NEWS Historians Dolly Jørgensen and Finn Arne Jørgensen, Umeå University, have published the edited volume New Natures: Joining Environmental History with Science and Technology Studies with University of Pittsburgh Press.
In the book, which they edited together with Sara B. Pritchard (Cornell University), 14 international scholars engage in a dialogue between the disciplines of environmental history and science and technology studies (STS) in hopes of deepening and even transforming understandings of human-nature interactions.
The volume presents historical studies that engage with key STS theories, offering models for how these theories can help crystallize central lessons from empirical histories, facilitate comparative analysis, and provide a language for complicated historical phenomena. Overall, the collection exemplifies the fruitfulness of cross-disciplinary thinking.
“The book shows the value of applying theories from science and technology studies using straight-forward language to real world environmental issues,” says Dolly Jørgensen, researcher at the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences.
The volume’s articles discuss a wide array of topics, including farming, forestry, indigenous land management, ecological science, pollution, trade, energy, and outer space, among others. Of special interest to Scandinavian readers, the collection includes contributions on mercury pollution in Sweden, Scandinavian bottle recycling systems, and urban nature in Stockholm. The volume looks to extend the conversation to wider communities of policy makers and other stakeholders to inform future courses of action.
Finn Arne Jørgensen, Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of History of Science and Idea, is proud of the result. “Carefully planned volumes like this can serve as the laboratories of the humanities. The generous funding we received from several sources allowed us to bring the right people together in a sustained collaboration over the three years it took to make this book,” he said.
http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=36357
Dolly Jørgensen, institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskapTelefon: 090-786 65 53, 070-344 91 33
E-post: dolores.jorgensen@emg.umu.se
Finn Arne Jørgensen, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudierTelefon 070-310 55 03
E-post: finn.jorgensen@idehist.umu.se
Photo:
Editor: Ingrid Söderbergh