*Apologies for cross-posting*


Call for Papers: American Anthropological Association Meetings, Denver, CO,
USA November 18-22nd 2015



*Anticipating familiar/strange environments: the social lives of scientific
predictions*
*Sophie Haines (University of Oxford) & Renzo Taddei (Federal University of
São Paulo)*

Anthropologists have long engaged with questions of how human groups
anticipate and act on predictions of the future. Divinations, prophecies,
extrapolations from historical records, local and indigenous knowledges and
experiences, environmental models and risk maps are just some of the
processes and devices used by human groups to anticipate changing
environments and consider possible responses. Futures are envisaged through
strategic processes involving modelling, scenario-building, foresight and
risk assessment; and through less formalised, everyday imaginaries,
fiction, and other articulations of hopes and fears. We encourage
reflection on knowledge production, circulation and use: how are different
types of evidence, institutions and experts (and different ways of framing
environmental futures) perceived, recognised, and deemed credible (or not)?

This panel provides an opportunity to bring into conversation fields
including science and technology studies, political ecology and
phenomenological approaches to environmental change. What types of work and
sociality are mobilised in the production and communication of shared or
divergent expectations (Borup et al 2006; Porter & Randalls 2014, Zeitlyn
2012), and how do these play into economies of appearance, anticipation and
speculation (Tsing 2000, Wezkalnys 2011)? Predictions on various timescales
link the historical conditions and experiences from which they draw and
diverge, and the visions they conjure of familiar/strange futures.

We also aim to explore the performativity of forecasts, that is, how they
can themselves bring certain futures or worlds into being (Taddei 2013).
This has implications for governance; for the roles of scientific
predictions in decision-making over future resource allocations, and
notions of sustainability, stewardship, and resilience. Questions for
consideration include:
·       What information about future familiar/strange environments is
available/recognised?
·       What prediction techniques are used/rejected (e.g. models,
algorithms, histories, proxies, randomisation)?
·       To what extent can scientific predictions broaden or narrow
discussions about possible futures?
·       What are the consequences when predictions do or do not come to
pass?
·       (How) are scientific predictions used to initiate action in the
face of uncertainties and wicked problems?
·       How do we decide (how) to intervene?



Ultimately, we aim to explore the ways in which human perceptions and
actions relating to future environments interact with processes and
outcomes of scientific prediction; and how subsequent interventions may be
framed in terms of nature/culture relationships, scientific management, and
our capacity to influence or determine the (familiar/strange) futures of
ourselves and our socio-ecological environments.

Themes that participants may wish to address include (but are not limited
to):
·       Monitoring, warning and forecasting of environmental hazards,
disasters
·       Cultural and institutional approaches to risk and uncertainty
·       Roles of scientific prediction in water, health, agriculture,
humanitarian, energy, and other sectors
·       Infrastructures of scientific prediction and resource management
·       Social dimensions of proposals for environmental interventions
·       The role of imagination and visualisation in prediction
·       Negotiation of resource allocation under future uncertainty
·       Reflections on interdisciplinary engagements with scientists,
policymakers and practitioners

Potential participants should send their abstracts (250 words max) to
Sophie Haines ([log in to unmask]) and Renzo Taddei (
[log in to unmask]) by *April 3rd, 2015*. Please include the title of
the paper, author’s name, affiliation, and email. Selected participants
will be notified by Friday 10th April.



For conference requirements please see “Requirements for Section Invited
and Volunteered Submissions”:
http://www.aaanet.org/meetings/Call-for-Papers.cfm

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