Geoengineering the oceans to tackle climate change. A mapping of the controversy

On Thursday, June 15, 2023, the sixth meeting of the "Theseus Colloquia," a series of seminars on the topics of technology, its preconditions and its social, economic, political and environmental impact, sponsored by the Theseus Study Center of the Politecnico, will be held - at the Maxwell Room of the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications of the Politecnico- by international experts working on issues fundamental to contemporary societies in an era of technological transformation. The sixth meeting in the series is titled "Geoengineering the Oceans to tackle Climate Change. A mapping of the controversy," and will feature guest speaker Tommaso Venturini, a researcher at the CNRS - Center for Internet and Society, and associate professor at the Medialab of the Université de Genève.

Abstract

Starting with the case of the multiple debates, both scientific and political, around the issue of geoengineering, the Colloquium will show how sociotechnical controversies are always richer and more complicated than they may appear from the outside. Controversies around climate are never just about whether or not climate change exists and whether or not it is attributed to human causes, but always mobilize an extremely complex web of primary and secondary issues, actors, expected and unexpected consequences.
This Colloquium will look at the past, present and future of ocean geoengineering and use this example to illustrate the controversy mapping approach developed within the field of Social Studies of Science and Technology.

Introduction: Alvise Mattozzi - Professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology - Politecnico of Turin, Italy

Theseus Colloquium: Tommaso Venturini - "Geoengineering the Oceans to Counter Climate Change. A mapping of the controversy."

A light lunch will be served at the end of the Colloquium.

Biography

Tommaso Venturini is a researcher at the CNRS - Center for Internet and Society, an associate professor at the Medialab of the Université de Genève and a founding member of the Public Data Lab. He has been a researcher at various research institutions, including École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, and London King's College. He has coordinated the research activities of Sciences Po's Medialab in Paris. His research focuses on the development of mapping socio-technoscientific controversies and the use of digital methods to produce such mappings. On these topics he has written, together with Anders Munk, "Controversy Mapping: A Field Guide" (Polity, 2021).