Papers are invited for a closed session on the staging or communication of global crises, see session abstract below. The session will be proposed the 4S/EASST 2016 Conference from August 31st to September 3rd 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.

If you are interested in contributing a paper to this session, please send your abstract or just expression of interest to Kristian H. Nielsen ([log in to unmask]) well in advance of the conference deadline 21 Feb 2016.

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Staging global crises: Risks, media, people

There is growing concern that the world faces a number of interconnected social-ecological crises. These crises normally are said to have two defining features:  Firstly, they are globally extensive and inter-systemic, which means that they have increased potential to spread and interact in novel ways. Secondly, due to the sheer scale of the risks involved, the reality of global crises is far from obvious, but rather relies on what Ulrich Bech in his book World at Risk (2009) calls “staging”, i.e. mediated anticipation and negotiation of the very nature and future consequences of such crises.

The notion of concatenated crises seems to penetrate most discussions about global phenomenon from climate through the world of finance to security, food, health, inequality and natural resources. The extent and the degree of interconnectedness of such mega-crises, however, are disputed. The distinction between global crises and the cultural perception of global crises remains blurred. The same “crisis” becomes real in different ways depending on the cultural perspective of the person that performs the assessment. The ways in which politicians, scientists, NGO’s, CEO’s and other opinion and decision makers represent the causes and consequences of global crises play a crucial role for their very existence.

Science and technology quite often play a central role as both causes and solutions to global crises. Therefore, scientists and engineers take on new roles as communicators of expectations of future events. The question of the social responsibility of science and technology, which has been important to scientists at least since the “social responsibility of science” movement in the 1930’s, becomes more pertinent, but at the same time also more unclear due to the staged and negotiated character of the global crises.

This session will explore different ways of staging or communicating global crises. Important questions include: Who are the main actors in the staging of global crises, and who remains passive? How are global crises represented differently in different media and different cultural contexts? What are the perceived risks (and benefits) of global crises? Are there historical precedents to the current infatuation with global crises?


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Kristian H. Nielsen, associate professor
Centre for Science Studies, Aarhus University
Ny Munkegade 118
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
t: +45 87 15 55 91
m: +45 24 45 88 12
e: [log in to unmask]
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