EXALT Dialogues is a quadrennial online event series that fosters critical thinking and discussion on extractivisms and transformative alternatives and which also aim to deconstruct and disrupt thinking that perpetuates dominant power structures, colonialities and growthism. The dialogues host researchers and activists from various fields and backgrounds to further critical knowledge and understanding on emergent topics related to the multiple crises, violent global structures and their local manifestations.
The events are open for everyone and are aimed to support cross-pollination between people and academia, and across various research fields, such as natural resource politics, anthropology, political economy, political ecology, economics, global studies, decolonial studies, agrarian and peasant studies, extinction studies and conservation studies. The talks will be recorded and published on EXALT’s Youtube channel.
When: Wednesday 10th of May 2023, 1pm / 13.00 Helsinki Time (UTC+3), 10.00 am UTC
Where: Recording of the event soon on our YouTube channel!
Speakers:
Degrowth has taken academia by storm and now slowly makes its way into European and international policy agendas. From repeated reference and consideration in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2022, IPCC) reports to European Commission interest and recent awarding of the EU Synergy Grant to the Research & Degrowth team. The existential threat that capitalism and industrialization poses to the planet, manifesting in widespread socio-ecological and climate catastrophe, has made the degrowth position—demanding the reduction of material production and energy consumption—timely and necessary. Degrowth, however, is not just about material and energy reduction, but also regrowing happier and healthier lifeways, pastimes and forms of work. The popular uptake of degrowth cannot be overstated, but what is degrowth in reality, what kind of worlds it aims to enact, and how will degrowth actually remedy the present and anticipated trajectory of extractivism and capitalist growth?
This EXALT Dialogues seeks to raise this question and discusses it with degrowth proponents. This event asks the question: “How does Degrowth confront extractivism and what can that look like in practice?” This question will be answered by the renowed degrowth scholar Dr. Marta Conde in a short (25min) Keynote, which will then be discussed by Dr. Brototi Roy, Dr. Katharina Richter and Dr. Alexander Dunlap.
When: Tuesday 14th of February at 5pm / 17.00 (Helsinki time, EET)
Where: The recording of the event can be found on EXALT YouTube Channel
Speakers:
The hopeful claims of “green,” “clean” and “renewable” energy to transition capitalist societies towards socio-ecologically harmonious political economies have fallen short on closer investigation. Material and energy consumption is increasing, low-carbon infrastructures are adding to existing hydrocarbon and nuclear energy sources and, still more, wind, solar and hydrological extractivism is creating similar violent socio-ecological disruptions on the ground. Capitalist energy development reproduces the same expansive and accumulating problems whether energy is produced by conventional hydrocarbons or low-carbon infrastructures—the latter concealing extensive mineral extractive and hydrocarbon dependent supply-webs. This naturally raises the question: “If low-carbon infrastructures are also ‘bad’, then what can we do?”
The first Exalt Dialogue confronts this question: What are the obstacles and pathways for creating alternative energy systems? This question speaks to the issue of global extractivisms underlying low-carbon energy systems and what type of alternative visions we could imagine as individuals, collectives and communities. This EXALT Dialogue invites us to consider an insurrection in energy research, delving into the Pluriverse by discussing the coloniality of energy systems with four energy researchers with different critical perspectives and ideas on the matter of electricity production and development. Speaking this question above, and their own concerns, we will hear a short-talk (10-15min) about their work and how they might imagine alternative forms of electricity production today, followed by a shared discussion.