Lea Marie Sasse 

The global electric vehicle (EV) market is developing dynamically, with rapid growth in EV penetration and concomitant ethical and geopolitical supply chain concerns. Particularly in Europe and the US, an increase in commitment and industrial strategies to support the domestic EV industry is observable. While there is a clean and green narrative surrounding EVs, the social and ecological implications of the electrification of the road transport sector are still associated with significant uncertainties.

In the case of the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, the establishment revealed various interests and conflicts, including hopes for regional development with green job creation and innovation. At the same time, Gigafactory opponents, such as environmental groups and local residents, raised concerns against the environmental and social impacts and criticised the expedited approval process.

Date: 28 September
Time: 12.30 - 14.00

Landscapes are woven by the experiences of their inhabitants and visitors, human and more-than-human. And yet, even as there is a deepening recognition that humans must transform their relationship with nature in response to the devastation wrought by climate change and species extinction, all too often, visions for the future are dominated by the same limited logics that generated the damage.    

Transition is often imagined in government and policy circles as a strategic and large-scale process, demanding interventions that are planned at regional or national levels. In this kind of vision, particular places and landscapes can be reduced to opportunity sites for development on a map.  

It is with mapping in mind that we present “Tender Cartographies”, an exercise exploring our felt relationship to place, with the intention of opening up discussion around how just transitions might be led by place, rather than by overcoming it in favour of industrial developments designed to radically transform it.  

After presenting an example from our research, we will ask participants to reflect on their relationship with place by creating their own sensory and experiential maps.  

The session will explore questions such as: 

• What does it mean to know and be connected to a place, and to map it from our felt experience of relationship with the human and non-human beings that inhabit and move through it?
• What might just transition look and feel like if its starting point were place and the beings that compose it?
• What does it mean to be placed in the world?
• What and whose knowledge is valued and taken into account in transition processes? 

We invite researchers interested in alternative methods as well as other participants interested in sustainable transitions to do this exercise in a green space near the conference venue. 

Organizers

Annabel Pinker (1) and Kornelia Johansson (2) 

(1) Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences, James Hutton Institute , Aberdeen, UK , (2) Divison of Environmental Communication, Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Uppsala, Sweden