Tor A Benjaminsen

Tor A Benjaminsen

Professor

  • Institutt for internasjonale miljø- og utviklingsstudier, Noragric

Tor A. Benjaminsen is Professor of Environment and Development Studies. He has a Cand. Scient. in Resource Geography and Landscape Ecology (University of Oslo, 1988) and a PhD in Geography and Development Studies (Roskilde University, 1998). His research is framed within a broad political ecology perspective, and he is in particular interested in the material and discursive aspects of environmental change and land-use conflicts. The main themes he has worked on are ‘desertification’ in the West African Sahel; climate change and violent conflicts; the Jihadist insurgency in Mali; protected areas in Africa; agrarian change and pastoralism in Africa; formalisation of land rights; and Sámi reindeer pastoralism and state governance in northern Norway. He was for 6 years Associate Editor of the journal Political Geography and was also a Lead Author of the 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC. In 2016, he recieved a Toppforsk Grant from FRIPRO/Research Council of Norway for a five year project on Greenmentality: A Political Ecology of the Green Economy in the Global South. In 2022, he also received an ERC Advanced Grant for another five year project (Landresponse) to investigate the political ecology of conflict and migration in the West African Sahel. He also coordinates the Political Ecology Forum at NMBU.

    • Political ecology
  • Liste med publikasjoner fra min forskning. (Cristin)

    Articles in refereed journals:

    2022: Buhaug, H., T. A. Benjaminsen, E. A. Gilmore and C. S. Hendrix. Climate-driven risks to peace over the 21st century. Climate Risk Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2022.100471.

    2022: Benjaminsen, T. A., H. Svarstad and I. Shaw of Tordarroch. Recognising Recognition in Climate Justice. IDS Bulletin 53 (4). https://bulletin.ids.ac.uk/index.php/idsbo/article/view/3179/3234.

    2021: Benjaminsen, T. A. and B. Ba. Fulani-Dogon Killings in Mali: Farmer-Herder Conflicts as Insurgency and Counterinsurgency. African Security.

    2021: Stringer, L. S., A. Mirzabaev, T. A. Benjaminsen, R. M.B. Harris, M. Jafari,T. K. Lissner, N. Stevens, C. Tirado-von der Pahlen. Climate change impacts on water security in global drylands. One Earth 4(6): 851-864.

    2021: Movik, S., Benjaminsen, T. A. and T. Richardson. Making maps, making claims: the politics and practices of visualisation in environmental governance. Landscape Research 46 (2): 143-151.

    2021: Benjaminsen, T. A. Depicting decline: images and myths in environmental discourse analysis. Landscape Research 46 (2): 211-225.

    2020: Marin, A., E. Sjaastad, T. A. Benjaminsen, M. N. Sara and J. Borgenvik. Productivity beyond density: A critique of management models for reindeer pastoralism in Norway. Pastoralism.

    2020: Cavanagh, C., T. Weldemichel and T. A. Benjaminsen. Gentrifying the African Landscape: The Performance and Powers of for-Profit Conservation on Southern Kenya’s Conservancy Frontier. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 110 (5): 1594-1612.

    2020: Bergius, M., T. A. Benjaminsen, F. Maganga and H. Buhaug. Green economy, degradation narratives, and land-use conflicts in Tanzania. World Development. 129. 2020: Svarstad, H. and T. A. Benjaminsen. Reading radical environmental justice through a political ecology lens. Geoforum 108: 1-11.

    2019: Weldemichel, T., T. A. Benjaminsen, C. Cavanagh and H. Lein. Conservation: Beyond population growth. Science 365 (6449): 133.

    2019: Benjaminsen, T. A. and P. Hiernaux. From desiccation to global climate change: A history of the desertification narrative in the West African Sahel, 1900-2018. Global Environment 12 (1): 206-236.

    2019: Neimark, B., J. Childs, A. Nightingale, C. Cavanagh, S. Sullivan, T. A. Benjaminsen, S. Batterbury, S. Koot and W. Harcourt. Speaking power to ‘post-truth’: critical political ecology and the new authoritarianism. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 109 (2): 613-623.

    2019: Rai, N., T. A. Benjaminsen, S. Krishnan and C. Madegowda. Political ecology of tiger conservation in India: Adverse effects of banning customary practices in a protected area. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 40 (1): 124-139.

    2019: Benjaminsen, T. A. and B. Ba. Why do pastoralists in Mali join jihadist groups? A political ecological explanation. Journal of Peasant Studies 46 (1): 1-20.

    2018: Svarstad, H., T. A. Benjaminsen and R. Overå. Power theories in political ecology Journal of Political Ecology 25 (1): 350-363. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23044

    2018: Benjaminsen, T. A. and H. Svarstad. REDD og norsk klimakolonialisme i Tanzania. Internasjonal Politikk 76 (1): 24-46. https://tidsskriftet-ip.no/index.php/intpol/article/view/654

    2018: Bergius, M., T. A. Benjaminsen and M. Widgren. Green economy, Scandinavian investments and agricultural modernization in Tanzania. Journal of Peasant Studies. 45 (4): 825-852.

    2017: Svarstad, H. and T. A. Benjaminsen. Nothing succeeds like success narratives: a case of conservation and development in the time of REDD. Journal of Eastern African Studies 11 (3): 482-505.

    2017: Cavanagh, C. and T. A. Benjaminsen. Political ecology, variegated green economies, and the foreclosure of alternative sustainabilities. Journal of Political Ecology 24: 200-216.

    2017: Johnsen, K. I. and T. A. Benjaminsen. The art of governing and everyday resistance: “rationalization” of Sámi reindeer husbandry in Norway since the 1970s. Acta Borealia 34 (1): 1-25.

    2015: Buhaug, H., T. A. Benjaminsen, E. Sjaastad and O. M. Theisen. Climate variability, food production shocks, and violent conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. Environmental Research Letters 10 (12) http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/125015

    2015: Mariki, S., H. Svarstad and T. A. Benjaminsen. Elephants over the Cliff: Explaining Wildlife Killings in Tanzania. Land Use Policy 44: 19-30.

    2015: Reinert, H. and T. A. Benjaminsen. Conceptualising resilience in Norwegian Sámi reindeer pastoralism. Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses 3(2): 1-18.

    2015: Benjaminsen, T. A., H. Reinert, E. Sjaastad and M. N. Sara. Misreading the Arctic landscape: A political ecology of reindeer, carrying capacities and ‘overstocking’ in Finnmark, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geography 69 (4): 219-229.

    2015: Johnsen, K. I., T. A. Benjaminsen and I. M. G. Eira. Seeing like the state or like pastoralists? Conflicting narratives on the governance of Sámi reindeer husbandry in Finnmark, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geography 69 (4): 230-241.

    2015: Benjaminsen, T. A. and P. Robbins. Nordic political ecologies. Norwegian Journal of Geography 69 (4): 191-196. 2015: C. Cavanagh and T. A. Benjaminsen. Guerrilla agriculture? A biopolitical guide to illicit cultivation within an IUCN Category II protected area. Journal of Peasant Studies 42 (3-4): 725-745.

    2014: C. Cavanagh and T. A. Benjaminsen. Virtual nature, violent accumulation: The ‘spectacular failure’ of carbon offsetting at a Ugandan National Park. Geoforum 56: 55-65.

    2013: T. Sikor, G. Auld, A. J. Bebbington, T. A. Benjaminsen, B. S. Gentry, C. Hunsberger, A. M. Izac, M. E. Margulis, T. Plieninger, H. Schroeder and C. Upton. Global environmental governance: From territory to flow? Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5: 522-527.

    2013: D. Gautier, T. A. Benjaminsen, L. Gazull and M. Antona. Neoliberal forest reform in Mali: Adverse affects of a World Bank “success”. Society and Natural Resources 26: 702-716.

    2013: Benjaminsen, T. A., M. Goldman, M. Minwary and F. Maganga. Wildlife management in Tanzania: State control, rent seeking and community resistance. Development and Change 44 (5): 1-23.

    2012: T. A. Benjaminsen and I. Bryceson. Conservation, green/blue grabbing and accumulation by dispossession in Tanzania. Journal of Peasant Studies 39 (2): 335-355.

    2012: T. A. Benjaminsen, K. Alinon, H. Buhaug and J. T. Buseth. Does climate change drive land-use conflicts in the Sahel? Journal of Peace Research 49 (1): 97-111.

    2011: T. A. Benjaminsen and R. Overå. Environmental governance – discourses/science/policies. Forum for Development Studies 38 (3): 235-238.

    2010: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. The death of an elephant: Conservation discources versus practices in Africa. Forum for Development Studies 37 (3): 385-408.

    2010: T. A. Benjaminsen, J. Aune and D. Sidibé. A critical political ecology of cotton and soil fertility in Mali. Geoforum 41 (4) : 647-656.

    2010: M. Lange Vik, T. A. Benjaminsen and K. Daugstad. Synergy or marginalisation ? Narratives of farming and tourism in Geiranger, western Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geography 64 : 36-47.

    2009: T. A. Benjaminsen, and H. Svarstad. Questioning conservation practice – and its response : the establishment of Namaqua National Park in South Africa. Current Conservation 3 (http://www.currentconservation.org).

    2009: T. A. Benjaminsen. Klima og konflikter i Sahel – eller politikk og vitenskap ved klimaets nullpunkt. Internasjonal Politikk 2: 151-172.

    2009: T. A. Benjaminsen, F. P. Maganga and J. M. Abdallah. The Kilosa Killings: Political ecology of a farmer-herder conflict in Tanzania. Development and Change 40 (3): 423-445.

    2009: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. Qu’est-ce que la ”political ecology”? Natures Sciences Sociétés 17: 3-11.

    2009: T. A. Benjaminsen and B. Ba. Farmer-herder conflicts, pastoral marginalisation and corruption: a case study from the inland Niger delta of Mali. The Geographical Journal 175 (1): 71-81.

    2009: T. A. Benjaminsen, S. Holden, Chr. Lund and E. Sjaastad. Formalisation of land rights: Some empirical evidence from Mali, Niger and South Africa. Land Use Policy 26 (1): 28-35.

    2008: T. A. Benjaminsen. Does supply-induced scarcity drive violent conflicts in the African Sahel? The case of the Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali. Journal of Peace Research 45 (6): 831-848.

    2008: T. A. Benjaminsen and E. Sjaastad. Where to draw the line: The mapping of land rights in a South African commons. Political Geography 27 (3): 263-279. 2008: T. A. Benjaminsen, T. Kepe and S. Bråthen. Between global interests and local needs: Conservation and land reform in Namaqualand, South Africa. Africa 78 (2): 221-244. (see also http://c3.unu.edu/plec/).

    2008: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. Understanding traditionalist opposition to modernisation: Narrative production in a Norwegian mountain conflict. Geografiska Annaler Series B, Human Geography 90 (1): 49-62.

    2008: J. Pedersen and T. A. Benjaminsen. One leg or two? Food security and pastoralism in the northern Sahel. Human Ecology 36 (1): 43-57.

    2007: T. A. Benjaminsen and E. Sjaastad. Transactions foncières et appropriation de la rente foncière dans la zone cotonnière du Mali. Recherches Africaines, 06 - 2007. http://www.recherches-africaines.net/document.php?id=1201. ISSN 1817-423X.

    2007: T. A. Benjaminsen, B. Derman and E. Sjaastad. Exploring new understandings of resource tenure and reform in the context of globalisation. Introduction to special issue of Land Use Policy 24 (4): 611-612.

    2006: T. A. Benjaminsen, R.F. Rohde, E. Sjaastad, P. Wisborg and T. Lebert. Land reform, range ecology, and carrying capacities in Namaqualand, South Africa. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 96 (3): 524-540.

    2005: R. Kaarhus, T.A. Benjaminsen, A. Hellum and I. Ikdahl. Women's Land Rights in Tanzania and South Africa: A Human Rights Based Perspective on Formalisation. Forum for Development Studies 32 (2): 443-482.

    2005: J. Ali, T.A. Benjaminsen, A.A. Hammad and Ø. Dick. The road to deforestation: An assessment of forest loss and its causes in Basho valley, northern Pakistan. Global Environmental Change 15: 370-380.

    2004: T. A. Benjaminsen and G. Berge. Myths of Timbuktu. From African El Dorado to Desertification. International Journal of Political Economy. 34(1): 31-59.

    2004: J. Ali and T.A. Benjaminsen. Fuelwood, timber and deforestation in the Himalayas. The case of Basho valley, Baltistan region, Pakistan. Mountain Research and Development. 24(4): 312-318.

    2002: T. A. Benjaminsen and Chr. Lund. Formalisation and informalisation of land and water rights in Africa: An introduction. European Journal of Development Research. 14 (2): 1-10.

    2002: T. A. Benjaminsen and E. Sjaastad. Race for the prize: Land transactions and rent appropriation in the Malian cotton zone. European Journal of Development Research. 14 (2): 129-152.

    2002: E. Hongslo and T.A. Benjaminsen. Turning landscapes into 'nothing': A narrative on land reform in Namibia. Forum for Development Studies. 29 (2): 321-347.

    2002: T. A. Benjaminsen. Enclosing the land: cotton, population growth and tenure in Mali. Norwegian Journal of Geography. 56, pp. 1-9. 2002: H. P. Andersen and T. A. Benjaminsen. Lærerstudenters myter om befolkning og miljø. Norwegian Journal of Geography. 56: 41-43.

    2001: T. A. Benjaminsen. The Population - Agriculture - Environment Nexus in the Malian Cotton Zone. Global Environmental Change. 11 (4): 27-39.

    2001: W. N.Adger, T. A. Benjaminsen, K. Brown and H. Svarstad. Advancing a Political Ecology of Global Environmental Discourses. Development and Change. 32: 681-715.

    1997: T. A. Benjaminsen. Is there a fuelwood crisis in rural Mali? GeoJournal. 43: 163-174.

    1997: T. A. Benjaminsen. Natural resource management, paradigm shifts and the decentralization reform in Mali. Human Ecology. 25 (1): 121-143.

    1996: T. A. Benjaminsen. Bois-énergie, déboisement et sécheresse au Sahel. Le cas du Gourma malien. Sécheresse. 7 (3): 179-185.

    1993: T. A. Benjaminsen. Fuelwood and desertification: Sahel orthodoxies discussed on the basis of field data from the Gourma region in Mali. Geoforum. 24 (4): 397-409.

    Books:

    2021. T. A. Benjaminsen & H. Svarstad. Political Ecology: A Critical Engagement with Global Environmental Issues London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen, I. M. Gaup Eira and M. N. Sara (eds.). Samisk reindrift, norske myter. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2012: D. Gautier and T. A. Benjaminsen (eds). Environnement, discours et pouvoir. L’approche Political ecology. Montpellier: Quae. (252 pp)

    2010: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. Politisk økologi. Miljø, mennesker og makt. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. (251 pp) Revised edition in 2017.

    2004: T. A. Benjaminsen and G. Berge.Une historie de Tombouctou. Arles: Actes Sud. (187 pp.).

    2003: T. A. Benjaminsen and Chr. Lund (eds.). Securing land rights in Africa. London: Frank Cass. (175 pp.)

    2002: T. A. Benjaminsen, B. Cousins and L. Thompson (eds.). Contested resources: Challenges to the governance of natural resources in Southern Africa. Cape Town: University of the Western Cape. (398 pp.)

    2001: T. A. Benjaminsen and Chr. Lund (eds.). Politics, property and production in the West African Sahel. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute. (333 pp.). 2000: T. A. Benjaminsen and G. Berge.Timbuktu. Myter, mennesker, miljø. Oslo: Spartacus. (130 pp, ill.).

    1998: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad (eds.). Samfunnsperspektiver på miljø og utvikling. Oslo: Tano-Aschehoug (400 pp). Revised edition in 2002 published by Universitetsforlaget.

    Book chapters:

    2022: C. Cavanagh and T. A. Benjaminsen. Conservation, Land Dispossession, and Resistance in Africa. The Oxford Handbook of the Land Politics. Oxford University Press.

    2021: T. A. Benjaminsen. Climate change and human conflict in the Sahel. In The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel. Oxford University Press.

    2020: T. A. Benjaminsen. Den samiske reindriften – modernisering, makt og miljø. In J. Aasetre and J. Cruickshank (eds) Innføring i miljø- og ressursgeografi. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2019: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. Political Ecology. Encyclopedia of Ecology, Volume 4, 2019, Pages 391-396. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780124095489106086?via%253Dihub.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen. Does Climate Change Lead to Conflicts in the Sahel? In: Behnke R., Mortimore M. (eds) The End of Desertification?. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen. Water, labour and politics: Land-use dynamics along the Niger river in Mali. In: Tvedt, T. and T. Oestigaard (eds) A History of Water, series III, vol 3 Water and Food. London: I. B. Tauris.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen, I. M. Gaup Eira, E. Reinert, H. Reinert, M. N. Sara and H. Svarstad. Reindrift, makt og myter. In: Benjaminsen, T. A., I. M. Gaup Eira and M. N. Sara (eds) Samisk reindrift, norske myter. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen, J. Borgenvik, E. Sjaastad and A. Marin. Reintetthet, produktivitet og effektivisering: Om modeller, forskning og politikk. In: Benjaminsen, T. A., I. M. Gaup Eira and M. N. Sara (eds) Samisk reindrift, norske myter. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen, M. N. Sara and E. Sjaastad. Myten om overbeiting på Finnmarksvidda. In: Benjaminsen, T. A., I. M. Gaup Eira and M. N. Sara (eds) Samisk reindrift, norske myter. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2016: T. A. Benjaminsen, I. M. Gaup Eira, K. I. Johnsen, E. Reinert, H. Reinert, M. N. Sara, E. Sjaastad and H. Svarstad. Samisk reindrift - norsk forvaltning. In: Benjaminsen, T. A., I. M. Gaup Eira and M. N. Sara (eds) Samisk reindrift, norske myter. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2015: T. A. Benjaminsen. Political ecologies of environmental degradation and marginalization. In: Perreault, T., G. Bridge and J. McCarthy (eds) The Routledge Handbook of political ecology. London: Routledge.

    2012: D. Gautier and T. A. Benjaminsen. Introduction à la political ecology. In: Gautier, D. and T. A. Benjaminsen (eds). Montpellier: Quae.

    2012: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. Discours et pratiques de conservation en Afrique. In: Gautier, D. and T. A. Benjaminsen (eds). Montpellier: Quae.

    2012: T. A. Benjaminsen. Changements climatiques et conflits au Sahel. In: Gautier, D. and T. A. Benjaminsen (eds). Montpellier: Quae.

    2011: T. A. Benjaminsen. A critical political ecology of population growth, markets and land in Africa. In: Kjosavik, D. J. and P. Vedeld (eds) The Political Economy of Environment and Development in a Globalised World. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

    2010: J. Pedersen and T. A. Benjaminsen. Food security and pastoralism in the northern Sahel. In Bates, D. and J. Tucker (eds). Human Ecology. Contemporary Research and Practice. New York: Springer.

    2003: T. A. Benjaminsen and Chr. Lund. Formalisation and informalisation of land and water rights in Africa: An introduction. In: Benjaminsen, T. A. and Chr. Lund (eds) Securing Land Rights in Africa. London: Frank Cass.

    2003: T. A. Benjaminsen and E. Sjaastad. Race for the prize: Land transactions and rent appropriation in the Malian cotton zone. In: Benjaminsen, T. A. and Chr. Lund (eds) Securing Land Rights in Africa. London: Frank Cass.

    2002: R. H. Rohde, T. A. Benjaminsen and M. T. Hoffman. Land reform in Namaqualand: Poverty alleviation, stepping stones and 'economic units'. Benjaminsen, T. A., B. Cousins and L. Thompson (eds) Contested Resources: Challenges to the Governance of Natural Resources in Southern Africa. Cape Town: University of the Western Cape.

    2001: T. A. Benjaminsen and Chr. Lund. Politics, property and production: Understanding natural resources management in the West African Sahel. In: Benjaminsen, T. A. and Chr. Lund (eds.). Politics, property and production in the West African Sahel. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

    2001: T. A. Benjaminsen. The Malian cotton zone: Economic success, but environmental failure? In: Benjaminsen, T. A. and Chr. Lund (eds.). Politics, property and production in the West African Sahel. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

    2000: T. A. Benjaminsen. Conservation in the Sahel: Policies and people in Mali, 1900-1998. In: Broch-Due, V. and R. Schroeder (eds). Producing Poverty and Nature in Africa. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

    1998: T. A. Benjaminsen and H. Svarstad. Miljø, utvikling og samfunnsvitenskap. In: Benjaminsen, T. A. and H. Svarstad (eds) Samfunnsperspektiver på miljø og utvikling. Oslo: Tana Aschehoug.

    1998: T. A. Benjaminsen. Befolkning, landbruk og miljø. In: Benjaminsen, T. A. and H. Svarstad (eds) Samfunnsperspektiver på miljø og utvikling. Oslo: Tana Aschehoug.

  • EDS 130 Introduction to political ecology

    EDS 330 Political ecology

  • Forskningsprosjekter med nettside utenfor NMBU