The Thing Called Environment: What It Is and How to Be Concerned With It

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert Goeminne ◽  
Karen François
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
The World ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Independent Entity ◽  
Matters Of Concern ◽  
Sustainability Challenges ◽  
The Way

This paper wants to think beyond the science-politics divide that is omnipresent in sustainability discourse. With Bruno Latour, we investigate if and how decomposing matters of fact and recomposing them back as matters of concern can open up a scientific-political space in which sustainability challenges can be addressed in an adequate manner. By connecting Latour's constructivist account of science in action with Rudolf Boehm's concept of topical truth, we aim to lighten up the normative-political entanglement between science and politics, facts and values. Rather than conceiving of knowledge in terms of representations of the world, a constructivist topical perspective emphasises the socio-material practices from and within which these representations arise. Such a view then also changes the way we think about ourselves and our place in the world in fundamental ways: the world now becomes something that we are embedded in and part of rather than something we are detached from and merely observers of, as representationalism suggests. In this way, decomposing environmental matters of fact such as climate change, which have never been a human-independent entity out there to begin with, allows to adequately recompose them as societal matters of concern, which they have been from the very beginning.

The Parliament of Things and the Anthropocene

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Simons ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Michel Serres ◽  
The World ◽  
Thing In Itself ◽  
Isabelle Stengers ◽  
Own Name ◽  
Common Understanding ◽  
The Way

Among the contemporary philosophers using the concept of the Anthropocene, Bruno Latour and Isabelle Stengers are prominent examples. The way they use this concept, however, diverts from the most common understanding of the Anthropocene. In fact, their use of this notion is a continuation of their earlier work around the concept of a ‘parliament of things.’ Although mainly seen as a sociology or philosophy of science, their work can be read as philosophy of technology as well. Similar to Latour’s claim that science is Janus-headed, technology has two faces. Faced with the Anthropocene, we need to shift from technologies of control to technologies of negotiations, i.e., a parliament of things. What, however, does a ‘parliament of things’ mean? This paper wants to clarify what is conceptually at stake by framing Latour’s work within the philosophy of Michel Serres and Isabelle Stengers. Their philosophy implies a ‘postlinguistic turn,’ where one can ‘let things speak in their own name,’ without claiming knowledge of the thing in itself. The distinction between object and subject is abolished to go back to the world of ‘quasi-objects’ (Serres). Based on the philosophy of science of Latour and Stengers the possibility for a politics of quasi-objects or a ‘cosmopolitics’ (Stengers) is opened. It is in this framework that their use of the notion of the Anthropocene must be understood and a different view of technology can be conceptualized.

scholarly journals Food and sustainability challenges under climate change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Moustafa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Traffic Lights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Natural Factors ◽  
The World ◽  
Save Energy ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Sustainability Challenges ◽  
Living Accommodation

Plants are permanently impacted by their environments, and their abilities to tolerate multiple fluctuating environmental conditions vary as a function of several genetic and natural factors. Over the past decades, scientific innovations and applications of the knowledge derived from biotechnological investigations to agriculture caused a substantial increase of the yields of many crops. However, due to exacerbating effects of climate change and a growing human population, a crisis of malnutrition may arise in the upcoming decades in some places in the world. So, effective, ethical and managerial regulations and fair policies should be set up and applied at the local and global levels so that Earth may fairly provide the food and living accommodation needed by its inhabitants. To save some energy consumption, electric devices (for e.g., smartphones, laptops, street lights, traffic lights, etc.) should be manufactured to work with solar energy, whenever available, particularly in sunny countries where sun is available most of the time. Such characteristic will save energy and make solar energy-based smartphones and laptops less cumbersome in terms of chargers and plugging issues.

scholarly journals The politics of anticipation: the IPCC and the negative emissions technologies experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Beck ◽  
Martin Mahony
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Emissions ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Realities

Non-technical summaryIn the post-Paris political landscape, the relationship between science and politics is changing. We discuss what this means for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), using recent controversies over negative emissions technologies (NETs) as a window into the fraught politics of producing policy-relevant pathways and scenarios. We suggest that pathways and scenarios have a ‘world-making’ power, potentially shaping the world in their own image and creating new political realities. Assessment bodies like the IPCC need to reflect on this power, and the implications of changing political contexts, in new ways.

Global environmental change I: Climate resilient peace?

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 927-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

This report uses a critique of the ontology of research on climate change and armed conflict to advance a positive and performative account of the ways in which peace could be sustained and expanded through a changing climate. Focussing on research into the relationships between climate change and armed conflict and peace, it argues that recent debates about the effect of climate change on conflagrations stem from deeper assumptions about the way the world is and can be known. The report then builds an alternative framing of peace as a phenomenon that is resilient to climate change by layering knowledge about the conditions under which peace prevails through environmental change with that on environmental peace-building and on the intersections between resilience and security.

With shadows, dust and mud: Activating weathering-with pedagogies in early childhood education

2020 ◽  
pp. 146394912093920
Author(s):  
Tonya Rooney ◽  
Mindy Blaise ◽  
Felicity Royds
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Environmental Humanities ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Matters Of Concern

In response to the perception that climate change is too abstract and its consequences too far-reaching for us to make a difference, recent feminist environmental humanities scholars have drawn attention to connections that can be forged by noticing the intermingling of bodies, relations, materials, places and movements in the world. Inspired by these ideas, Tonya Rooney has proposed that there is potential in working with child–weather relations as a pedagogical response to making climate change more connected and immediate for young children. Mindy Blaise and her colleagues have also shown how ‘matters of fact’ dominate early childhood teaching, and call for new pedagogies that attend to ‘matters of concern’, such as climate change. In this article the authors build on these ideas by drawing also on María Puig de la Bellacasa’s suggestion that we extend our concern to ‘matters of care’ as an ‘ethically and politically charged practice’. The authors report on their work with educators and children in an Australian-based preschool where they have started to engage with matters of concern and matters of care to create new types of pedagogies that they call ‘weathering-with pedagogies’. These are situated, experimental, embodied, relational and ethical, and, the authors suggest, reflect a practice of care, thus providing young children with new ways of responding to climate change. The authors take as their starting point Donna Haraway’s invitation to ‘muddy the waters’ as a way to stir up the possibilities, tensions and challenges in doing such work.

scholarly journals Vi har aldrig været politiske! – Bruno Latours politiske filosofi og nonmodernitet

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-130
Author(s):  
Casper Andersen ◽  
Kristian Hvidtfeldt Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
World Today ◽  
The World ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Political Philosopher ◽  
Politics Of Nature ◽  
Nature And Society

This article analyses the political philosophy of Bruno Latour in light of his theory on non-modernity and his studies of technoscience. Drawing primarily on the most explicitly political manifestations of Latour’s work (Politics of nature, We have never been modern and the exhibition Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy) the article demonstrates the ways in which Latour’s philosophical and political agendas are deeply interconnected. It is shown that according to Latour the pressing political concerns that confront the world today are caused by hybrids of science and politics, and that addressing these concerns requires a new political philosophy doing away with misguided dichotomies between Nature and Society, and between facts and values. By analysing Latour as a political philosopher, the article sheds light on what political insights may be drawn from ANT and more generally from STS studies.

scholarly journals Intensification of water management during climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 900 (1) ◽  
pp. 012029
Author(s):  
F Ondrasik ◽  
S Krocova ◽  
A Thomitzek
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Raw Water ◽  
Current Management ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Intensive Use ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Abstract The current management of the world’s fresh water resources is not optimal. Due to the uneven distribution of water, many parts of the world are entering a passive water management balance due to climate change and the growth of the human population. The Czech Republic is one of the countries with a passive balance. With ongoing climate change, it will be difficult in many regions to maintain sufficient raw water for technological and technical purposes without intensification in the water management process. Scientific progress and current technical possibilities offer ways to increase the way water is treated and the possibilities of re-using the realized water in the area of its use for various purposes, from the water source to the final cycle. One of these possibilities and the way of intensive use of water is dealt with in the following article.

scholarly journals Potential Climate Change Adaptation Strategies Suitable in the Philippine Setting

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Ericson E. Coracero
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Potential Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation Strategies ◽  
The Way

Climate change is one of the most challenging environmental issues being faced by the world. Its effects are slowly getting worse and unbearable. Adaptation techniques are important to learn how to deal and live with climate change, and somehow address it. This paper provides possible practices and ways of adaptation to climate change that can be of help to the people. These ways include three major components: use of technical practices and strategies, execution of site-based programs, and raising people’s awareness and sense of responsibility. These practices can help address the problem and improve the way of living of people while also improving the environment’s situation.

The Climate of Publicity

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-173
Author(s):  
Melissa Aronczyk ◽  
Maria I. Espinoza
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
Strategic Resource ◽  
The Way

Chapter 6, The Climate of Publicity, examines the media plans, mobilization efforts, and marketing devices that climate advocates use to promote “the planet” to various publics as an object of concern. While PR appears in the world as a neutral technology of legitimation, this chapter demonstrates the degree to which the practice is culturally determined and the way its conception of publics as situational, contingent, and self-interested plays out. Drawing on interviews with environmental advocates, movement leaders, NGOs, and climate communication teams, we show how PR, conceptualized by environmentalists as a strategic resource against established systems of power, ultimately reproduces those systems of power, leaving unchanged the substance of response to the “super wicked” problem of climate change.

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