Karen O'Brien: Taking Systems Change Seriously: A Call to Action
In her talk Karen O'Brien will focus on the relationship between environmental change, social change, and systems change. O'Brien will stress the importance of actions and interactions across different spheres of transformation, and discuss how we can mobilize “principled outrage” for systems change.
Time: Wednesday February 15, 14.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1
Nnimmo Bassey: System Change Will not be Negotiated
The present fossil-based civilization is running out of gas. The dominant climate politics allows inaction, but system change will not be negotiated, according to Nnimmo Bassey. In his speech he will emphasize how social movements need to focus on system change and not ‘green’ capitalist reform. Democracy has to be re-sourced, we need to create simple solutions and strive for an ecologically responsive economics based on well-being. Time has come to recognize and support communities of peoples on the frontlines of the system change struggle – especially indigenous women.
Time: Wednesday February 15, 14.30
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1
Stefania Barca: Dilemmas of Labor Environmentalism: Between Just Transition and Ecological Revolution
Why does labor matter to climate change, and to climate justice? What might an ecological working-class politics look like? What kind of unions do we need to break the treadmill of production and bring about an ecological revolution? To answer these questions, Stefania Barca will use an array of stories of labor environmentalism across different places and times, reflecting on how we can overcome its dilemmas and liberate its emancipatory potentialities.
Time: Thursday February 16, 09.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 2
Noel Castree: Transforming expertise: global change science and the politics of knowledge
Global change scientists are increasingly sounding the alarm about human's planetary impact. Indeed, Naomi Klein regards them as fifth columnists who are challenging the prevailing political economy from within. In this presentation I take a critical look at the potential that geoscience possesses to produce knowledge with a wider transformation effect on society and environment. Unlike Klein, I regard geoscience - as currently practiced and perceived - as part of the proverbial problem not on ingredient of a wider solution. I close with some speculations on how politics can feasibly and legitimately be inserted into the science of planetary change.
Time: Thursday February 16, 09.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1
Toni Ribas and Jennifer Coronado: Greening the gray: Ecological policies in a dense, compact city
What are the real chances of a new local government to implement green policies in a very compact and dense city? A city with one of the highest car densities in Europe, with very little green areas and lots of cement, concrete and tarmac. In this context, representatives of the Barcelona city hall will explain what are they doing.
Time: Friday February 17, 09.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1
Arne Johan Vetlesen: Environmental ethics in the age of global capitalism
Our estrangement from nature is a source of its ongoing human-caused destruction. How can we reinstate – and experience – nature's value outside of its exploitative usefulness for human ends? How can we oppose these developments through environmental philosophy and ethics? To what extent is it a call to action?
Time: Friday February 17, 09.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 2
Ruby van der Wekken: Strengthening Solidarity economy building, furthering our Commons and commoning
Under the lumpsum of sharing economy, a wide range of so called new economic practices are hurdled, which however can be referring to fundamentally different value creation. How can we envision processes supporting those practices we do want to see flourishing in light of social and ecological urgency, and to create enabling public policies for them? Taking at hand the methdology of solidarity building, and the lenses of the commons, the example of self organised Helsinki Timebank will be used as a concrete example, including the hurdles it has been facing.
Time: Friday February 17, 18.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1
Jerome Roos: Organizing in a time of anti-establishment sentiment
The victory of Trump and Brexit were results of a breakdown in the neo-liberal order and a popular backlash against the "establishment". How has the Right been able to capitalize on this backlash? And how can movements for system change turn the tide and use this backlash for progressive environmental aims?
Time: Saturday February 18, 10.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1
Peter Staudenmaier: The Politics of Nature on Left and Right: Radicals, Reactionaries, and Ecological Responses to Capitalism
The environmental crises that accompanied the rise of modern capitalism have sparked widely different political responses across the political spectrum. Many of these responses have included an economic dimension, whether explicitly or implicitly, pointing to some sort of purportedly ecological alternative to capitalism. In some cases these alternative economic models embody a radical and emancipatory outlook attempting to create a new society that transcends the shortcoming of capitalist modernity, while others represent reactionary and nostalgic visions of returning to a simpler and whole community undisturbed by the demands of modern life. The presentation will offer a critical appraisal of several such examples, examining their historical origins as well as their contemporary potentials.
Time: Saturday February 18, 14.00
Location: University of Oslo, Eilert Sundt building, Auditorium 1