The session recording will be archived on the site until June 25th, 2023

This session was streamed but not recorded

Curated Track: 

Description:

The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, widely deployed in science and technology studies (STS), offers geographers a powerful ontological reframing of their work on issues of environment. Sociotechnical imaginaries have been defined by Sheila Jasanoff as “…collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of, advances in science and technology.” Geographers have also deployed environmental imaginaries, some building upon this rich STS literature.

One common feature of environmental imaginaries is their plural, often contested nature: examples in the literature include energy, Indigenous knowledge, sustainable development, and water infrastructure, though other instances of plural imaginaries are possible in the context of land, food, climate, place, pollution, politics, development, health, or justice defining contemporary issues of environment.

In what ways do plural environmental imaginaries relate to—build on, complement, appropriate, ignore, resist, etc.—each other? Who are the sociotechnical and other actors that define the terms of engagement between multiple imaginaries? And what about the imaginers, without whom imaginaries do not exist: how do they (we) navigate plural, competing imaginaries of environment?

A world of plural environmental imaginaries, and imaginers, is quite a dance! We plan to illustrate, in three sessions, via a suite of presentations ranging from cyborg landscapes to possible river basin worlds to mapping insularity, and others.

Non-Presenting Participants