Residues: Rethinking Chemical Environments - II

Abstract

In chemical residues we encounter environmental phenomena that are at once voluminous and miniscule, regulated yet unruly. They are as difficult to theorize and study as they are to control or clean up. Yet reasons for doing so are ever more urgent: residues are remaking the biosphere, altering evolution, and laying claim to the Anthropocene (through carbon synthesis rather than combustion). This panel invites new thinking about chemical residues as material, political, and social objects. We are interested in bringing together STS scholars whose engagement with chemicals-in-society goes beyond more traditional segmented approaches that focus, for example, on a piece of regulation, a local environmental conflict, or a particular molecule. Instead, we seek papers that build deeper connections to the complicated, shape-shifting lives of residues. Our goal is a reimagined vocabulary and program for research that nudges academic and public discussion of chemical production and regulation beyond the cul-de-sacs of exasperation, complacency, and despair and towards critical, action-oriented frameworks that simultaneously grapple with, and thoughtfully engage, “the chemical residual.” In keeping with the themes of the conference, we are particularly interested in theoretical and empirical contributions that explore the possible participatory elements of individuals and institutions in disrupting residual flows and opening spaces and opportunities for innovation and regeneration.
The second session will propose various ways to understand residues in spatiality, using the notion of accretion.

Individual Presentations

• Accretion as a Way to Understand Residues in Spaciality - Soraya Boudia, University Paris Descartes; Scott Frickel, Brown University; Emmanuel Henry, Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL University

• Wild Boar Chase: Transgressive Residues and the Anthropocentric Tale of Containment in Coastal Fukushima - Ryo Morimoto, Princeton University

• Lead Poisonings as Complex Toxic Assemblages: The Enviro-Racialization of the Body and Socio-Material Production of Polluted Bodies - Christopher Oliver, Tulane University; Victor Torres Velez, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College City University of New York

• It’s a Micropollutant! A Performant Name for Chemical Residues - Nona Schulte-Römer, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

• “Plastic Governance”: Material Culture, Plasticity, and Policy Struggles - Ulrike Felt, University of Vienna, Department of Science and Technology Studies

Session Organizers

• Emmanuel Henry, Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL University

• Jody A Roberts, Science History Institute