Bjorn Sletto

Bjørn Sletto received his doctorate in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. He has a master’s degree in Geography from the University of Kansas and a BA in Journalism from the University of Minnesota. A native of Ål, Norway, Bjørn has more than 20 years’ experience living and working in Latin America and the Caribbean. His research focuses on indigenous resource management, sustainable development, and environmental planning in Latin America. He is particularly interested in the dichotomies and tensions between local knowledge and traditional environmental management systems, and formal planning and management approaches. During the past few years, he lived in indigenous villages and border cities in Venezuela, investigating conflicts associated with fire management and leading a participatory mapping project to assist with the demarcation of the land of the indigenous Pemon.

His current research focuses on indigenous land rights and environmental conflict in the Perija mountains on the Colombia-Venezuela border, and the ways in which these issues articulate with environmental planning and environmental justice in the Lake Maracaibo region. He is also engaged with research on community development in Maracaibo as a Research Associate with the Universidad del Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Bjørn is still involved with indigenous, participatory mapping as an Affiliated Investigator with the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas in Caracas, Venezuela, and through his teaching and conference activities. His domestic projects include participatory research with the environmental justice organization PODER in East Austin, focusing on children’s perceptions and knowledge of environmental hazards and the planning implications of environmental justice activism in Austin.

Bjørn teaches Geographic Information Systems, environmental planning, environmental justice, public space theory, and Latin American planning and development in the Program in Community and Regional Planning. In spring 2007, his students in CRP 386: Applied GIS and Environmental Justice, were awarded a MYCOE grant from the Association of American Geographers and presented their research at the annual meeting of the AAG in San Francisco. The class produced a Community Information System to document, represent and address environmental justice issues in East Austin. Again in spring 2010, his class again partnered with the environmental justice organization PODER and conducted a community-based design study of the Pure Casting site near Zavala Elementary School. His students in CRP 383: Urban Environmental Analysis developed an urban forestry project with the Hyde Park Neighborhood Organization, working closely with community members to assess the perceptions and planning priorities associated with urban tree management. In spring 2008, his CRP 386: Applied GIS and Environmental Justice class conducted a participatory assessment of risk and vulnerability in an informal settlement in Santo Domingo. This work continued in spring 2010 with the development of a participatory solid waste management plan. In spring 2009, students in his CRP: Social Life of Public Places documented some of the many histories and narratives about Waller Creek and the multiple publics who use this area, including homeless residents.

Bjørn is an associated faculty member in the Department of Geography and the Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), University of Texas.

COURSES

• CRP 383: Urban Environmental Analysis (Env_Analysis_383.pdf, 176kb)
• CRP 385C: Planning and Development in Latin America (LA_Planning_385C.pdf, 123kb)
• CRP 386: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS_student_projects1.jpg, 836kb) (GIS_student_projects2.jpg, 920kb)
• CRP 386: Applied GIS: Participatory Approaches to Environmental Justice (CRP386_Applied_GIS_Syllabus_Spring2008.pdf, 247kb)
• CRP 386: Latin America Planning Studio (LA_Planning_Studio_Syllabus_Spring2010.pdf, 193kb)
• CRP 385C: Right to the City: Social, Spatial and Environmental Justice (CRP385C_EJ_Syllabus_Spring2010.pdf, 269kb)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• The Mythical Forest, the Becoming-Desert: Environmental Knowledge Production and the Iconography of Destruction in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 (2010): 672-690. (Final_EandP_Fall2010.pdf, 207kb).
• Apök hace feliz a Patá: Sugerencias y retos para una gestión intercultural del fuego en la Gran Sabana. Antropológica LIII n° 111-112 (2010): 149-191. (Antropologica_RodriguezSletto2009.pdf, 602kb).
• Autogestión en representaciones espaciales indígenas y el rol de la capacitación y concientización: el caso del Proyecto Etnocartográfico Inna Kowantok, Sector 5 Pemón (Kavanayén-Mapauri), La Gran Sabana. Antropológica LIII n° 113 (2010): 43-75. (Final_Revista_Antrop_Pemon_Mapping.pdf, 4.55mb).
• Education of Self and Others: Narrative, Critical Reflexivity and Knowledge Production in Service Learning. Journal of Planning Education and Research 29(4) (2010): 403–415. (Published_JPER_2010.pdf, 216kb).
• "We Drew What We Imagined:" Participatory Mapping, Performance, and the Arts of Landscape Making. Current Anthropology 50 (2009): 443-476. (Sletto_CA_August_2009.pdf, 1646kb)
• "Indigenous people don't have boundaries": reborderings, fire management, and productions of authenticities in indigenous landscapes. Cultural Geographies 16 (2009): 253-277. (Cult_Geogr_Article_April2009.pdf, 485kb)
• The Knowledge that Counts: Institutional Identities, Policy Science, and the Conflict over Fire Management in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela. World Development 36 (October 2008): 1938-1955. (Sletto_2008_World-Development.pdf, 607kb)
• Producing Space(s), Representing Landscapes: A Lefebvrian Approach to Resource Conflicts. Cultural Geographies 9 (2002): 389-420. (Cult_Geogr_article.pdf, 1658kb)
• A Swamp and Its Subjects: Conservation Politics, Surveillance and Resistance in Trinidad, the West Indies. Geoforum 36 (January 2005): 77-93. (Geoforum_Article.pdf, 342kb)
• Autodemarcación del Sector Kavanayen: Informe Final. Proyecto Etnocartográfico Inna Kowantok. Kumarakapay, Venezuela 2004. (Informe_Final_Sector5.pdf, 3197kb)
• Mapping the Gran Sabana. Americas Magazine 57, Organization of American States (November 2005). (Americas_GranSabana.pdf, 1460kb).

VIDEOS

• Las Callecitas y la Cañada
  • English version
  • Spanish version
• Inna Kowantok
  • English version
  • Spanish version