CfP: Workshop Resources, Infrastructures and the Anthropocene: Dialogues between the Global-North and the Global-South
We welcome proposals for participation in the
workshop Resources, Infrastructures and the Anthropocene: Dialogues
between the Global-North and the Global-South, which will take place
at Caparica Campus, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade
NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, between September 18 and 20, 2019.
Global resources and resource infrastructure play a
significant role in modern societies; through a variety of ambivalent historical
processes, they have come to entangle—and (re)produce tensions between and
within—countries in the Global South and the Global North. In recent years discourses on geopolitical and
domestic competition for natural resources have further intensified. So have associated
concerns on resource security and circularity, socioecological vulnerabilities
and inequalities, and a host of other issues. How could and should we (re)think
and (re)write our global histories of resources and resource infrastructure in
the age of the ‘Anthropocene’?
The workshop explores this question for two related
topics:
· Resource Spaces in the Global South:
Engineering Landscapes and Mindscapes;
· Globally Entangled Resource Chains and Socioecological
Change: Sustainability and Global Justice in the Anthropocene.
In particular, we aim to mobilise research approaches
and historical cases that help scrutinize/problematize these issues from Global
South and South-North entanglement perspectives. The workshop will be based on a
variety of empirical case studies, intellectual viewpoints, methodologies and literatures,
and will focus on questions such as the following:
· Which assumptions, knowledges, and
methodologies are used in the analysis of relations between the so called
“Global North” and “Global South” regarding natural resources, infrastructures,
and their environmental, social, economic and political implications? Which
assumptions are shared, and which are not, when approaching our case studies?
Do we have different notions and narratives about important keywords such as
“progress”, “development”, “nature”, “human agency”, “sustainability”, resource
“scarcity” and “security”?
·
Which
methodologies, research directions and questions are innovative, relevant and
needed in current and future projects on the workshop topics? How can we
encourage and help initiate and facilitate future research in these directions
and questions? Which opportunities can we develop to increase productive
cooperation of scholars in the Global South and Global North in research on
global resources, infrastructures and their environmental, social and economic
impacts?
Workshop setup
The workshop will be designed to maximize dialogue and
discussion and not consist of traditional presentations by all participants. Position
papers by invited scholars coming from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America and
focused short pitches by the other participants will serve to spark discussions
in different work formats.
Participants are expected to engage in the
discussion of the main topics either by bringing intellectual view points
and/or presenting empirical examples. The size of
the workshop is limited to approximately 30 people, in order to allow for the exchange
of ideas and the development of concrete future directions of research and
collaborations.
Upon acceptance, all participants will receive further
instructions and be asked to provide short preparatory texts of about
2 pages before the end of August.
Travel and accommodation costs will be fully funded. Further information will be given upon acceptance.
How to apply
Please send a motivation letter (max. 1 page) on your
interest in the topics of the workshop and how it relates to your research and
a short bio note (1 page) to luisacoelhosousa@fct.unl.pt before June
7, 2019, with the subject “Application to Lisbon resources workshop”.
Applicants will be informed by June 20 of the result.
Organisation
The agenda and framing of the workshop reflect the
three supporting research projects agendas:
- "Anthropolands - Engineering the Anthropocene: The role
of colonial Science, Technology and Medicine on changing of the African
landscape", coordinated by Maria Paula
Diogo. The goal of this project is to contribute to the international debate
and scholarship on the theme of the Anthropocene from the perspective of the
History of Science, Technology and Medicine, focusing on the case of the former
Portuguese colonial African empire.
- “EurReS - Challenging Europe: Technology, Environment
and the Quest for Resource Security”,
coordinated by Matthias Heymann and “GREASE - Global Resources and Sustainability of
European Modernization, 1820-2020”,
coordinated by Erik van der Vleuten. The goal of these
two projects is to develop international networks for historical research on
societal challenges related to natural resources, including contested issues
such as global sustainability entanglements, security regimes, socioecological
inequalities, governance, and so on.
These projects collaborate, and are embedded in, the explorative
research program "Technologies, Environment and Resources" of the
Tensions of Europe research network.