Call for submissions: Closed panel "Fixing Nature? Technological Green Claims as Matters of Concern and Care"; Deadline February 10, 2026

[Alain Müller]

Dear All,

Together with Nolwenn Bühler (University of Lausanne), Mylène Tanferri (IT University of Copenhagen), and Valérie Boisvert (University of Lausanne), we are putting together a closed panel proposal we plan to submit to the upcoming Annual Science Sustainability Conference taking place at the University of Lausanne on June 2-5, 2026. 

We currently have a few remaining spots in the panel and would like to invite interested colleagues to join us.

Below is the short abstract for our panel (a longer description is attached):

Fixing Nature? Technological Green Claims as Matters of Concern and Care 

This panel addresses narratives supporting green innovations, in particular techno-scientific fixes, and their practical implementation as matters of concern and care. Therefore, it proposes examining (1) promissory narratives, their political, epistemological, and ontological assumptions, and their circulation: what promises are being made, who makes them, what narratives of nature, technology, and change do they draw on, through which channels, and for which audiences? (2) the valuation of these claims: how these claims enact different values, who decides what is considered sustainable, based on what types of expertise and knowledge, through which indicators, standards, procedures, definitions and conventions, and with what ontological and political assumptions and effects ; 3) the researcher’s positionality: what does it mean for researchers to care for the promises of green technologies, cultivating an art of noticing and maintaining distance, without either uncritically endorsing or dismissing them outright? The panel seeks to open a space for alternative, situated, and collaborative approaches to green claims that do not reduce sustainability to quantitative metrics and standardized indicators, past performance or predictive models, or treat nature as a passive object devoid of vital capacities, but open up new ways of engaging with them with care. 

If you are interested in contributing, please send a brief proposal to the addresses in cc by February 10, 2026. 

We look forward to receiving your proposals and send our best wishes,

Alain Müller

****************************
Prof. Dr. Alain Müller
Associate Professor
Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology  
 
Universität Basel | Departement of Social Sciences
Rheinsprung 9/11 | CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 (0)61 207 12 42 | E-Mail: alain....@unibas.ch
Personal profile
*****************************