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6th STS Italia Conference

Sociotechnical Environments

University of Trento (Italy) November 24-26, 2016

Deadline for abstract submission: May 30, 2016

TRACK 9

Environmental sustainability, socio-technical transitions and practices

This track intends to collect contributions focused on everyday practices, with the aim of deepening the comprehension of the issue of environmental sustainability.

In the last decades, public debate on environmental sustainability has increasingly become a general concern and a global challenge. While governments sign international treaties and agreements, and industries are engaged in green reconversion efforts, ecologists and environmentalist organisations argue that a change in current ways of production and consumption is still necessary.

Social scientists have dealt with environmental sustainability too; an array of different perspectives, ranging from behavioural theories to urban planning and macro-economy, has been proposed. In particular, economic theories as well as Ecological Modernisation approach have often considered the technological domain as a crucial feature for environmental sustainability, or as a way to understand and analyses the lack of it.

However, as pointed out by Science and Technology Studies (STS), the socio-technical transition is the outcome of co-generation processes which involve several levels widely intertwined between them. Indeed, a socio-technical change, which may drive to broad transition, is configured by different elements: on the one hand, daily habits, practices and choices in behavioural sphere play a central role in sustainability; on the other hand, non-human actors (e.g. devices, infrastructures) contribute to enable or limit sustainable practices. These elements represent fruitful alternative ways to investigate and further develop theoretical reflections on environmental sustainability as a key issue for social sciences.

Starting from these premises, the track warmly encourages both theoretical and empirical contributions whose perspectives focus on everyday activities for/against environmental sustainability. Contributions may be, but not only, about:

•          mobility strategies in urban and/or rural settings;

•          domestic waste management;

•          energy consumption, including heating systems;

•          relationships between individuals, groups and institutions about sustainable behaviours (constraining and enabling processes);

•          non-human actors as peculiar perspective for environmental sustainability.

 

Convenors:

Paolo Giardullo, University of Padua, paologiardullo [ at ] gmail.com

Sonia Brondi, Sapienza – University of Rome, sonia.brondi [ at ] uniroma1.it

Info on the conference and on submission procedures: 6th STS Italia Conference - Sociotechnical Environments 

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