Event Details

We are delighted to invite you to CeMoRe’s John Urry Annual Memorial Lecture, featuring this year’s guest speaker Dr Alice Mah.

In her talk 'Towards Alternative Socio-Ecological Futures', Dr Alice Mah will be sharing her recent research:

In the context of ecological crisis, this lecture argues that social scientific research on alternative socio-ecological futures is important for addressing conflicts over the stakes of green transformations, particularly for moving beyond critique towards critical intervention. First, reflecting on findings from an in-depth, multi-sited sociological study of the global petrochemical industry, it examines a range of interdisciplinary debates that relate to alternative socio-ecological futures, including ideas of degrowth, just transition, socio-ecological systems, and anti-colonial and post-capitalist futures. Next, building on these, the lecture outlines new possible methodologies for researching alternatives and futures, which include considerations of deep time, qualitative complexity analysis, and intergenerational and multi-species justice. Taking these factors into account is crucial for ethical, socio-ecological thinking across long time scales, countering short-term business-as-usual assumptions about perpetual growth and expendability. This calls for socio-ecological alternatives that are based on values of equality, justice, and reciprocity, but that also recognize the need to battle systemic social inequalities.