I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department for Thematic Studies, Linköping University.
A general fascination with how concepts and discursive vocabularies become solidified in scientific modes of organization has consistently informed my theoretical and methodological approaches. I have previously written about climate engineering as a sociotechnical imaginary, the role of scenario planning in polycentric governance of climate change mitigation, and the intellectual history of risk management in global change science.
Since the spring of 2023, I have received funding from the Swedish Energy Agency to study the knowledge cultures and institutional settings within which environmental and social risks linked to methods of solar radiation modification have been made sensible. The starting point of the proposed project is that solar radiation modification is not exclusively the term for a set of proposed technologies for managing climate change, nor for a design-oriented research agenda about the feasibility and efficacy of their deployment. Rather, it is at least as crucial to examine solar radiation modification as an imagined form of social order that centers on the expected development and fulfillment of innovative scientific and technological projects, connecting technical concerns about risk assessment and cost-effectiveness to visions about the kind of society we want to live in and how we imagine our relationship to the natural world. Within the project, climate models, as well as the practices with which they are designed and developed, are treated as empirical cases for examining dominant representations of the future, as well as how such representations provide a prospective configuration that affect contemporary, international climate policy. Since the goal of solar radiation modification research must be to understand not only the technical aspects but also the visions, symbols, and associated notions of desirability surrounding its potential deployment, the project seeks to contribute to a more inclusive dialogue between the public, policymakers, and modelers.
Keep an eye out for my genealogy of planetary technicity, forthcoming with punctum books summer 2023.
