Workshop on “Making Futures: Green alternatives and STS Interventions”
24-25 November 2017
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
We invite abstracts for a workshop on “Making Future(s): Green alternatives and STS Interventions” which will be held at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, 24-25 November 2017. The workshop is funded by the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST).
During the workshop we want to reflect on problems of environmental degradation and its threat to livelihoods. Remedies to such problems come predominantly in the form of various techno- and market-fixes. Eco-modernist perspectives shape mainstream politics and policies with regard to environment. A good example is the Breakthrough Institute’s Ecomodernist Manifesto (Adafu-Adjaje et al., 2015). Many agendas advocate capitalist ‘acceleration’ in the name of going beyond the current system. These would develop technologies ‘which free us from biological and environmental constraints’, as well as from conventional work (Srnicek and Williams, Accelerationist Manifesto 2013 and Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, 2015). Amidst policy frameworks promoting new infrastructure for economic growth, alternatives propose ‘green infrastructure’ in various forms (e.g. The Case for Green Infrastructure, 2013).
However, alternative visions of the future and solutions to environmental challenges have also been proposed by social movements, local communities and different other kind of social groups and groupings. For example, social movements demand environmental justice and ‘system change’. A number of local communities and indigenous peoples, both in the global North and South, have devised lifestyles according to alternative cosmologies that try to escape capitalist notions of nature, politics and economics. The concept of buen vivir, good life, have become something more than just a slogan inviting to join a consumerist comfort. It has taken shape as an anti-capitalist and environmentalist agenda.
STS has a potential to critically engage with the dominant visions in order to advance politics of creating our common future. Through this workshop we aim to advance STS theoretical and methodological interventions into both reflecting on and making ‘green futures’. The main questions to engage with are:
(1) What theoretical and methodological approaches in STS have proven to be most fruitful for studying how various visions of ‘green futures’ are made and how they stabilize into social orders? We are interested in conceptualizing technologies for making ‘futures’ and ‘the predictions of future’, new agencies, as well as new socio-technical orders, their scales and temporalities.
(2) How can we advance the current STS approaches to studying the making of the future(s)? How to analyse the various socio-political constructs of the ‘uncertain’ and ‘green’ futures that dominate the discussion about creating what comes after the present?
(3) What concepts of nature, technology and society underlie these visions?
(4) How do various remedies for the environmental crisis engage with the neoliberal order of contemporary capitalism, either by strengthening or subverting it? In other words, we are also interested in the politics of making diverse future(s).
The organizing team comprises of local and international scholars actively shaping the field of STS: Aleksandra Lis (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland), Małgorzata Kowalska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland), Piotr Matczak (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland), Agata Stasik (Koźmiński University, Warsaw, Poland) Les Levidow (Open University, UK), Luigi Pellizzoni (University of Pisa)
Invited speaker: Ingmar Lippert (IT-University of Copenhagen)
Deadline for abstracts: May 15th, 2017
300 words, proposing theoretical, empirical and methodological interventions.
Successful applicants will be notified by June 30th, 2017. Full paper drafts should be submitted by November 1st, 2017. A post-workshop publication of the papers is planned.
All paper-giving participants will be hosted at a university housing facility for up to two nights. A limited number of travel bursaries is available upon request.
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 2017
Washington D.C., November 29-December 3
Organizers: Mara Benadusi (University of Catania) and Filippo Zerilli (University of Cagliari)
Environmental crises and related concerns have increased enormously over the past few decades, creating disturbances for human and non-human life on a planetary scale. And yet, simultaneously, this trend is matched by an explosion of attempts to transform exploited sites into zones recovering from ecological disaster by any means necessary. Characterized by multiples and often conflicting moral regimes and economic systems, these ‘friction zones’ are progressively changing under the pressure of two main phenomena: one that entails a re-evaluation of (cultural/natural) ‘heritage’ promoting rhetorical, pragmatic, and political manipulations of the past; the other that features sustainable environmental renewal, promoting an alternative use of natural resources. In cases where heritage status is granted, territories become ‘consecrated’ and conflicts over local politics of history and memory are disguised by a universalistic rhetoric of ‘common good’ for global collectivities. In the latter case, instead, the dimension of environmental ‘sustainability’ assumes a central position, encouraging eco-fantasies and planetary investment in and for the future. While both processes have been carefully scrutinized by recent anthropological literature, their intersections and articulations require further ethnographic as well as theoretical exploration. Heritagization, energopolitics and fantasies of environmental sustainability expose the fractures in neo-liberal economic practice, incorporating universal moral imperatives into their own discourse: in the first case encouraging the preservation of heritage, in the second imagining the safeguarding of the planet. But how do such discourses talk one to each other in actual practice, and how can we possibly grasp their often uneven, unpredictable and multi-scalar connections?
Taking inspiration from emerging ethnographic approaches to ‘global connections’ (A. Tsing), ‘assemblages’ (A. Ong, S. Collier) and strategies of ‘studying through’ (C. Shore & S. Wright), this panel proposes to scrutinize the zones of eco-friction that are formed in these spaces of collision and intersection between global and local pressures, of past and future predicaments, of commitments to protect and commitments to renew. How do politics of the past intersect and articulate with policy and politics of/for the future in these friction-ridden spaces? What specific cultural and historical paths contribute to forging ‘zones of awkward engagement’ with the environment in different ethnographic sites? And what kinds of economic and moral relations stem from the intersection between the entangled phenomena we have mentioned?
We welcome both theoretical and ethnographic contributions, specifically focusing on areas which have been object of intense environmental exploitation and are currently experiencing new forms of discursive and material investment inspired by projects and values of environmental sustainability, heritage conservation and energy-saving.
By Maris783 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsEdited by Robert Byrne, Ulrich Hansen, James Haselip, Ivan Nygaard and David Ockwell
Interested authors should submit an abstract no longer than 350 words to guest editors David Ockwell (D.Ockwell@sussex.ac.uk) and James Haselip (jhas@dtu.dk) with the subject “ERSS Africa Solar Abstract” by April 1, 2017.
The very first special issue (SI) published in ERSS was on “Renewable Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contributions from the Social Sciences” (Vol. 5), covering a range of energy issues and technologies, setting out the broad agenda for social scientists conducting research on renewable energy in Africa (Hancock, 2015). However, the pace and scale at which solar PV technology, in particular, is being diffused across the African continent justifies its own special issue, to explore the dimensions and driving forces of this particular socio-technical transition (the original SI had only one paper focussed on solar PV). In this call for papers, we propose going beyond the previous SI by adopting a perspective explicitly focussed on the neglected socio-cultural and political dimensions of the sustainable energy access problématique – elements the original SI touched on but did not explicitly develop.
Across Africa, market forces are working to complement or replace the role of state and donor agencies in supporting what has previously been considered a ‘niche’ technology – solar PV (Bazilian et al., 2013; Ockwell and Byrne, 2016; Rolffs, Ockwell and Byrne, 2015). This investment is occurring at multiple scales, from the sale of small-scale pico solar products and solar home systems, to mini-grids and large scale multi-megawatt on-grid PV installations (Hansen et al., 2015). However, these trends are manifesting unevenly across political and economic boundaries.
While numerous authors point to the central importance of understanding the political and socio-cultural dimensions to the technological transition taking place across developing countries – albeit in an uneven manner – few authors have explored these aspects in depth, so as to shed light on their determinative force. Indeed, the wider topic of sustainable energy has been predominantly analysed from the perspectives of technological change/innovations and economic feasibility studies, within a field that is still dominated by the disciplines of economics and engineering. This two-dimensional “technology-finance” perspective has resulted in a “scholarly deficit” (Ockwell and Byrne 2016) in research on solar PV, and energy access in developing countries more broadly – this despite the increasingly high profile international policy attention being afforded to the sustainable energy access agenda (e.g. the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All by 2030 initiative and the specific Sustainable Development Goal, SDG7, on sustainable energy access). Equally, it is useful to reflect on the relationship between cultural, political and social transitions themselves, and how these in turn shape, steer and drive market forces and the transition to solar PV technology.
While some recent work in the field of sustainable energy access has witnessed the beginnings of a “socio-cultural turn” (Ockwell and Byrne 2016) – with a small number of contributions (including a handful from the previous ERSS SI on energy access) that operationalize theoretical insights from social anthropology (Winther, 2008; Campbell et al., 2016; Campbell and Sallis, 2013), socio-technical transitions (Ahlborg and Sjöstedt, 2015; Rolffs et al., 2015; Sovacool et al., 2011; Ulsrud et al., 2015; Ulsrud et al., 2011; Hansen and Nygaard, 2014; Nygaard and Hansen, 2016) and common pool resource management perspectives (Gollwitzer et al., 2016) – work on the political aspects of this field is almost non-existent, save from a handful of contributions that deal with energy and climate change more broadly (see, e.g., Shen and Power, 2016; Tyfield et al., 2015; Ahlborg et al., 2015; Newell and Phillips, 2016; Baker et al., 2014; Baker, 2015).
A gap thus exists in understanding the political and socio-cultural dimensions to this rapidly unfolding transition. Detailed analyses can provide insights into the importance and implications of these neglected dimensions in the process of creating or facilitating markets for small scale PV, in adopting certain policy instruments, in initiating, designing, negotiating and constructing large scale PV projects and, critically, in seeking to understand the extent to which poor and marginalised women and men will gain or lose from these different pathways (Leach et al., 2010) to electrification.
As such, we are interested in exploring some of the fundamental development implications of new markets and technology diffusion, e.g. capacity strengthening and the industrial spill-over effects of the transition of solar PV. Such analysis is also important as the transition to sustainable energy access is highly uneven across different continents. Further, it varies sharply within these countries, across urban and rural contexts, and between high and low-income communities (Bridge et al., 2013; Mitchell, 2007). For this special issue, we solicit full-length research articles that are conceptually-led and empirically-grounded, analysing their topics through a range of theoretical fields including sustainability transitions, critical policy studies, political economy perspectives, sociology and anthropology, amongst others. We welcome submissions from researchers whose work:
• Goes beyond an appreciation of the ‘classical’ determinants of technological change as understood in the innovations literature (techno-economic thinking), to explore the more complex and subtle mechanisms of change that are inherently political, socio-cultural and geographical.
• Aims to understand the driving forces, business models, and implications of the emergence of market-led investment in solar power, away from a mainly state and donor-driven model of niche development in African countries.
• Is both academic and of practical value; contributing to an emerging critical literature aimed at challenging the silo treatment of access to sustainable energy as an issue that concerns purely finance and engineering, by reflecting on real-world experience.
• Is able to inform policy makers, energy planning agencies and investors on lessons learned, sharing experiences from similar yet different contexts, central to the UN’s ‘Sustainable Energy for All’ initiative.
Interested authors should submit an abstract no longer than 350 words to guest editors David Ockwell (D.Ockwell@sussex.ac.uk) and James Haselip (jhas@dtu.dk) with the subject “ERSS Africa Solar Abstract” by April 1, 2017.
In the abstract, please include contact information and institutional affiliation. Based on submitted abstracts, the guest editors of this special issue will invite manuscripts for full consideration. Completed draft manuscript drafts of 4000-9000 words are expected by August 1, 2017, after which they will be double-blind peer-reviewed for a final publication decision. The final acceptance deadline is March 1 2018 and the special issue will be published in Volume 39 of the journal, printed in May 2018
References
Ahlborg, H., Boräng, F., Jagers, S. C., & Söderholm, P. (2015). Provision of electricity to African households: The importance of democracy and institutional quality. Energy Policy, 87, 125-135.
Ahlborg, H., & Sjöstedt, M. (2015). Small-scale hydropower in Africa: Socio-technical designs for renewable energy in Tanzanian villages. Energy Research & Social Science, 5, 20-33.
Baker, L., Newell, P., & Phillips, J. (2014). The political economy of energy transitions: The case of South Africa. New Political Economy, 19(6), 791-818.
Baker L. (2015) The evolving role of finance in South Africa’s renewable energy sector. Geoforum 64: 146-156
Bazilian, M., Onyeji, I., Liebreich, M., MacGill, I., Chase, J., Shah, J., … & Zhengrong, S. (2013). Re-considering the economics of photovoltaic power.Renewable Energy, 53, 329-338.
Bridge, G., Bouzarovski, S., Bradshaw, M. and Eyre, N. (2013) Geographies of energy transition: Space, place and the low-carbon economy. Energy Policy, Vol. 53 (pp. 331–340)
Campbell, B., Cloke, J., & Brown, E. (2016). Communities of energy. Economic Anthropology, 3(1), 133-144.
Campbell, B., & Sallis, P. (2013). Low-carbon yak cheese: transition to biogas in a Himalayan socio-technical niche. Interface focus, 3(1), 20120052.
Gollwitzer, L., Ockwell, D., & Ely, A. (2016). Institutional Innovation in the Management of Pro-Poor Energy Access in East Africa. SPRU Working Paper Series (ISSN 2057-6668). Brighton: SPRU, University of Sussex.
Hancock, K, J. (2015) The expanding horizon of renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa: Leading research in the social sciences. Energy Research and Social Science. Vol. 5, pp. 1–8
Hansen, U. E., & Nygaard, I. (2014). Sustainable energy transitions in emerging economies: The formation of a palm oil biomass waste-to-energy niche in Malaysia 1990–2011. Energy Policy, 66, 666-676.
Hansen, U.E., Pedersen, M.B., Nygaard, I., (2015). Review of Solar PV market development in East Africa. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 46, 236–248
Leach M, Scoones I and Stirling A. (2010) Dynamic Sustainabilities: Technology, Environment, Social Justice, Abingdon: Routledge.
Mitchell, C. (2007) The Political Economy of Sustainable Energy. Palgrave Macmillan, UK
Newell, P., & Phillips, J. (2016). Neoliberal energy transitions in the South: Kenyan experiences. Geoforum, 74, 39-48.
Nygaard, I., & Hansen, U. E. (2016). Niche development and upgrading in the PV value chain. In Eu-spri Conference Lund 2016.
Ockwell, D., & Byrne, R. (2016). Sustainable Energy for All: Innovation, technology and pro-poor green transformations. Routledge.
Ondraczek, J. (2013). The sun rises in the east (of Africa): A comparison of the development and status of solar energy markets in Kenya and Tanzania.Energy Policy, 56, 407-417.
Power, M., Newell, P., Baker, L., Bulkeley, H., Kirshner, J., Smith, A. (2016) The political economy of energy transitions in Mozambique and South Africa: The role of the Rising Powers. Energy Research and Social Science, Vol. 17, pp. 10-19
Rolffs, P., Ockwell, D., & Byrne, R. (2015). Beyond technology and finance: pay-as-you-go sustainable energy access and theories of social change.Environment and Planning A, 47(12), 2609-2627.
Shen, W., & Power, M. (2016). Africa and the export of China’s clean energy revolution. Third World Quarterly, 1-20.
Sovacool, B. K., D’Agostino, A. L., & Bambawale, M. J. (2011). The socio-technical barriers to Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Papua New Guinea: “Choosing pigs, prostitutes, and poker chips over panels”. Energy Policy, 39(3), 1532-1542.
Tyfield, D., Ely, A., & Geall, S. (2015). Low carbon innovation in China: from overlooked opportunities and challenges to transitions in power relations and practices. Sustainable Development, 23(4), 206-216.
Ulsrud, K., Winther, T., Palit, D., & Rohracher, H. (2015). Village-level solar power in Africa: accelerating access to electricity services through a socio-technical design in Kenya. Energy Research & Social Science, 5, 34-44.
Ulsrud, K., Winther, T., Palit, D., Rohracher, H., & Sandgren, J. (2011). The solar transitions research on solar mini-grids in India: Learning from local cases of innovative socio-technical systems. Energy for Sustainable Development, 15(3), 293-303.
Winther, T. (2008). The impact of electricity: Development, desires and dilemmas. Berghahn Books.
This pluridisciplinary summer school for PhD students within social science and humanities (SSH) energy research will focus on how SSH research can contribute to tackle the many energy-related challenges in Europe. Key energy topics, such as energy efficiency, secure low-carbon energy supply, energy system optimization and transport decarbonisation, will be discussed with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity and on the translation of academic research into policy and practice.
Intense and interactive 5 days training on Energy!
The Summer School will be an opportunity for participants to reflect on how SSH research can be embedded into exiting energy initiatives and policy in order to maximize its impact. It will focus on exploring the value of SSH research, which is not just to support the implementation of technical solutions, but to investigate the social goals upon which technological goals are based. In this way, the Summer School will set the scene for reflection and action.
To meet and exchange in a high level!
The Summer School is an opportunity to meet and collaborate with other PhD students in Horizon 2020 energy projects. Advanced researchers and practitioners will present their expertise and facilitate the understanding of the role of SSH energy research for policy and practice. Each day, several talks, round tables and workshops will offer the opportunity to learn, discuss and apply different approaches, practices and methods to studying energy within the social sciences and humanities.
To discover a beautiful and attractive French city!
Lyon is one large World Heritage Site, with a big renaissance old town, Roman ruins, historic industrial districts and the regal 19th-century Presqu’île quarter. The city was founded 2,000 years ago at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers, and built its fortune on the silk trade. This industry furnished it with beautiful renaissance architecture in Vieux Lyon, where semi-hidden passageways called Traboules connect courtyards with the Saône.
Come to share this experience!
We invite applications from Phd Students (ESRs) with a specific focus on Energy.
Applicants must be fluent in written and spoken English.
Tution is free!
Accomodation and travel are at the student’s expenses.
Public Lecture by Professor Janet Stewart “Extractive Seeing: On the Visual Culture of Oil”
7th March 2017, 18:00, Room 405, Business School, Durham University
Centre for Visual Arts and Culture (CVAC) Annual Lecture on Environments and Visual Culture. Professor Janet Stewart, Head of School in Modern Languages and Cultures will deliver this public lecture.
This paper is part of a larger research project, Curating Europe’s Oil, which sets out to investigate the role that archives (of different kinds) and museums have in constructing and potentially deconstructing existing narratives about fossil fuels that make possible particular behaviours and responses, while closing down or erasing others. It considers the role that oil plays in twenty-first century cultural memory in Europe, investigating how Europe’s oil history is being archived, narrated and displayed in key cultural institutions, showing how an understanding of the processes through which the experience of ‘living with oil’ in Europe has been catalogued, controlled and challenged are invaluable in imagining new narratives of possible energy futures. This paper explores one aspect of the larger project, arguing that a particular way of seeing, linked to the 20th century’s dependence on fossil fuels, in general, and oil, in particular, comes to dominate in the construction of the visual record of Europe’s oil dependencies, and in the way in which that visual record is interpreted. The paper introduces the concept of ‘extractive seeing’, and employs it to frame an investigation of the visual culture of oil in Austria, a country not often immediately associated with Europe’s oil history.