297
Environmental Sociology, Human Communities and Materialities

Abstract Submissions Closed

Friday, 26 February 2021: 14:15-15:45
Location:

RC24 Environment and Society (host committee)

Language: English

Session Type: Oral


New regards on the relationship between humans and nonhumans and the constitution of reality have gained momentum in the social sciences and humanities. Their basic tenet is the overcoming of traditional binaries, such as nature/culture, things/cognition, matter/language, subject/object, living/non-living, active/passive, masculine/feminine. ‘New materialist’ ontologies have been claimed to be consistent with emergent techno-scientific accounts of, and approaches to, reality, and to promote an emancipatory agenda, domination having traditionally built on binary thinking. However, criticisms have emerged, concerning especially their (unwitting?) embracement of neoliberal politics of difference over inequality, and their hype about techno-human hybridizations.

New materialist outlooks resonate with environmental sociology’s critique of anthropocentrism and focus on human-nonhuman interfaces, while promising to sidestep the long-standing realism/constructivism diatribe. Several questions arise in the light of the socio-ecological challenges of the 21st century, including:

  • What is the present and prospective relevance of new materialisms in sociology, and specifically within environmental sociology?
  • Do they enrich political ecology outlooks on power struggles and capitalist relations as crucial to the ecological crisis?
  • Do they help study emergent mobilizations, especially those aimed at ‘prefiguring’ new socio-ecological arrangements?
  • Do they help address questions of environmental justice and ‘just transition’ to sustainability?
  • Do they help to critically assess green capitalism’s direct incorporation and commodification of biophysical elements and processes, as with ‘payment for ecosystem services’ and ‘biodiversity offsetting’?
  • What are their methodological implications, for example in terms of privileging practice-oriented, ethnographic approaches?
  • Can they help engage with the case for the Anthropocene, ‘post-natural’ sustainability and post-human futures?
Session Organizers:
Luigi PELLIZZONI, University of Pisa, Italy, luigi.pellizzoni@unipi.it
Emanuele LEONARDI, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Italy, leonardi@ces.uc.pt
Recorded Presentation
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