Pasi Heikkurinen and Toni Ruuska have finished editing a critical volume on technology and sustainability, titled “Sustainability beyond Technology: Philosophy, Critique and Implications for Human Organization”, which will be published by Oxford University Press this month. Sustainable Change Research Network (SUCH) and The von Wright and Wittgenstein Seminar of the University of Helsinki are organizing the book launch event on Monday 29 March 14:15 – 15:45 (Finnish time). Please join us via Zoom https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/69227256813 (Meeting ID: 692 2725 6813) to hear more about the book and engage in discussion with the authors.
Synopsis of the book: Current debates on sustainability are largely building on a problematic assumption that increasing technology use and advancement are a desired phenomenon, creating positive change in human organizations. This kind of techno-optimism prevails particularly in the discourses of ecological modernization and green growth, as well as in the attempts to design sustainable modes of production and consumption within growth-driven capitalism. This transdisciplinary book investigates the philosophical underpinnings of technology, presents a culturally sensitive critique of technology, and outlines feasible alternatives for sustainability beyond technology. It draws on a variety of scholarly disciplines, including the humanities (philosophy and environmental history), social sciences (ecological economics, political economy, and ecology) and natural sciences (geology and thermodynamics) to contribute to sustainability theory and policy.
By examining the conflicts and contradictions between technology and sustainability in human organization, the book develops a novel way to conceptualize, confront, and change technology in modern society.
Table of Contents
1. Technology and Sustainability: An Introduction, Toni Ruuska and Pasi Heikkurinen
Part I. Conceptualizing Technology
2. The Question of Technology: From Noise to Reflection, Thomas Wallgren and Niklas Toivakainen
3. Earthing Philosophy of Technology: A Case for Ontological Materialism, Andreas Roos
4. Atechnological Experience Unfolding: Meaning for the Post-Anthropocene, Pasi Heikkurinen
Part II. Confronting Technology
5. Competition Within Technology: A Study on Competitive Thought and Moral Growth,Jani Pulkki and Veli-Matti Värri
6. Conditions for Alienation: Technological Development and Capital Accumulation,mToni Ruuska
7. What Does Fossil Energy tell us About Technology?, Tere Vadén
8. Reversing the Industrial Revolution: Theorizing the Distributive Dimensions of Energy Transitions, Alf Hornborg
Part III. Changing Technology
9. An Economy Beyond Instrumental Rationality, Karl Johan Bonnedahl
10. Small, Local, and Low-Tech Firm Firms as Agents of Sustainable Change, Iana Nesterova
11. Creative Reconstruction of the Technological Society: A Path to Sustainability, David Skrbina and Renee Kordie
12. Technology and Sustainability: A Conclusion, Pasi Heikkurinen and Toni Ruuska