Workshop: Grasping oil and water

Oil and water are parts of nature and society in a multitude of shapes and forms: It is carbon and hydrogen; fossil fuel and drinking water; petroleum and hydropower; subsea drilling and waterfall turbines; pipelines and reservoirs. Oil and water may also be both spills and floods; pristine lakes and polluted beaches; risks and opportunities; innovation and destruction; energy and environment; economics and politics.

Social scientists are well equipped to understand the economics, politics, controversies, and technologies surrounding oil and water. Likewise, scholars from the humanities know how to approach the cultural meaning and history of these nature objects and their role in social life and identity making.

The actual hands-on interaction and analysis of these nature objects, however, has been the domain of natural scientists such as geologists, hydrologists, engineers. Within the social sciences and the humanities, the nature objects are often taken for granted as a singular thing. Material differences critical to practitioners are then easily overlooked. In this way, the categories with which we analyze nature are often reproduced without further scrutiny. In short; nature is often conceived of either as natural resources to be exploited or as vulnerable environments to be conserved.

• So how may scholars from the social sciences and humanities get beyond the political and the cultural and better grasp the nature objects themselves?
• How may we study oil and water without experiencing it slipping through our fingers?
• What analytical strategies would help bridge the gap to the natural sciences?
• Which resources can we draw upon to produce robust analyses that take seriously the natural objects in and of themselves?

In this workshop, senior scholars from the fields of Geography; History; and Science and Technology Studies will reflect upon these questions and share their methods. Senior professionals from the Norwegian petroleum and hydropower sectors will share their experiences with handling oil and water at home and abroad.

PhD students and other junior scholars from all disciplines and fields are welcome to take part in the workshop. All participants will present parts of their empirical material and discuss their own and each other’s analytical approaches.

Keynote speakers:

Professor Kristin Asdal, University of Oslo, Norway

Professor Andrew Barry, University of Oxford, UK

Professor Sarah Whatmore, University of Oxford, UK

Mr Tormod Schei, biologist, head of climate policies, Statkraft, Norway

PhD Petter Stigset, engineer, head of the Oil for Development Program, Norad, Norway
 

The workshop is hosted by Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK) and Kultrans at the University of Oslo.

Organizers: Sylvia Irene Lysgård and Hilde Reinertsen, PhD Research Fellows at TIK.