Vienna STS Talk: Linda Soneryd

07.11.2016 17:00 - 21:00

On Climate Change Politics and Conditions for the Political

Climate change politics is circumscribed in ways that can be said to deprive climate change of its political nature: internationally agreed objectives to keep the average increase in temperature on the earth well below 2°C, apocalyptic imaginaries of the entire humanity fighting against the big threat of climate change, and continued beliefs in techno-fixes. Science and technology studies have challenged the relation between scientific and political representations of climate change by exploring how climate science and politics are co-produced, and by contrasting the world-making power of climate science and concepts such as the anthropocene with alternative concepts and visions of actionable futures.

In this presentation the search for ‘the political’ in climate change politics takes place at the outskirts of the UN negotiations. The events and encounters in focus all took place in the adjacency  of the UN negotiations, in activist spaces, side events, art exhibitions and at people’s summits and world summits (the people’s and business’ counterparts to the UN summits). How is climate change enacted in these contexts and in what ways is the political nature of climate change expressed or suppressed? How may concepts such as the anthropocene and the many suggested alternatives – capitalocene, chthulucene, aerocene – also help us to rethink boundaries between political centres and its outskirts?

Organiser:

Institut für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung

Location:

Seminarraum STS, NIG, 1010 Wien, Universitätsstraße 7/II/6. Stock