Time and the Social Sciences: Studying the Future and Sustainability in the Anthropocene
Conférence en ligne
Jeudi 8 octobre 2020 - 17h00 à 18h30
Conférence en ligne Zoom
How do you do the future? This is a question many social scientists have recently raised. The anthropocene and other current crises have prompted us and our interlocutors to reconsider how we approach the future and engage with it critically. In this presentation, I will reflect on the role to future plays in the context of two of my fieldsities, the post-industrial German cities of Hoyerswerda and Bremerhaven. In 2009, Hoyerswerda was declared to be Germany’s fastest shrinking city and I show how its citizenry has come to terms with the loss of its future. My interlocutors from Bremerhaven, in turn, have set their hopes on sustainability. Based on their experiences with making their city sustainable, I argue, that sustainability - as much as other futures - needs to be studied with acute empirical detail: taking into considerations its local upkeep, force and farsightedness. Despite its many shortcomings, sustainability remains a useful concept for the development of an ecological episteme. It orients human ideas of, and relationships to, the future in different, provocative and stimulating ways, and pushes the boundaries of temporal thought by, for example, considering the maintenance of the future in the future. When the future survival of humanity in the Anthropocene is at stake, this is how far our own temporal thought will have to reach, too.
Conférence donnée par Dr Felix Ringel, Professeur adjoint au département d'anthropologie et membre de Durham Energy Institute, Durham University.
Discutant-e-s : Dr Tristan Loloum et Hendrikje Alpermann, IGD, Université de Lausanne.
L'événement aura lieu en ligne (via Zoom). Veuillez-vous inscrire à l'adresse électronique suivante pour recevoir le lien vers l'événement avant le 08 octobre hendrikje.alpermann@unil.ch
The event will take place online (via Zoom). Please register at the following email address to receive the link to the event before October 08 hendrikje.alpermann@unil.ch
Institut de géographie et durabilité