We live in times of global environmental crises, which are publicly negotiated as not only causing a range of immediate health effects on humans but also threaten the ecosystems that our political economy has been hitherto relying upon. These effects generate further consequences, in agriculture, industry, in human and non-human migration and so many more areas – across culture and society.
To find orientation in these times, private and public actors draw on various forms of knowing environments, often digitally infrastructured. Actors include individual members of publics, corporate as well as public agency staff in environmental management and environmental governance. In the winter semester 2023-24, across four courses taught at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at Goethe University Frankfurt, we researched such forms of knowing environments, learning about social science research methods in practice (especially ethnography), applying STS and anthropological analytics of data infrastructures, human-nature relations, modern organisational forms, politics, troubles; and we engaged in collaboratively learning, exercising constructive critique, inhabiting positions of researchers.
The four courses have been the KaEE Ba course WPM 2 "Forschungsseminar Digitalisierung" (Naturen digitalisieren – Digitalisierung naturalisieren), the Science and Technology Studies MA courses MA 2.1 "Technologies of Governance" (Infrastructuring ecosystem services), MA 3.1 Markets and Cultures (Climate and other environmental markets) and the MA 5.2 Method Toolbox.
Join us for our end of semester poster conference on Friday, 2nd February 2024 14:00 to 15:30 at Casino – room CAS 1.811. Discuss with student groups about their research, learn about the research site and the various forms of knowing it and finding orientation in it. Most student groups do include German speakers, so conversation should well be possible across the multilingual setting.
For questions, contact: Dr. Ingmar Lippert
