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Seminari: 'Desiring Energy: Toxic Fantasies of Fuel, Freedom, and Work.'

 

Dimecres 26 d'octubre de 2022 a les 18 h.

Cicle organitzat per IILP-UV i SCHCT

El cicle “Energy: Past & Present” és organitzat conjuntament per la Societat Catalana d’Història de la Ciència i la Tècnica (SCHCT) i l’Institut Interuniversitari López Piñero-UV i coordinat pels professors José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez (bertomeu@uv.es) i Ignacio Suay Matallana (ignacio.suay@uv.es). Els seminaris tindran lloc a les 18 h. tots els darrers dimecres de la tardor de 2022 amb format bé en línea o híbrid, és a dir, presencial al saló d’actes del Palau Cerveró (IILP-UV) i en línia amb l’enllaç que serà comunicat cada setmana. Tots els seminaris són d’assistència lliure i les persones interessades poden contactar amb els organitzadors per tal d’obtenir dades complementàries o proposar altres activitats relacionades.

RESUM

Energy, work, and power are intertwined, both in the scientific definition of energy (the ability to do work), and in the political manifestation of human-fuel practices. The energy-work-power connection continues to haunt attempts to divest from fossil fuels. Fossil fuel advocates rely upon the threat of job loss and energy dependency to mobilize affection for oil, coal or gas, but many renewable energy advocates also adopt this framework in calls for a just energy transition. Doing so helps keep modern energy cultures yoked to extractivism. In this talk, I will trace the historical emergence of the relationship between energy and work, focusing upon how work came to be understood and valued as a site of energy transformation. The energy-work ethos informed the emergent fossil fuel culture, wherein technical categories of work and waste intersect with racialized, and gendered, judgments of productivity and sloth. Thinking about energy historically suggests that shifting our fuel cultures will require a corresponding shift in (post)-industrial cultures of work and Western understandings of freedom.

Lectura recomanada

Daggett, Cara. The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work. Duke University Press, 2019.

DURATION: 81 min