The “Conversations that Matter” series, organised by the RLC Campus Santa Cruz in cooperation with the Right Livelihood Foundation, was back after the summer break on October 6, 2020

In the already 7th edition, Right Livelihood Award Laureates Medha Patkar (India) and Nnimmo Bassey (Nigeria) engaged in a global dialogue on livelihoods, solidarity and transformation. Swati Banerjee, Professor at the Tata Institute for Social Science in Mumbai and coordinator of the RLC Campus Mumbai, and Megan Moodie, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, moderated the conversation.

Here’s the full recording of the dialogue.

About the event:

Urgent and complex global problems of modern times including, COVID 19 at one end and the sharpening of inequities on the other is creating multiple marginalities and livelihood insecurities. This calls for a deeper understanding of the society and the need to reimagine strategies for sustaining local livelihood practices and creating global solidarities for social transformation that envisions the ideas of justice and equity. The global dialogues on livelihoods, solidarity, and transformation is an effort in this direction to surface such urgent questions in this arena to build that collective global dialogue towards co-production of ‘knowledges’. 

About the Laureates and moderators

Nnimmo Bassey’s indefatigable work with national and international organizations has turned him into one of Africa’s leading advocates and campaigners for the environment and human rights. Bassey has stood up against the practice of multinational corporations in his country and the environmental devastation they leave behind, destroying the lives and ignoring the rights of the local population.

Medha Patkar is co-founder of The Save the Narmada Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan, NBA), the people’s movement that has mobilised itself in opposition to the disastrous Narmada Valley dam projects and promoted alternatives to benefit the poor and the environment. She remains one of its main catalysts, strategists and mobilisers.

Swati Banerjee is professor and chairperson at the Centre for Livelihoods and Social Innovation, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and coordinator of the Right Livelihood College at TISS.

Megan Moodie is Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, specializing in feminist political and legal anthropology and experimental ethnographic writing, and co-director of the Center for South Asian Studies.