholders in Costa Rica.
Carbon offsets are a "market-based" conservation mechanism where farmers receive payments from "upstream" carbon polluters for planting carbon-capturing trees on their land. I explore how gender differences, uneven patterns of land accumulation, and non-market forms of labor produce a complex and uneven terrain of land use practices; how these practices are interpreted by scientists and economists in the process of creating a carbon "price tag" for land use changes; and the resulting impacts of this process on indigenous land use and livelihoods.
In short, I am interested in how knowledge about indigenous agriculture is produced, how this results in specific commodity forms, and the uneven impacts of this in communities where access to land and labor is marked by differences in gender and ethnicity.
I have also done research concerning economic interactions between plantations and smallholders as well as work on the relation between social capital and conservation territories. I have conducted research in Honduras and Costa Rica.
Carbon offsets are a "market-based" conservation mechanism where farmers receive payments from "upstream" carbon polluters for planting carbon-capturing trees on their land. I explore how gender differences, uneven patterns of land accumulation, and non-market forms of labor produce a complex and uneven terrain of land use practices; how these practices are interpreted by scientists and economists in the process of creating a carbon "price tag" for land use changes; and the resulting impacts of this process on indigenous land use and livelihoods.
In short, I am interested in how knowledge about indigenous agriculture is produced, how this results in specific commodity forms, and the uneven impacts of this in communities where access to land and labor is marked by differences in gender and ethnicity.
I have also done research concerning economic interactions between plantations and smallholders as well as work on the relation between social capital and conservation territories. I have conducted research in Honduras and Costa Rica.
Talking cacao pod (left) reminding a parrot (right) that we are all but tiny units of carbon
Publications
CARBON OFFSETS
Lansing DM. 2012. Performing carbon's materiality: the production of carbon offsets and the framing of exchange. Environment and Planning A 44(1): 204-220. Link
Lansing DM. 2011. Realizing carbon's value: discourse and calculation in the production of carbon forestry offsets in Costa Rica. Antipode 43(3): 731-753. Link
Lansing DM. 2010. Carbon's calculatory spaces: the emergence of carbon offsets in Costa Rica. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28(4): 710-725. Link
PAYMENTS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Lansing DM. in press. Understanding linkages between ecosystem service payments, forest plantations, and export agriculture. Geoforum. Link
Lansing DM. in press. Understanding linkages between ecosystem service payments, forest plantations, and export agriculture. Geoforum. Link
Lansing DM. In-press. Understanding smallholder participation in ecosystem service payments: the case of Costa Rica. Human Ecology. Link
Lansing DM. In-press. Unequal access to payments for ecosystem services: the case of Costa Rica. Development and Change. Link
PLANTATIONS AND SMALLHOLDERS
Lansing D, Bidegaray P, Hansen D, McSweeney K. 2008. Placing the plantation in smallholder agriculture: evidence from Costa Rica. Ecological Engineering 34(4): 358-372. Link
Lansing D, Bidegaray P, Hansen D, McSweeney K. 2008. Placing the plantation in smallholder agriculture: evidence from Costa Rica. Ecological Engineering 34(4): 358-372. Link
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND CONSERVATION TERRITORIES
Lansing D. 2009. The spaces of social capital: livelihood geographies and marine conservation in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area, Honduras. Journal of Latin American Geography 8(1): 29-54. Link
Lansing D. 2009. The spaces of social capital: livelihood geographies and marine conservation in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area, Honduras. Journal of Latin American Geography 8(1): 29-54. Link