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Whose side are you on? STS, unpolitics and the global non-dialogue over climate change

Whose side are you on? STS, unpolitics and the global non-dialogue over climate change. Alan Irwin. Social science and the end of history (again).

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Whose side are you on? STS, unpolitics and the global non-dialogue over climate change

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  1. Whose side are you on? STS, unpolitics and the global non-dialogue over climate change Alan Irwin

  2. Social science and the end of history (again) ’A vast amount of re-assessment is needed before political leaders make their way to the Danish capital in December... The financial crisis and its aftermath have given a jolt to established ways of thinking that could and should prove massively important. We’re at the end of the end of history.’ Anthony Giddens, March 2009

  3. Social science and climate change • the economics of climate change (Stern) • cosmopolitics: standing up for the global commons • challenging globalisation • bringing back the ’ensuring’ state (Giddens) • environmental (in)justice • environmental ethics and the public good

  4. ‘Technological breakthroughs are required if fossil fuels are to become history, yet how should governments decide which ones to back? How can they cope with the fact that the most radical technological innovations… are often not foreseen by anybody?’ Giddens, 2009.

  5. In what ways can climate change be rendered governable? • What performances are required to evoke the citizenships of climate change? • How can climate change be constructed as a knowable problem? • How can climate change be acted upon in material terms? • What constructions of the economic can be made solid? • How can STS be provoked, challenged and discomfited by the climate issue?

  6. The un-politics of climate change • Representing/conceptualising uncertainty • Creating the epistemological imaginary • Constructing ethno-epistemic assemblages and disassemblages • Institutionalising the issues • Making democracy material • Consensusing the globe

  7. Open letter to the G20 London Summit 2009 from the Copenhagen Climate Council ‘Over the next nine months, we are signing a contract with future generations. Either decision makers lay the foundation for sustainable, economic recovery – or we will hand huge risks to our children.’

  8. ‘The evidence is unequivocal: through human induced global warming the global ecosystem is already experiencing potentially irreversible changes leading to health risks, extreme weather, flooding and drought, and greater insecurity.’

  9. ‘Eating British beef is completely safe. There is no evidence of any threat to human health caused by this animal health problem (BSE)… This is the view of independent British and European scientists and not just the meat industry.. This view has been endorsed by the Department of Health.’(The Times, May 18, 1990)

  10. ’We believe that this year we are at an historic crossroads… Either we invest in new infrastructure and technologies that will help our economic strength and resilience, or we choose the infrastructure and technologies of the past.’

  11. ’Our choices today will therefore lock us on to a course that will be very hard to change. It needs to be right from the outset.’

  12. ‘We… as global business leaders, scientists, and policy-makers, share a common interest in economic development and the future of our planet.’

  13. ‘Environment, stability, growth and jobs are not separate agendas. They are deeply interconnected. They need shared solutions.’

  14. ‘The climate problem has no boundaries: all States contribute to the problem and all States are affected by it… There is no more vital or urgent task. Your meeting in London can be the start.’

  15. ’Næsten halvdelen af danskerne tror ikke, klimaforandringerne er menneskeskabte…. men dem gider eliten ikke at tale med.’ Information, 11-12 April 2009. p.1

  16. ‘Possibilities and responsibilities’ • Bringing back the citizens and the citizenships: linking climate change and democratic engagement • Considering contexts, needs and cultures • Dealing with uncertainty: opening up the epistemological imaginary • Engaging with innovation: beyond the technological lock-in and fix • Opening up the economic

  17. ‘Possibilities and responsibilities’ • Cultures of co-construction and closure: bringing institutional practice into the analysis • Challenging consensusness • Beyond the ‘Giddens paradox’: climate change, public welfare and quality of life • The unpolitics and non-dialogue of climate change • Provoking STS…

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