Welcome to our upcoming seminar with Bregje van Veelen: New frontiers of climate governance: imagining the modern timber city
When: November 17 kl. 10.15-12.00
Where: Online via Zoom: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/68589418794 Meeting ID: 685 8941 8794
Climate governance must be a project of not only regulatory undertaking, but also of deep-rooted societal and spatial (re)imagination. But how do we re-imagine our world, who is involved, and what is left out? In this presentation, I explore these questions in relation to a still underexplored front of climate action: proposals for a revolution in low-carbon materials, that seek to establish a 21st century bio–economy. Specifically, I will do this through the emergent imaginary of the ‘plyscraper’, which put timber skyscrapers at the heart of the vision for low-carbon living of the future. While the use of wood in construction has long been practiced (as evidenced by the red timber houses that dot the Swedish country side), what makes the new timber imaginary different is that it positions itself as distinctly urban and modern. But how ‘green’ is it? How does the imaginary establish timber’s green qualities and with what effect? By exploring the jostling involved in bringing this imaginary into being, I consider a number of yet unresolved issues around establishing the green/low-carbon qualities of this new frontier of climate action, and the broader implications for climate governance.
Bregje van Veelen is a Researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development. She currently hold a Formas Mobility Grant for her project ‘Postcarbon: Imagining the future to unmake the present’.
Are you a PhD candidate at Uppsala University, SLU or some other Swedish University? Then you are welcome to become affiliated with the CEMUS Research Forum. Find out more at: https://climatechangeleadership.blog.uu.se/cefo/
