Translated by UiOGPT
"The lecture itself was a demonstration of why we invited Timothy Mitchell to give this year's Eilert Sundt Lecture," summarizes Kristin Asdal, director of the TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Culture, which was responsible for organizing the faculty's flagship lecture this year.
"He is one of the social scientists who truly attracts a large audience, both young and old, but especially younger people. Not because he is easy or superficial. On the contrary, he manages to combine thoroughness and deep historical and empirical studies with raising large and pressing questions," she continues.
The relationship between the economy and the climate crisis
According to Asdal, Mitchell did not tell a standard story about the economy and growth.
"We heard him present a large argument about how the economy has come to be about controlling the future through organized credit."
"He was keen to argue that this is a technical, material system with important elements dating back to the Industrial Revolution. Our concept of 'the economy,' however, he believes is quite new. Therefore, he insists on rewriting standard economic history," she emphasizes.
"For those of us who have grown up with oil as the great national welfare good, it is, to put it mildly, refreshing to read Mitchell's works which frame the oil story as both a colonial and global analysis, where the links between oil and welfare are by no means obvious."
A classic lecture
Some of the content of his lecture was drawn from Mitchell's classic "Carbon Democracy," but he also gave the audience insights into a new book in the works, which is set to be published next year.
"Mitchell's lecture was of the good old classic sort, scholarly and engaging, without PowerPoint, a bit over time, and lots to think about and discuss. It is hard to be dissatisfied with that," says Asdal.
"He also demonstrated, as he always does in his works, the significance of movements across boundaries, across economy, technology, politics, and nature. For us at TIK, that is of course a part of his authorship that we know to appreciate," concludes the head of the TIK Centre.
