EXALT Podcast

This month we are delighted to be joined by Amber Huff, who is a is a research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies and the coordinator of the Centre for Future Natures at the University of Sussex. Amber is a political ecologist and social anthropologist, who focuses on the crisis of, and the stories we tell in the Anthropocene in relation to the common(s) and enclosure. She helps to highlight the big stories we are being told in an era of extended crisis at many different levels, from the high-level discourses to the on ground lived experiences in place. She asks questions like: what does it look like and feel like in the era of extended crisis, how does this affect us physically and mentally. Amber has conducted research in Madagascar, Kenya, South Africa, the Southern United States and the United Kingdom. Join us for this exciting conversation!Want to learn about Amber’s work? Check out her profile, project webpages, and the referenced keynote here:Amber’s University profile https://www.ids.ac.uk/people/amber-huff/ Future Natures https://futurenatures.org/REPAiR Project (Resilient and Equitable Nature-based Pathways in Southern African Rangelands) https://repairproject.org/Keynote at the TreesForDev & REMM Project, Spring Symposium 2026 https://youtu.be/ZGSHHBZW0Ek?si=oAjz46eLynyJzof3 

We are very excited to be joined by our colleague from the University of Jyväskylä, Bonn Juego. Bonn is a political economist, Senior Lecturer in International Development Studies, and the four-term Chair of the Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR).Above all, Bonn considers himself a “student of capitalism”—investigating its political-economic, geopolitical, socio-ecological, and technological dimensions. His work bridges global political economy, heterodox economics, and post-colonialism, offering critical insights into the phenomena of “authoritarian neoliberalism” (i.e., a neoliberal economy embedded in the politics of authoritarianism) and “authoritarian populism” (i.e., the popular legitimacy given to anti-democratic personalities and practices), while contributing to conceptualizations of “securitization” (i.e., the dominance of security institutions and agents over societal spheres) and “just sustainability” (i.e., sustainable futures firmly grounded in the principle of justice).In this wide-ranging conversation, Bonn shares his personal and intellectual journey from the Philippines and Malaysia to Estonia, Denmark, and Finland, reflecting on his consciousness formation through lived experiences, progressive mentorship, and pivotal moments that shaped his worldview. He also expands our understanding of extractivisms today by sharing ideas from his contemporary endeavors and writings: examining rent-seeking and extractivist activities of governance elites and the oligarchic class; interrogating the historical-structural link of capitalist development with war and conflict, whereby valuable nature and human beings are prematurely disposed of and profitably transformed into wasted lives and into wasteful things; drawing on his recent policy study on worker and data extractivism in the interplay between labor and technology under conditions of competition-driven AI and other new technical innovations; and reflecting on his ongoing project studying the transnational recruitment and migration of Filipino nurses to the Finnish healthcare system—exposing the contradictions, devaluation, racialization, and inequalities in extractive transnational care relations and the crisis of social reproduction in both a Global South nation and a Nordic welfare state.Confronting complex global crises, Bonn leaves us with a reflexive framework for activist scholarship, taking a cue from Gramsci's “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” He makes an inspiring appeal to treat development studies as a prefigurative discipline of conscience—emphasizing means-ends consistency, everyday ethical action, and the indispensable power of collective movements in making a difference.Want to learn more about Bonn's work? Check out his academic profile here: https://www.jyu.fi/en/people/bonn-juego

This month we were delighted to be joined by our colleague Jenni Viitala. Jenni did her PhD at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Helsinki and is currently working on a post-doc at Aalto University. In this episode, Jenni tells us about the work she undertook during her doctorate. This monograph explored how and where planetary metal supply chains connect and disconnect. In particular, Jenni looked at what happens in particular spaces of extraction, such as at the physical gold mining site in the Ecuadorian Amazon and where the mined gold is refined in Finland. These two disparate places are intertwined in surprising ways through the workings of the global supply chain and the production of gold. She unpacks how the sites of extraction and refining are co-dependent. These types of connect are underexplored in academic research. Jenni gives us insight into both of the places themselves and their connections and where there is potential for disconnect as well. Join us for this interesting dive into two unique sites involved in global extractivism. Read Jenni’s monograph, Tracing gold : An ethnography across a planetary supply chain, here: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-84-1264-9Check out Jenni’s research profile here: https://www.nodus.aalto.fi/nodusians/jenni-viitala. 

This month we are delighted to be joined by our colleague from Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, María Soledad Paz. Her research looks at the interplay of water and avocado plantations in central Chile. Currently, water is being diverted from rivers to feed the avocados which has deleterious effects on the land and the community that is dependent on the land. Small holder farmers are no longer able to sustain their livelihoods and local production while on the next hill the avocado plantations are thriving because they take the water. This area is an area in Chile where agro-extractivism runs rampant as most of the agricultural produce is exported at the expense of the land and people in place. María introduces us to some of the deeper issues with what is happening where avocados are produced which are not always considered when avocados are being consumed in Europe. We explore this disconnection in depth. Join us for this wide ranging and interesting conversation!Interested to check out María’s work? https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/mar%C3%ADa-soledad-paz/

This month we were delighted to be joined by a colleague from Social and Cultural Anthropology at University of Helsinki. Stefan Millar is a Social Anthropologist who specializes in the state, migration, colonialism, and infrastructures. Stefan is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care. Our conversation focused most directly on Stefan’s PhD research, which examined the role of the state in the context of Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. Stefan has focused on the state and infrastructures within the space of the refugee camp. Stefan gives us insight into his personal trajectory and how he got interested in the long durée implications of colonialism. In his current work in Kenya, he is looking at urban infrastructures that refugees create to mitigate the end of aid (US Aid and the withdrawal of European aid), especially in relation to food and water. Stefan is interested in how people navigate this context and what alternatives they develop to continue surviving under the conditions of redistribution of aid. On the theoretical side, we talked extensively about Stefan’s critique of Giorgio Agamben’s state of exception. Join us for this layered and exciting conversation!Interested to learn more about Stefan’s work? https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/people/people-finder/stefan-millar-9472907 Want to read Stefan’s PhD dissertation? https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/files/254098602/1._EncampedStatesMillar.pdf KANERE, Kakuma based journalism:https://kanere.org/about-kakuma-refugee-camp/KRIN, network for Kakuma based refugee-led organizations:https://reframe.network/rlo/kakuma-kalobeyei-refugee-led-initiatives-kkrin