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- Convenor:
-
Eric Paglia
(KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
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- Chair:
-
Sverker Sörlin
(KTH Stockholm)
- Discussants:
-
Camelia Dewan
(Uppsala University)
Stefania Barca (University of Santiago de Compostela)
Matthias Schmelzer (University of Flensburg)
- Formats:
- Roundtable
- Streams:
- Navigating Conflict, Governance, and Activism
- Location:
- Room 2
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 21 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
The Human Environment: Stockholm and the Rise of Global Environmental Governance (Cambridge UP 2024) serves as a point of departure for a conversation on the history of global environmental governance (GEG), how EH has engaged with the topic to date, and where EH-GEG research should go from here.
Long Abstract:
The Human Environment: Stockholm and the Rise of Global Environmental Governance (Cambridge UP 2024) serves as a point of departure for a conversation on a topic—the history of global environmental governance (GEG)—we believe has been under-represented in environmental history (EH) scholarship so far. The roundtable will therefore not only discuss the book—a 75-year history of global environmental politics and science through the lens of Stockholm, the location of the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment—but also ask questions such as: How has EH engaged with GEG in the past? What is the relationship between EH and GEG-relevant fields such as political science, international relations and diplomatic history?
The book also analyzes what has arguably been a successful, although still inadequate, political engagement with broad and important issues since the Stockholm Conference. What is the role of the progressive elements of modern environmental history, a discipline often immersed in narratives of decline? Should 'progressivist narratives' be more embraced by environmental historians?
The book also examines the key function of individuals—diplomats, politicians, activists, scientists, public intellectuals and other 'meta-experts'—often related to institutions or organizations advancing GEG. Is the eternal question of the role of the individual in history also relevant for EH? Another major theme is the role of concepts for mobilizing societal action. The Anthropocene and planetary boundaries, for instance, have strong ties to Stockholm. As history of concepts is a designated field of historiography, should EH engage in conceptual history and, more generally, debates on history and theory?