Planetary Geopolitics

This course will meet every other Friday from 10-12 s.t., starting April 23^rd.

This seminar examines ongoing conceptual and political transformations that shape, and are themselves shaped by, the rise of planetary phenomena as central objects of scientific, technological, and ethical concern. We will read key texts from science and technology studies and neighboring disciplines (cultural anthropology, political theory, history) to ask about the possibilities and limits of a world known first and foremost as a planet, subject to human disturbance and manipulation. What does it mean if central categories of social thought and political action—freedom and oppression, justice and injustice, peace and war, sovereignty and imperialism—are articulated in the assertive language of planetary biology, chemistry and physics? How do new planetary sciences and technologies—earth system science, global economic modeling, climate geoengineering—shape and constrain the kinds of questions that are asked about democratic politics, citizenship, and global political economy?

The seminar will provide doctoral students and advanced master’s students with in-depth knowledge of an increasingly influential branch of thought in the interpretive social sciences and humanities. We will critically engage with central contributions to this literature and discuss conceptual questions around the relationship between science, technology and society that arise as planet earth itself becomes a matter of geopolitical concern.

The seminar takes place online every second Friday starting April 23^rd. Students are required to participate actively during class. Each session will be structured around key texts that will be provided to students and that they are expected to read prior to class. Since this is a reading- and discussion-based seminar there will be no asynchronous component, but because of this, and because the class does not meet every week, the reading load will be higher than usual.

During class, after a brief introduction by the instructor, students will give a group presentation of the week’s readings to lead the class into discussion. Presentations can be structured in whichever way the students choose. The only requirement is that presenters develop a set of questions that they wish to address with their fellow students, which will provide the basis for breakout group discussions. After discussing in breakout groups, students will report back to plenary and we will end class with a plenary discussion.