Scale and Social Organization, 2015, with illustrations from Gladstone, Queensland
The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen is happy to announce the upcoming seminar with Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen (University of Oslo).
Hovedinnhold
Gladstone, Queensland is one of Australia's largest coal ports and the site of many industries, ranging from alumina to cyanide and cement. Few of the 70,000 residents of the region are socially and economically independent of the fossil fuel industry and its auxiliary activities. Environmental engagement, be it related to LNG (liquid natural gas), the controversial dredging of the harbour, emissions and air quality or other forms of pollution, is weak, fragmented and tends to be based on personal experience rather than systemic analysis. The Australian environmental movement is generally seen as distant and irrelevant to local concerns.
Drawing on Grønhaug and Barth’s seminal work on scale, but expanding it, I analyse environmental engagement in Gladstone through four kinds of scale – physical, social, cognitive and temporal.
All interested are welcome!