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Open Access to Sport, Performance and Sustainability

Is the strive for increasing performance and an ever-growing sports sector compatible with sustainable development? This is the key issue that the authors investigates in a new book: Sport, Performance and Sustainability, edited by Daniel Svensson, Erik Backman, Susanna Hedenborg and the Division’s Sverker Sörlin.

Sport, Performance and Sustainability examines the logic of “faster higher, and stronger” and the technoscientific revolution that has driven tremendous growth in the sports economy and in sport performance over the last 100 years.

The chapters provide valuable perspectives on the tensions between performance and sustainability. Co-authors include Sigmund Loland, Simon Beames, Itai Danielski, Andreas Isgren Karlsson, Jack Reed, Johan Carlsson, Isak Lidström, Bo Carlsson and Marie Larneby.

Sport, performance and Sustainability is publisehd by Routledge and written within MISTRA Sport and Outdoor – a research and collaboration programme to generate knowledge and solutions for increased sustainability in sport and outdoor recreation.

The book is due for printing now in May, but is also available open access online. Find it here: Sport, Performance and Sustainability

The Editors

Daniel Svensson is an Associate Senior Lecturer in Sport Management at the Department of Sport Sciences. He defended at the Division in 2016 with the thesis “Scientizing performance in endurance sports : The emergence of ‘rational training’ in cross-country skiing, 1930-1980,”.

Erik Backman is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Sport Sciences at the Department of Sport Sciences, School of Health and Welfare, Dalarna University, Sweden, and Associate Professor at the Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education, Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.

Susanna Hedenborg is a Professor in Sport Sciences at Malmö University, Sweden, and the President of the Swedish Research Council for Sport Science.

Sverker Sörlin is a Professor of Environmental History at the Division  and a co-founder of the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory.

 

Sverker Sörlin Corresponding Member of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters

The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letter, founded in 1742, is a learned society composed of elected members. In March the Academy elected Sverker as corresponding member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class.

The task of the Academy is to strengthen the position of scholarship in Denmark and further inter-disciplinary understanding. The Royal Danish Academy has about 250 national members and about 250 international members. The members are prominent scientists within both the humanities and social sciences as well as the natural sciences. Each year, a number of new members are elected, and these members will then either belong to the Class of the Humanities and Social Sciences or the Class of Natural Sciences. In even years, 9 new members of the Class of Natural Sciences are elected. In odd years, 6 new members of the Class of Humanities and Social Sciences are elected.

Sverker was elected into the Humanities and Social Sciences Class, in recognition of his academic excellence.

Links

New Book! Solar Technology and Global Environmental Justice by Andreas Roos

Andreas Roos, researcher at the Division and the EHL, active in the Harnessing the Heat Below our Feet-Project, has published a new book on 02 February 2023.

 

https://images.routledge.com/common/jackets/amazon/978103227/9781032273389.jpg

Abstract

Building on insights from ecological economics and philosophy of technology, this book offers a novel, interdisciplinary approach to understand the contradictory nature of Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is rapidly emerging as a cost-effective option in the world economy. However, reports about miserable working conditions, environmentally deleterious mineral extraction and toxic waste dumps corrode the image of a problem-free future based on solar power. Against this backdrop, Andreas Roos explores whether ‘ecologically unequal exchange’ – an asymmetric transfer of labour time and natural resources – is a necessary condition for solar PV development. He demonstrates how the massive increase in solar PV installation over recent years would not have been possible without significant wage/price differences in the world economy – notably between Europe/North America and Asia- and concludes that solar PV development is currently contingent on environmental injustices in the world economy. As a solution, Roos argues that solar technology is best coupled with strategies for degrowth, which allow for a transition away from fossil fuels and towards a socially just and ecologically sustainable future.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of solar power, philosophy of technology, and environmental justice.

Profilbild av Andreas Roos

About the Author

Andreas Roos is an interdisciplinary scholar with a doctoral degree in the field of human ecology. His work draws from ecological economics, environmental history and philosophy of technology to understand the contentious relation between technology and ecology. Roos’s most recent work focuses on assessing the potential of renewable energy technologies to transform modern human-environmental relations. Publishing in top ranking journals, Roos’s other contributions include ecological perspectives on the digital economy and the possibilities for commons-based energy technology.

Recognising the complexity of conflict(s) and cooperation is key for the sustainability of urban drinking water provision in the Global South

Save the Date: The EHL becomes a KTH centre!

Join us for a joyous celebration of the Environmental Humanities Laboratory’s past decade of activities and the launch of its new start as a KTH centre. The afternoon will consist of recapping the many activities of the EHL since its start in 2011/2012 under the leadership of Director Marco Armiero (“Wasteocene“) and hosting a roundtable on the purpose, importance, and future of environmental humanities research, in Sweden, Europe, and worldwide.

If you are interested who was involved during the last decade in the EHL’s activities, check out this list.

Join us for an afternoon of reflections, sharing, and discussions, followed by a mingle. Mark your calendars!

Time & Place

Thursday 2023-01-26 15.00 – 19.00 (Stockholm time)

Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment Teknikringen 74D, plan 5
S-11428 Stockholm

Watch now! The Less Selfish Gene – Forest Altruism, Neoliberalism, and the Tree of Life

Did you miss Rob Nixon and the Archipelago Lecture on November 10th? No worries! The recording is now up and can be watched below, with or without subtitles.

Abstract

Why have millions of readers and viewers become magnetized by the hitherto arcane field of plant communication? Since the great recession of 2008, we have witnessed an upsurge in public science writing that has popularized research into forest sentience, forest suffering and the forest as collective intelligence.

This talk roots the current appeal of forest communication in a widespread discontent with neoliberalism’s antipathy to cooperative ways of being. Nixon argues that the science of forest dynamics offers a counter-narrative of flourishing, an allegory for what George Monbiot has called “private sufficiency and public wealth.

About Rob Nixon

Rob Nixon is the Barron Family Professor in Environment and Humanities at Princeton University. His books include, most recently, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Nixon is currently completing a book entitled Blood at the Root. Environmental Martyrs and the Defense of Life.

Nixon writes frequently for the New York Times. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Guardian, The Nation, London Review of Books, The Village Voice, Aeon, Orion, Critical Inquiry and elsewhere.

Environmental justice struggles in the global South are central to Nixon’s work. He is a particularly fascinated by the animating role that artists can play in relation to social movements.

CfP: Book in EU-initiative SOS Climate Waterfront

Linking Research and Innovation on Waterfront through Technology for Excellence of Resilience to face Climate Change

The shrink of bio-diversity, unprecedented climate swings and the raising costs of maintenance are symptoms of a planet struggling with Climate Change. To reestablish a healthy condition, cities seek to develop strategies of adaptation to make the built environment more resilient to face floods, droughts, high tides, tropical hurricanes and urban heat islands effect. Resilient urban environments are able to face the present challenges like sponges are able to absorb without degrade.

The concept of sponge implies porosity, urban waterscapes, sustainable strategy and cultural heritage. It requires a shift in the way cities have been designed in terms of dealing with Green infrastructure; planning with nature; regionalization, infrastructure; transportation; sustainable urban development and circular economy. Sponges take and give, they are passive and active and open a new realm of opportunities. Which urban strategies should be implemented? How solutions to adapt and mitigate will be able to enhance the resilience of cities?

Sustainable open solution on waterfront, facing climate change emerges from interdisciplinary and comparative cases to preserve the setting/world/locality. Recent research that proposes innovative resilience methodologies is also increasingly relevant.

Call for papers

SOS Climate Waterfront invites original high-quality papers presenting current research, accommodating a broad spectrum of approaches ranging from speculative, informal investigations to conventional scientific research, including but not limited to the following topics:

  • Sustainable strategy and Cultural heritage
  • Urban waterscapes
  • Porosity

This is a call for a peer reviewed book. Paper acceptance will be subject to a two-stage reviewing process, consisting of an initial abstract review and a later double-blind peer review of full-length manuscripts. The paper publication will be  subject to review acceptance, compliance with submission deadlines and formatting guidelines.

OS Climate Waterfront Editorial Board

Pedro Ressano Garcia Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies
Maria Rita Pais Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies
Claudia Mattogno La Sapienza University of Rome
Tullia Digiacomo La Sapienza University of Rome
Lucyna Nyka Gdansk University of Technology
Justyna Borucka Gdansk University of Technology
Alkmini Paka Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Anastasia Tzaka Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Katarina Larsen KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm
Lina Suleiman KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm

 

Call for Papers as PDF – Details of How to Apply

 

*Photo by Mathias Wichman, Unsplash

Upcoming: Rob Nixon at the 11th Stockholm Archipelago Lecture

We are happy to announce that the next Stockholm Archipelago Lecture is coming up on 10 November 2022 at 5pm (Stockholm time). Rob Nixon is going to give his presentation titled “The Less Selfish Gene: Forest Altruism, Neoliberalism, and the Tree of Life”. Feel free to join digitally! You find the link below.

Abstract:

Why have millions of readers and viewers become magnetized by the hitherto arcane field of plant communication? Since the great recession of 2008, we have witnessed an upsurge in public science  writing that has popularized research into forest sentience, forest  suffering and the forest as collective intelligence.

This talk roots the current appeal of forest communication in a  widespread discontent with neoliberalism’s antipathy to cooperative  ways of being. Nixon argues that the science of forest dynamics  offers a counter-narrative of flourishing, an allegory for what George Monbiot has called “private sufficiency and public wealth.

*

Rob NixonRob Nixon is the Barron Family Professor in Environment and Humanities at Princeton University. His books include, most recently, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Nixon is currently completing a book entitled Blood at the Root. Environmental Martyrs and the Defense of Life.

Nixon writes frequently for the New York Times. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Guardian, The Nation, London Review of Books, The Village Voice, Aeon, Orion, Critical Inquiry and elsewhere.

Environmental justice struggles in the global South are central to Nixon’s work. He is a particularly fascinated by the animating role that artists can play in relation to social movements.

*

Time: Thu 2022-11-10 17.00

Video link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5IsceytpjIuE9YU6W7DCSPNCcIq2zam9Dhd

Language: English

Lecturer: Rob Nixon

Crosscuts – Stockholm’s first Environmental Humanities Film Festival Returns

Missing in-depth conversations about important movies? Do you want to know more about Sami culture and history or about resource extraction in the deep sea? Have you ever heard a joik?

On September 1st, Crosscuts – Stockholm’s first environmental humanities film festival – will return! Through documentaries, poetry and conversations between leading researchers, filmmakers, students and artists, we explore different themes. This year we delve into deep sea mining, environmental activism and the green movement and Sami culture and the climate crisis. Everything happens on site at KTH, in Stockholm.

The program offers, among other things, the artistic documentary series What is Deep Sea Mining? (directors: Inhabitants with Margarida Mendes), the Greenpeace film How to change the world (director: Jerry Rothwell) and the acclaimed documentary about Britta Marakatt-Labba Historjá – Stygn för Sapmí (director: Thomas Jackson).

Among the invited panelists are Thomas Jackson, director, Gunhild Rosqvist, professor, Staffan Lindberg, climate journalist at Aftonbladet and Ylva Gustafsson, activist, folk educator and stage artist, who will also perform a joik for us. A joik is a traditional form of song in Sámi music performed by the Sámi people of Sapmi in Northern Europe and it is also one of the oldest vocal traditions in Europe.

During the evening we have with us the ecopoets Evelyn Reilly and Juan Carlos Galeano who will perform their poetry via link, and then participate in a conversation with the audience.

The event is held in English. Participation is free of charge, but the number of seats is limited and therefore advance registration is required.

Full program: https://crosscuts.se/program-2022/

Registration: www.kth.se/form/crosscuts

Welcome to a day full of documentary films, panel discussions and performance!

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Crosscuts

Crosscuts is an international festival for film, art and research in the environmental humanities. Each film is shown together with a panel discussion with specially invited guests. The festival is organized this year by the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory (EHL) in collaboration with Stockholm University. Crosscuts was organized for the first time in 2018.

EHL: https://www.kth.se/philhist/historia/ehl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KTHEnvHumsLab 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KTH-Environmental-Humanities-Laboratory

About Crosscuts:

Rather than perpetuating the conventional academic mode of compartmentalizing knowledge, separating theory and practice, and adopting a hierarchized and exclusive treatment of the visual and the verbal, your events were made to bring scholars and artists together and to speak to both in the vibrant questions they raised with their researches.

Trinh T. Minh-ha, filmmaker, writer and professor at the University of California Berkeley

Crosscuts comes across as a cutting-edge bridge between academia, the art world, and the public sphere. This is eminently in line with KTH’s best traditions; the school’s motto famously brings together science and art.

Jan Olsson, professor emeritus of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University

This Stockholm Environmental Humanities Festival for Film and Text that was held for the first time in the fall of 2018, was an extremely successful and important event for both academic community and the general public. 

Madina Tlostanova, professor in postcolonial feminism, Linköpings University. 

Drought or low water availability as an historical preparedness problem

Division researcher Fredrik Bertilsson has recently written a blogpost for the WaterBlog@KTH on the basis of his new research project “Beyond ‘unprepared’: Towards an integrative expertise of drought” (Formas 2022-2025). Here is a repost of his text, focussing on a very pressing issue for all of us living in a context of climate crisis.

Blomma, Liv, Gul Blomma, Spricka, Öken

Drought and the lack of access to clean water constitute serious threats to human and natural wellbeing in many places of the world. Over the last century, drought has faded from quotidian life in many parts of Scandinavia and northern Europe. However, experiences of extreme weather in recent years have advanced a new awareness and preparedness agenda. Issues concerning water use and availability are now among the priorities of risk management, climate change adaptation, and preparedness efforts.

Sweden’s weather was fairly stable for much of the 20th century. The problems of drought were usually regarded as difficulties affecting local agriculture and drinking water supplies. In addition, concerns related to the climate and weather were commonly overshadowed by threats linked to the politics of the Cold War. In the 1990s, crisis management interventions were formulated around weather-related contingencies. Among other things, scenarios for dealing with flooding were being worked out.

The drought and the subsequent forest fires during the summer of 2018 ushered in a new discussion about Swedish preparedness against drought. The historical aspects of what was usually referred to as the extreme weather were highlighted by the fact that the drought and the subsequent forest fires were described as the worst in “modern times”. The abstract notion of long-term and large-scale global climate change was made concrete and meaningful here and now, as it were, in contrast to being viewed as a potential disaster happening in the future and mainly affecting other parts of the world.

Drought as preparedness problems is multi-facetted. Public agents, policy makers, and researchers underscore the large amount of work that needs to be done, the importance of facilitating a much-needed collaboration between different stakeholders and a holistic view of the issues at hand. The formulation of preparedness problems involves a kind of battle over the narrative of which threats are most serious, how they have developed, what may happen in the future, and necessary activities.

History is a fundamental component of the efforts of upholding vigilance against threats that may or may not materialize in the near or distant future. Learning from past events is crucial. However, while historical narratives help societies understand, manage, and cope with present vulnerabilities and challenges, it is impossible to devise effective preparedness measures based exclusively on historical experiences. In an era of climate change, the scale and speed of natural events have the potential of reversing understandings of historical development and build a foundation for a reformed narrative of Swedish readiness.

Profilbild av Fredrik BertilssonA historical perspective on drought as a contingency problem includes but also goes beyond mapping and analyzing past episodes of low water availability. It also brings light on the human subjectivities, relationships, and forms of governance that have emerged in response to previous occurrences. Focusing on people, it brings into focus the efforts to cope with uncertainty rather than the historical development of specific technologies for turning potential dangers into controllable and calculable risk.

This contrasts with a narrative about the ever-increasing safety and certainty of modern society. Rather than illuminating the many ways in which science and technology have improved the protection of human and non-human life, health, and vitality, other actors and issues come to the fore. Through studying actors that have taken the existential concerns of low water availability as their primary concern, it is possible to contribute new understandings of drought as an historical preparedness problem.

This may contribute new perspectives on the present, a kind of genealogy of uncertainty. In this perspective, “unpreparedness” against drought is not merely seen as an inability or inadequacy of certain institutions or technical instruments. It highlights a lack of historical narratives that can give meaning to what is currently happening and relate contemporary problems to a longer history of how society has functioned in difficult circumstances. It may help to inform the kind of coping strategies needed to deal with a volatile relationship between humans and water, or lack thereof.

Originally posted on the WaterBlog@KTH, 2022-03-21