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- Convenors:
-
Lisette van Beek
(Utrecht University)
Jeroen Oomen (Utrecht University)
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- Format:
- Combined Format Open Panel
Short Abstract:
Though adept at deconstructing power relations, STS struggles to define its role in building post-fossil futures. Imaginaries of post-fossil futures transpire in activist and artistic practices. What can STS learn from those practices and contribute to imagining and making of post-fossil futures?
Long Abstract:
As carbon fuels are ingrained in every aspect of human life, it is difficult to envision a world beyond the fossil era. Visions of sustainable futures in environmental politics, policy, and even sciences remain strongly technocratic. They remain ‘problem-solving’ (Hammond, 2021), focused on the realisation of quantified targets such as ‘net-zero’ (van Beek et al., 2022). Despite the prominence of apocalyptic imaginaries of catastrophic climate futures, collective aspirations remain captured by twentieth century dreams of material wealth. This imaginative occupation forecloses the imagination of deep cultural transformations.
It is in this cultural space that STS must place its contributions. Though adept at deconstructing power relations and fossil imaginaries, STS struggles to define its role in building post-fossil futures. Yet imaginaries of post-fossil futures do exist. Activists and citizens are becoming increasingly vocal in calling for climate justice. Artists increasingly envision post-fossil futures across diverse practices such speculative design, theatre, and literary fiction. The institutional legitimacy of many political venues is fraying.
In this changing world, what is the role of STS? How can STS move beyond deconstructivism and contribute to the imagining and making of post-fossil futures?
Drawing on the emerging literature on futuring (e.g. Oomen et al., 2021), this panel solicits alternative and emerging practices to reimagine the role of STS scholars in imagining and making post-fossil futures.
It consists of three sessions:
1) Panel: Understanding how do artists and activist practices imagine and make post-fossil futures
2) Live podcast: Exchanging experiences on imagining and making post-fossil futures
3) Futuring exercise: Envisioning what STS could look like in a post-fossil society
We welcome contributions in a range of formats, including but not limited to academic papers, essays, short stories and artistic expressions. Based on the specific contributions we receive, we will organize three tailor-made sessions.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Silke Beck (TUM)
Long abstract:
This paper takes our own participation as lead authors in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as a case to discuss whether the transformative change assessment (TCA) turned out as a constitutional moment, as a window of opportunity to catalyze radical transformations or to legitimize stability.
The paper seeks to highlight the implications of TCA in political terms: for example, how who gets to participate and who is entitled to speak for TCA, as well as who does not belong and hence lacks such voice and wider understanding of what TCA means.
By explicitly addressing the political dimensions of TCA, this paper seeks to uncover the taken-for-granted underlying normative, but often inexplicit, rationales and justifications of policy choices for governing transformations as well as the underlying theory of change.
Our empirical findings illustrate a paradox in the TCA discourse: While transformative change is defined as processes of fundamental, and systemic change, limited attention has been paid to the dynamic, complex, non-linear, and temporal characteristics of how societies transform. As a result, the TCA tends to offer legitimation for business as usual and reinforces the path dependency, lock-ins, and durability of sociotechnical infrastructures. Our experience sparks important questions about our own reflexivity and normativity that hopefully limit the risk that the desired influence of STS will turn "into alien good" (Wynne, 2007).
Stefan Aykut (Universität Hamburg) Anna Fünfgeld (University of Hamburg)
Short abstract:
The presentation draws on insights from the work on, the discussions about, and the media reactions to, two recent publications these experiences to reflexively engage in a discussion on futuring and the role of social scientists in imagining and making post-fossil futures.
Long abstract:
What does it mean to do social science research on climate futures and to intervene in public debates about these very futures? How can we conceptualize and assess the social plausibility of climate futures, and at the same time reflect on our role as social scientists in shaping imaginations about these futures? The presentation draws on insights from the work on, the discussions about, and the media reactions to, two recent publications: the Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook examining the plausibility of a global shift to deep decarbonization (Stammer et al. 2021; Engels et al. 2023), and the Klimawende-Assessment analyzing the societal dynamics of the German climate transformation (Aykut et al. 2024). It uses these experiences to reflexively engage in a discussion on futuring (Oomen et al., 2021) and the role of social scientists in imagining and making post-fossil futures
Eric Boyd (Durham University)
Short abstract:
Both academia and economic development promote the same misconception about the Arctic: that it is a geographical/biological frontier. In my article, I argue that these misconceptions reproduce colonial narratives deployed in the conquest and underdevelopment of Africa, those of Arctic as Eden.
Long abstract:
Building on my previous research in Sweden's sub-arctic Lapland/Sápmi, I present a provocation in which I reframe the Arctic as a site of recursive and resurgent narratives of frontier conquest and settlement in the fields of both academia and economic development. I propose that the central interest in the Arctic is that it is perceived as an Eden: rich in resources for both study and plunder, and simultaneously 'empty' of communities reliant - physically and socially - on those resources. Using historical precedent from Africa, North America, and Sweden, I deploy a modified (after Colin Sterling, 2021) concept of hauntology as a study of recursive narratives of extractivism, applying them to ongoing issues in the Arctic. Reframing scientific engagement in the Arctic as facilitating an 'Arctic as Eden' imaginary, positioning scientific endeavour as a mode of extractivism akin to the practice of economic development. Furthermore, I propose that the interest in the Arctic is not solely dependent on it being a space of potential economic growth, but that it is a site of discontinuous indigenous ownership and governance that can be exploited to gain access to resources such as land, minerals, oil, and research funding.
Alice Jarry (Concordia University)
Short abstract:
[re]capture is an art-science research based on workshops, exhibitions, and field work aimed at rematerializing polluted urban air within alternative technological and biological systems. The paper explores its resulting collective reflection and actions toward air’s post-fossil future.
Long abstract:
In the current context of ecological emergency, air points to increasingly critical forms of corporeal experiences (Sutton 2021) and emphasizes the precarious boundaries between the living and fossil activities. While atmospheric pollution is a pervasive materiality that affects “some places and bodies differently than others” and has “an immediate effect on social realities” (Nieuwenhuis 2016 505), it raises social and political questions pertaining to healthy environments (Chen 2011; Graham 2015; Liboiron 2021). What kind of artistic interventions can contribute to speculating new post-fossil futures for urban air? How to reframe air’s “contamination vis-à-vis forms of knowledge and doing that encompass the experiential as well as figurative meanings?” (Albano 2022 30). This paper discusses the research process of [re]capture, a site-specific work composed of a gallery installation and a series of outdoor DIY instruments that capture atmospheric data. Intersecting critical and biodesign, mechanical engineering, and environmental science, the research examines how pollution was constituted and normalized in at-risk neighborhoods bordering the Montreal Metropolitan Expressway (Canada), and bids on the concept of ‘filtration’ to rematerialize air within systems of biomaterials, dust, light, and winds. The work emerged from a series of community workshops (2023), a residency (2022), a public exhibition (2024), and a comparative study of scientific air monitoring instruments. Using 'filtration' as an operative concept for interfacing materials, technologies, cities, and researchers around questions of air quality and affectivity, the paper explores how this process provides opportunities for collective reflection and action toward a post-fossil future.
Video: https://vimeo.com/743974327
Daniela Weinmann (University of Zurich)
Short abstract:
My research centers the case of Music Declares Emergency, an alliance of roughly 6000 music industry professionals and artists that emerged (and distanced itself) from Extinction Rebellion in 2019. In the group, ‘problem-solving’ technocrats and 'system challenging activists' negotiate strategies.
Long abstract:
With my PhD, I am researching how practitioners attempt to transform business as usual within their respective industries to meet the climate goals ratified by their governments in Paris in 2015. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by citizens that major governmental and economic actors have failed to set an emission reduction course that makes a substantial difference. This issue resulted in a wave of protests in 2019. I am studying activists that have altered their methods, have left the streets and have become "embedded" in their industries.
These "embedded activists" or "passionate practitioners" speak up in their companies and advocate for infrastructural and behavioral changes. They position themselves somewhere between visionaries, pressure group and self-empowered "bottom-up" sustainability managers. Many tensions are detectable within these groups; their endeavours make hierarchies and infrastructures visible. The meetings of these action groups create spaces where 'System Change' meets 'Green Transformation / Business'. The case of "embedded activists" that my PHD will look at, is Music Declares Emergency, an international alliance of artists and music industry professionals that originated in the UK. It is a heterogeneous group of practitioners spread across 14 countries and four continents that agree on an objective (the rapid reduction of CO₂ or "Net Zero" by 2030) but that need to negotiate a common strategy, a process marked by trial and error. Their proposed measures shed light not only on imaginaries of 'the future', but they also reveal imaginaries of 'the problem' at hand.
Annabelle Duval (Nantes Université)
Short abstract:
Port cities, reliant on fossil fuels, face the challenge of transition. The Urban Metabolism demonstrates the role of port infrastructure in shaping territorial development, power dynamics and environmental justice conflicts. This article questions their future in a post-oil world.
Long abstract:
Port cities have become inextricably linked with fossil fuels, with approximately 40% of maritime cargo consisting of oil, gas, and petroleum products. On land, port infrastructure acts as a gateway to globalisation, facilitating the import and distribution of these resources throughout both immediate and distant hinterlands. Through the movement of fossil fuels, neoliberalism manifests (Christophers, 2021). The Urban Metabolism framework offers an innovative perspective for examining how cargo transportation has permeated and shaped territorial development (Duval & Bahers, 2023). Moreover, it proves invaluable in revealing the power dynamics and subsequent patterns of domination among extraction, production, transit, consumption, and waste management territories along the supply chain. Additionally, it sheds light on environmental justice concerns and conflicts that often take place in the forgotten spaces impacted with this metabolic process (Martinez-Alier, 2007).
Cities stand at the forefront of the battle against climate change and ecological degradation (Corfee-Morlot et al., 2009). Their adjacent ports confront the urgent challenge of transforming their (economic) model, heavily reliant on fossil fuel trade, and perennalising their future. The anticipated perigee of fossil resources prompts us to consider post-oil futures (Hein et al., 2021). Ports predate the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels that played a vital role in building the world as we know it today, as maritime trade existed at the dawn of human civilisation. This proposed article aims to critically examine the legacy of infrastructure that currently supports carbon capitalism and imagine its role in a post-oil future.
Abe Hendriks (Utrecht University)
Short abstract:
From Gotland and Texel, we study the role of water in future visions by seeking care perspectives to counter the dominant control narrative. Through 'watershops', we aim to pinpoint tensions and collectively shape alternative, transformative futures through distinct writing practices such as poetry.
Long abstract:
The post-fossil era is not distant, but an immediate and imminent transformation with present-day consequences. In numerous societies, inadequate preparation for the challenges associated with the post-fossil transition, such as rising sea levels and intensified weather conditions, is evident. The focus often revolves around problem-solving for the challenges posed by the rising sea levels and other water-related issues, rather than critically examining how we can produce "better knowledge" (Turnhout, 2022) and redefine our relationship with water. Drawing on case studies from Gotland, Sweden, and Texel, Netherlands, we explore how water plays a constitutive role in shaping our visions of the future.
The starting point for this exploration is the recognition that our perceptions of what constitutes water are influenced by practices of knowing, constructing possibilities. We explore how distinct perspectives on water produce conditions for a plurality of futures by drawing upon 'multiple ontologies' (Mol, 1999). As a result, we seek to counterbalance the dominant imaginations of control with emerging imaginations of care (Scoones, 2023; Stirling, 2014).
Through 'watershops,' situated in and around water, we explore current relationships with water and identify tensions. Engaging residents, businesses, activists, and artists, we collectively craft new narratives envisioning alternative futures. This process, incorporating writing differently—particularly through poetry (e.g., Helin, 2021; Valtonen & Pullen, 2020; Watts, 2018)—aims to foster a transformative understanding of our relationship with water and the possibilities it holds for post-fossil futures.
Bridget Bradley (University of St Andrews)
Short abstract:
This paper discusses collaborative art workshops that used coal and charcoal as tools to represent climate emotions. As part of ongoing research on climate anxiety, these workshops show how anthropology, STS and the arts can combine to better understand the hopes and fears of fossil-free futures.
Long abstract:
This paper examines the use of coal and charcoal as artistic resources that can be used to understand, represent and manage climate anxiety. It describes ongoing research being conducted in Britain with intergenerational climate activists and artists, and reflects on recent workshops where members of the public were asked to sketch stories of climate anxiety using coal and charcoal. The workshops invited participants to map the stories that these materials tell them in the time of climate crisis, and draw how emotions and environment were being experienced for them. These sessions act as an example of the ways researchers can foster innovative environments to discuss the health impacts of fossil fuels, and allow participants a space to share their concerns relating to the climate crisis, with a focus on creativity and positivity. The framework for these workshops is presented as a multifaceted approach to capturing the messy realities of fossil fuels in the everyday lives of participants, highlighting the hopes, fears and anxieties of transitioning away from their dependence, and the potential benefits for anthropology and STS to incorporate artistic practice into our research and public engagement activities.
Ulrike Hahn
Short abstract:
I am proposing an artistic expression session on imagining post-fossil futures, with participatory elements and joint discussion.
Long abstract:
Artists have been dealing with environmental questions for a long time. In recent years, however, there has been a rise in particular of climate and sustainability-themes artworks and exhibitions. There is an increasing interest in the role of the arts to engage with some of the biggest challenges of our time.
I have been working on investigating this topic during my PhD research (“Imag(in)ing the climate crisis – The visual arts to the rescue?”). In addition, I have also started to create my own artistic expressions in relation to the climate crisis and circularity.
I am proposing an artistic expression session, in which I share my artistic expressions (visual art/paintings and poetry) that focus on imagining futures, in specifics post-fossil futures.
The session can also have a participatory, interactive element, in which participants join the creation of art. This can also include reflections about the works, and moreover discussions about the challenges that anyone who works on imagining post-fossil future may encounter.