Spectres of synthesis: Chemical geographies, neoliberal natures, and social substances

Fachsitzung
Sitzungs-ID
FS-231
Termin
Mittwoch (20. September 2023), 11:00–12:30
Raum
HZ 10
Sitzungsleitung
Christian Berndt (Universität Zürich)
Julia Lossau (Universität Bremen)
Kurz­be­schreib­ung
Chemical substances have turned from symbols of an abundant and more equitable lifestyle into matters of concern, fuelling debates around contamination, containment and sustainable use. Against this background, this session seeks to foster debates at the interface(s) of chemistry and human geography.
Schlag­wörter
English-language session, Mehr-als-menschliche Geographien, Chemische Geographien
Kevin Dornbrack (University of Cape Town)
Atrazine: A lively chemical journey
Jean-Philippe Venot (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD))
Eve Bureau-Point (CNRS)
Sreytouch Heourn (Royal University of Agriculture Cambodia)
Chanvorleak Phat
Sylvain Massuel (IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement))
(Un)Knowing Pesticides in Cambodia: An interdisciplinary enquiry into chemical geography
Sylvain Brunier (CNRS)
Jean-Noël Jouzel (CSO-Sciences Po)
Giovanni Prete (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
The politics of uncontrolability: Governing pesticide risks through distancing and zoning technologies

Abstract der Sitzung

The multiple crises of the recent past seem to have finally propelled us into a new chemical age. Promising to finally overcome the natural limits of economic growth and societal progress, chemicals have been drivers of industrial modernity. This positive imagination has long since changed, and many substances (Stoffe) and compounds have been invested with new, contrary meanings. Carbon plastics, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), synthetic pesticides, etc., all turned from symbols of an abundant and more equitable lifestyle into matters of concern, fuelling debates around contamination, containment and sustainable use.

With the new attention to substances, ‘the chemicalized nature of the living and more-than-living world’ (Romero et al. 2017, 160) has moved into the focus of attention throughout the humanities and social sciences. Under the heading of chemical geographies, scholars have started ‘to think more about chemistry and its role in shaping and interpreting the world’ (Barry 2017, 159). Such a perspective allows us to give greater prominence to the Stofflichkeit of humans and other creatures, of (future) agricultures and industries, of commodity production and everyday life. Taking up these multiple challenges, emergent epistemologies on chemicals are mobilized: Research in feminist and decolonial science studies on endocrine disruption, epigenetics, and environmental health uncertainties has challenged received understandings of chemical exposure; new chemical geography approaches bring together studies of production networks, the social lives of chemicals, and studies of toxicity; and contributions from critical political economy/ecology have highlighted the entanglement of the chemical drivers of consumerist lifestyles with the military complex and uneven global geographies of chemical production, use and exposure.

Against this background, this session aims at pushing what we regard as fruitful debates at the interface(s) of chemistry and human geography. Topics of submission may address, but are not limited to, the following questions: