Narratives of the socio-ecological crisis and Dilemmas of the Energy Transition. A critical view from the Global South

Public Lecture

Prof. Dr Maristella Svampa (Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires)

The talk will address two axes. Firstly, I am interested in presenting some key elements of the different narratives of the socio-ecological crisis, from the catastrophist, the technocratic-capitalist, and the relational. In this framework, I will present the vision constructed from Latin America, linked to eco-territorial struggles and political ecology, including some concepts used to address the socio-ecological crisis (Neo-extractivism, Buen Vivir, Rights of Nature, Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South). In a second moment, I will focus on presenting some of the axes of the discussion on the energy transition, in geopolitical terms; the role of decarbonization, the corporate character of the energy transition, and its impacts on the Global South.

Maristella Svampa, is an Argentinean researcher, activist, and writer. She studied Philosophy at the National University of Córdoba, specializing in History and Philosophy in France. She received her PhD in Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris.  She is a Senior Researcher at Conicet, based at the Centre for Documentation and Research on Left-wing Culture (CeDinCi-UNSAM). She received several awards and recognitions, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2007), the Platinum Konex Prize in Sociology (2016) and the National Sociological Essay Prize for her book „Latin American Debates. Indianism, Development, Dependence and Populism“ (2018, coming soon Duke University) ), the Simon Bolivar Chair of the University of Cambridge (2022, and the Forster Prize of the Humboldt Foundation (2023). During 2024 she will be associated with the Extractivism Team of the CELA, University of Kassel, Germany.

Her research addresses the socio-ecological crisis, social movements, collective action, and issues related to critical thinking and Latin American social theory. She has published twenty books, including essays, research, and novels.  Her latest books are El colapso ecológico ya llegó. Una brújula para salir del (mal)desarrollo (with Enrique Viale, 2020) and La Transición energética en Argentina (co-editor). She is a member of CAJE (Colectivo de Acción por la Justicia Ecosocial), of the ecofeminist collective MIRA, and a promoter of the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South (Pacto Ecosocial e Intercultural del Sur).