CCIT Seminar: The planetary, datafication and how do we start regenerating the web of life?

Welcome to the next CCIT Seminar where Kristine Samson, Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Arts, Roskilde University, will give a guest lecture on her research titled: “The planetary, datafication and how do we start regenerating the web of life?”

Abstract:

Dipesh Chakrabarty has pointed to the planet as an emergent humanist and existential category. At the same time, the planet is a political orphan and absent from global governance.  And while Earth system sciences are planetary systems pointing to how the planet sustains our lives, it at the same time is dependent on enormous flows of data from measuring tools building on Western epistemologies, and as pointed out by several scholars, an extractive resource management reproducing colonial practices (Crawford, Yusoff). In the presentation I firstly want to discuss the planetary and question the role of datafication by bringing in the many paradoxes related to the planetary and datafication. Secondly, I want to start imagining other planetary futures speculating about how we can start regenerating the web of life from our daily practices. How, for instance, can our ways of producing knowledge at university matter in the regeneration of the web of life? By bringing in the notion of the pluriverse (Escobar, Marisol de la Cadena, Mignolo & Walsh), and by giving earthly examples of reparative and regenerative practices, we will start imagining a planetary future otherwise.

When? March 21, 2024, 12:00-13:00

Where? IT University of Copenhagen, Room 3A18 & online via this link (Meeting ID: 349 031 252 776; Passcode: jXiqxJ)

CCIT Seminar: The significance of gender for climate friendly transportation

Join us when Professor of Urban Planning, Malene Freudendal-Pedersen, Department of Sustainability & Planning, Aalborg University, visits ITU! Malene will give a guest lecture on her research around gender and climate friendly transportation. The lecture is open to all, students, researchers, staff, etc. No sign-up needed. 

Abstract: 

While different sectors have successfully limited CO2 emissions in preventing severe climate change, the transportation sector has remained overly static and stands out as even moving in the wrong direction. This sector is, to a high degree, marked by technocratic transport planning and autologic implementation over the last 100 years. Within the mobilities paradigm, transport is researched as a larger system constituting economic, social and cultural aspects of society, and in this tradition, inequalities, for instance, related to gender, stands out as an important aspect for sustainable transitions. The gender inequality in in relation to who is planned for recurs when we look at who is doing the planning:  it is shown that gender norms shape the way we respond, think and act in relations to a specific topic and the workforce in the transportation sector consist of 80% male employees and even fewer women at the top decision level it has an impact.

When? February 5, 2024, 12:00-13:00

Where? IT University of Copenhagen, room 3A18 & Online via this link (Meeting ID: 348 230 099 805, Passcode: zLqSoF)

CCIT Seminar: Realizing Re-generative Futures: from cyborg trees to smarter greener cities.

Dr. Natalie Gulsrud, Associate Professor at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management (section Landscape Architecture & Planning), University of Copenhagen, will give a talk on December 12th from 12-13h. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: 

We are currently in a moment where society is deeply engaged in understanding the social, economic, and ethical consequences of AI and specifically the rapid advancements of generative AI. Yet critical attention is also deserved to the impacts of AI and generative AI on environmental governance from the urban to the planetary scale. The main aim of this talk is to open a discussion regarding if AI supports or hinders social and ecological resilience. This is done by tracing the development and governance of “smart nature,” and analyzing whose sustainability is prioritized in smart natures and ultimately how the drive for resource optimization is balanced with calls for justice and equity.

This talk draws upon research published in Landscape and Urban Planning, Nature Urban Sustainability, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Springer, and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability and synthesizes findings from the FORMAS funded VIVA-PLAN project (2019 – 2021) on developing inclusive planning processes for revitalising in-between spaces in residential housing areas for nature conservation, social inclusion and human well-being as well as the NordForsk funded Smarter Greener Cities project (2020 – 2023) which aims to develop and test novel tools and processes for explicitly converging social, ecological, and technological systems (SETS) approaches for improving life in cities.

When? 12/12 from 12h to 13h

Where? Classroom 2A52 and online via this link. 

CCIT Seminar: Green IT? Extractivism, Energy, and IT

Dr. Emilka Skrzypek, Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews will give a talk on November 27th from 12-13h. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: 

Be it renewable energy systems, or digitalisation, technological solutions to climate change are often resource and power intensive. If we want to talk about IT as an element of green transitions, how do we account for the industry’s growing energy demands? And what about the costs and impacts of extractive activities needed to meet the demand for metals required by rapidly expanding IT technology and infrastructure? In this seminar, Dr Emilka Skrzypek from University of St Andrews will consider those questions and take a critical look at some of the claims and terms that feature in conversations about green transitions. 

When? 9/11 from 12h to 13h

Where? Classroom 4A56 and online via this link. 

CCIT Seminar: Making Carbon Valuable: Relations of Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon

Maron Greenleaf, Assistant professor at the department of Anthropology at University of Dartmouth will give a talk on November 9th from 12-13h. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: 

The carbon held in forests has new economic value created in market-based efforts to combat climate change. Individuals, corporations, and other institutions around the world can purchase carbon credits to “offset” their own emissions or otherwise invest in forest carbon—creating a “green” form of capitalism. Yet making forest carbon valuable, I explore, entails not only the standardizing work that other critical scholars have analyzed, but also place-specific relational work that keeps carbon in place in living forests. I explore this work through analysis of a government program in the Brazilian Amazon that made forest carbon—commonly seen as the proper purview of private property—into a public resource redistributed by a nascent environmentally-premised welfare state. In so doing, the talk explores the relations of green capitalism that are reshaping the Brazilian Amazon and other landscapes around the world.

When? 9/11 from 12h to 13h

Where? Auditorium 4 and online via this link 

CCIT Seminar: How 'blue' and 'green' sail together: the link between autonomous navigation and climate change mitigation

Nelson Coelho, Assistant professor at the Centre for Sustainable and Digital Transformation and the Centre for Blue Governance at Aalborg University will give a talk on October 5th at 12. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: Maritime autonomous surface vessels are being designed and tested in various parts of the world, including Denmark. This will eventually lead to a transformation of the shipping industry and reinvent the role of crews and pilots. The introduction of these vessels in the logistics chain incentivizes a renewal of the maritime fleet, bringing about also new propulsion systems with energy efficient engines and different fuel types that are less harmful to the environment. Combining the digitalization of shipping with ecological motivations is a key element in short-sea shipping and inland waterway navigation alternatives that aim at shifting cargo from road to water. It also features in the redevelopment of small and medium-sized port terminals, with the introduction of autonomous vehicles on land that will assist, and eventually replace, dock workers. The talk will present the results of the EU-funded AEGIS project on advanced, efficient, and green waterborne transport systems. This presentation will hopefully prompt reflection on pathways to future collaboration between ITU and AAU on ‘blue tech’ governance.

Where? 3A54 or online via this link.

When? 5/10 from 12h to 13h

CCIT Seminar: Relegitimising the voluntary carbon market: promises of digital monitoring, reporting and verification with Kirstine Lund

This autumn, CCIT is launching its Seminar Series, with at least monthly talks. The talks will happen offline at ITU, but it will also be possible to attend online. Kirstine Lund, Ph.D. Fellow at the department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO) at the University of Copenhagen, will kick off the series on september 19th at 12. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: The voluntary carbon market faces a crisis of trust due to accusations of greenwashing, just as companies worldwide increasingly rely on it to achieve their net-zero targets. To tackle these criticisms and rebuild trust, digital technologies are proposed as potential game-changers in the market. Among these technologies, specifically those capable of enhancing and automating monitoring, reporting (MRV) and verification of nature-based carbon projects, are gaining attention. In my research, I explore the emerging visions and imaginaries around digital MRV among stakeholders in the voluntary carbon market. I propose that digital MRV can be characterized as a form of non-disruptive disruption. This means that while digital MRV promise to restore trust in the market, the application of the technologies only addresses a fraction of the criticisms raised against the market. Simultaneously, despite visions of large-scale nature restoration, digital MRV relies on a business model centered on carbon offsetting, thus legitimizing continued emissions, which remains the greatest threat against the stability of ecosystems.

Where? Auditorium 3 or online via this link.

When? 19/9 from 12h to 13h