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<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>This Open Panel that Arn Keeling and myself are organizing
for the 2019 4S meeting in New Orleans might be of interest to
some of you. Obviously any case study dealing with remediation
schemes considering maintenance approaches (rather than, as
usual, utter transformation) would be welcomed!<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-forward-container">All best,<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
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<div class="moz-forward-container">Sebastian.</div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Sebastián Ureta
Profesor Asociado
Director - Magister en Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad
Departamento de Sociología
Universidad Alberto Hurtado
uahurtado.academia.edu/SebastianUreta
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<div class="moz-forward-container">_____________________________________________________________________________________________________<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Open Panel – Annual Meeting of the Society for Social
Studies of Science (4S) <br>
</p>
<p>September 4 -7, 2019 New Orleans, USA<br>
</p>
<h1>120. Remediating remediation: Imagining alternatives for
assessing and redressing environmental harm </h1>
<p>Organizers: Sebastián Ureta (Universidad Alberto Hurtado,
Chile) & Arn Keeling (Memorial University, Canada) <br>
</p>
<p>Description: <br>
</p>
<p>Environmental remediation, or the myriad processes and
schemes through which a certain damaged ecology or species
is looked to be restored to a more sustainable state,
faces a serious paradox. On the one hand, in the face of
climate change, environmental contamination, and
widespread biodiversity depletion, to enact successful and
comprehensive remediation schemes appears more urgent than
ever. On the other hand, the common failure of most actual
remediation schemes to really achieve their stated aims
has caused a growing sense of skepticism among
practitioners and analysts alike about the capacity of
such interventions to truly help to heal damaged
landscapes (or indeed, the planet as a whole). STS
scholars have so far importantly contributed to enact such
a paradox, mainly through developing case studies
critically assessing the multiple shortcomings of current
remediation schemes, especially those undertaken as
technical, expert-driven processes. <br>
</p>
<p>This open panel aims at challenging such state of
affairs. Without denying the multiple shortcomings of
actual remediation schemes, it looks to go beyond critique
and instead explore novel ways to enact remediation
through experimental renderings of both the damaged
environment and the possible paths for its transformation.
Following the conference theme, we solicit interventions
that seek to innovate, interrupt, or regenerate
remediation practices. Explicitly avoiding modernist
dreams of purity, such novel remediations would fully
embrace the messy and intermingled character of life on
earth, practicing remediation as a socio-technical
ensemble involving a heterogeneous array of entities –
certainly experts and technical devices, but also multiple
publics and nonhuman agents. <br>
</p>
<p>Potential themes include: <br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Conceptual explorations of the notion of environmental
remediation, its capabilities and shortcomings. <br>
</li>
<li>Critical engagements with actual environmental
remediation schemes, especially focusing on ways to
transform them. <br>
</li>
<li>Analytic case studies of experimental forms of
remediation, especially examples that challenge usual
environmental governance frames.</li>
<li>Practitioner accounts on the practice of novel
remediations, engaging with its own shortcomings and
barriers found. <br>
</li>
<li>Speculative designs for alternative remediation
schemes, from methodologies to technologies.</li>
</ul>
<p>Please feel free to pass on to your colleagues.<br>
</p>
<p>Deadline: Feb 1, 2019 <br>
</p>
<p>Submissions: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.4s2019.org/accepted-open-panels/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.4s2019.org/accepted-open-panels/</a></p>
<br>
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