The Global Risk Governance programme (GRG) is a research programme, co-directed by Professor Clifford Shearing and Dr Annette Hübschle, Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town. The programme's research activities are focused on understanding the new, and emerging, harms and risk landscapes that are shaping 21 Century securities. Of particular concern are the environmental insecurities associated with the impacts of industrialisation on earth systems as well as those of emerging and new technologies including Artificial Intelligence systems. A defining feature of the GRG’s research is its regulatory focus, the interdisciplinary nature of its research teams and its collaborative approach. Across its research groups, GRG researchers and fellows investigate how emerging harmscapes are produced and governed, whose knowledge and interests shape regulatory responses, and how more just, inclusive and reparative futures might be created.
Environmental and Planetary Futures programme
The Environmental and Planetary Futures Research Group undertakes rigorous, independent social science research on environmental harm, illegal economies and their governance. Particular areas of focus include legal and illegal wildlife economies, criminalization and contested regulation, pragmatic conservation, socioecological harm reduction and the roles of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conservation governance.
Our research examines how environmental harms are produced across interconnected legal, grey and illegal economies, and identifies context-sensitive interventions capable of disrupting harmful activities, strengthening legitimate alternatives and supporting repair. This work forms part of GRG’s wider research on harmscapes: the social, ecological, political and technological landscapes across which harms accumulate, intersect and are contested.
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AI Harmscapes and Governance Research Group
The AI Harmscapes and Governance Research Group examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping safety, peace, security and governance. Through harmscape and whole-of-society mapping, we trace how AI-related harms emerge across technological systems, institutions, communities and environments, while identifying pathways towards accountability, safeguarding and repair. The group contributes to UCT’s AI Initiative and the African Hub on AI Safety, Peace and Security, where Dr Annette Hübschle serves as Safeguarding and Ethics Lead.
The Vulnerabilities and Resilience Programme
The Vulnerabilities and Resilience Programme examines emerging harmscapes associated with the Anthropocene and the Novacene, including the digital sphere, which generate new forms of human and non-human vulnerability. Through interdisciplinary and empirically grounded research, the programme investigates how these harmscapes are governed and how local and Indigenous knowledge can inform more just and effective responses. Its work identifies ways to mitigate harm and strengthen community and institutional capacities for resilience.
Outreach:
Environmental Entrepreneurs Support Initiative
EESI is a community engagement initiative, supported by, and undertaken in conjunction with, the Mauerberger Foundation. The project supports young leaders, who are already realizing socially significant outcomes and who will benefit from support that will further advance these outcomes and enhance their leadership capacities.