Mercury Stories book now out!

[Selin, Henrik]

Dear Gep-Ed Colleagues,

I am excited to announce that my book co-authored with Noelle Eckley Selin – Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element – is now published by MIT Press!

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/mercury-stories

Mercury Stories examines human interactions with mercury over 8.000 years. These interactions have both advanced and hindered human progress in complex and sometimes surprising ways. Mercury is a fascinating case for thinking critically about larger issues of human well-being and sustainability. The book also outlines a novel Human-Technical-Environmental (HTE) framework together with a matrix-based approach that can be practically applied to the analysis of many critical sustainability issues.

The HTE Framework and the matrix-based approach draws on perspectives and knowledge from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and engineering. Yet, it is designed in such a way that it does not distinctly privilege one field over others. I think that the interdisciplinary nature of the HTE Framework and the matrix-based approach can be of interest to a wide range of researchers from different areas and disciplines who share an interest in thinking about and advancing sustainability.

For those of you who apply systems analysis in your own research, or who teach systems thinking and analysis in your classes, we have put up multimedia research and teaching resources on our new website (https://www.mercurystories.org). For example, you can design individual or group projects in class where students use the HTE Framework and the matrix approach to examine specific sustainability issues and challenges. There is currently one Briefing Note on plastics on the website that shows the steps of using the HTE Framework on another topic than mercury (which is detailed in the book). 

We will also keep adding blog posts related to each of the 10 book chapters. The first blog post is up, outlining a Spotify playlist (or, as the older folks among us would say, a mixtape) as a soundtrack to the book: https://www.mercurystories.org/stories-blog/playlist

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. I am also happy to join seminars or your classes virtually to talk about the mercury issue, the book, and/or the HTE Framework.

Best,

Henrik

Henrik Selin

Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Studies

Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies

Boston University