[EASST-Eurograd] CfA: "The environment in times of AI hype" — Workshop at the Nordic Environmental Social Sciences conference, 9-11 June 2026, Uppsala

[Malte Rödl via Eurograd]

Hello everyone,

I would kindly invite you to submit abstracts (and later on papers) to the Nordic Environmental Social Sciences (NESS) conference, 9–11 June 2026, in Uppsala, Sweden. NESS is a conference where one stays in the same workshop with the same people for the entire conference (bar keynotes and food), and during the workshops the submitted full (or near-complete) papers are discussed. That makes the conference an excellent place to discuss ongoing work, make new connections, and meet like-minded people.

 

Beyond this being a great conference I would like to invite submissions to Workshop 17: The environment in times of AI hype: Interrogating digitisation in and for environmental governance, policy, and its constitutive processes. You can find the description and conveners below. The deadline for abstracts is 8 Dec; and 15 May for full papers. Please email me for any questions about the planned session. You can also find more information on the conference website: https://www.uu.se/en/department/earth-sciences/research/natural-resources-and-sustainable-development/ness2026/workshops

 

With best wishes,

  Malte

 

Workshop 17: The environment in times of AI hype: Interrogating digitisation in and for environmental governance, policy, and its constitutive processes

 

Promises that digitisation will help solve environmental crises are currently increasing and abundant, particularly with recent hype surrounding AI. These promises of digitisation and datafication include seeing and knowing environmental problems better, creating more accountability, or improving environmental governance decisions (Kloppenburg et al., 2022). What is more, AI is suggested to advance knowledge production and environmental governance, for example through climate impact prediction, environmental monitoring enhancement, improved participation and engagement, and the optimisation of resource use and extraction.

 

Digitisation processes thus promise to close some “gaps” concerning the implementation, monitoring, or knowledge on environmental issues, which also includes making environmental governance more accessible to non-expert actors. But they are also said to open up many new issues, “gaps”, or concerns, such as about knowledge politics and democratic decision-making (Machen & Nost, 2021), validity and credibility of widespread datafication (Ekström, 2022), understandings and imaginaries of the environment (Wickberg, 2023), or the social visibility and negotiability of environmental concerns (Haider & Rödl, 2023).

 

With both promises and pitfalls of digitisation and AI in mind, this workshop invites complete manuscripts dedicated to the role of digitisation and AI in environmental governance and policy-making processes. We welcome participants to deliberate questions including:

 

• How does digitisation and datafication impact knowledge practices and this knowledge’s potential to contribute to environmental change?
• How do they shape imaginaries of, or practices in, environmental governance or policy?
• How do they bridge some “gaps” to reach or support implementation of environmental goals, but also open up others?
• How do digital infrastructures shape how environmental concerns are negotiated or negotiable?
• How does AI interact with environmental misinformation?

 

This workshop invites fully drafted manuscripts from fields such as science and technology studies, environmental communication, information studies, geography, law, environmental science, and others that investigates, problematises, discusses, and reflects on digitisation and the environment. To this end, the conveners and the conference will provide a platform for fruitful, critical, and change-oriented discussions on environmental governance and policy in times of AI hype.

 

References

 

Ekström, B. (2022). Thousands of examining eyes: Credibility, authority and validity in biodiversity citizen science data production. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 75(1), 149–170.

Haider, J., & Rödl, M. (2023). Google Search and the creation of ignorance: The case of the climate crisis. Big Data & Society, 10(1), 20539517231158997.

Kloppenburg, S. et al. (2022). Scrutinizing environmental governance in a digital age: New ways of seeing, participating, and intervening. One Earth, 5(3), 232–241.

Machen, R., & Nost, E. (2021). Thinking algorithmically: The making of hegemonic knowledge in climate governance. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 46(3), 555–569.

Wickberg, A. (2023). Environing media and cultural techniques: >From the history of agriculture to AI-driven smart farming. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 26(4), 392–409.

 

Convenors

Malte Rödl, Division of Environmental Communication, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden

Björn Ekström, Swedish School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Borås, Sweden

Malin Joy Nemeth, School of Social and Political Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Amelia Mutter, Division of Environmental Communication, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden

 

Malte Rödl

Forskare i Miljökommunikation | Researcher in Environmental Communication

 

Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Institutionen för stad och land | Department of Urban and Rural Development
PO Box 7012, SE-750 07 Uppsala
Visiting address: Ulls väg 27, SE-756 51 Uppsala
malte...@slu.se

www.slu.se/sol | www.slu.se/urd  

 

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