On March 12, 2025, Cornelius Heimstädt (HU Berlin) and Tanja Schneider (Technical University of Denmark) will host a panel at the STS Hub 2025: Diffracting the Critical conference in Berlin. The panel will take place in Room 1.505 and will bring together scholars to explore the diverse ways in which sustainability is valued in technoscientific capitalism.
Panel Abstract:
Chair(s): Cornelius Heimstädt (HU Berlin), Tanja Schneider (Technical University of Denmark)
The concept of sustainability is ubiquitous in contemporary economies, yet actors invoke it to describe a wide range of practices and processes—often with divergent, sometimes contradictory, implications. An electric car manufacturer may call his new factory sustainable, despite it being constructed in a water conservation area. A start-up helping polluting industries (e.g. petrochemical, meat, aviation) offset carbon emissions may do so in the name of sustainability. Meanwhile, an organic farmer may cite sustainability to explain the elevated price of her carrots. Inspired by, but not identical to, debates on the valuation of nature (e.g. Fourcade, 2011; Fairbairn, 2021; Asdal & Huse, 2023), this panel invites researchers to investigate the many ways in which sustainability is valued in technoscientific capitalism. The valuation practices (see Helgesson & Muniesa, 2013) we encourage exploring are diverse and may encompass, but are not limited to, re-defining, operationalizing, quantifying, pricing, and contesting sustainability. By analyzing these practices across different industries, our panel aims for a transversal diffraction of the “economized” (Çalışkan & Callon, 2009) sustainability discourses shaping the present—perhaps starting with, but going beyond, the critical reflex of “debunking” (Latour, 2004) them as mere instances of ‘greenwashing’ or similar.