AroraEtAl2020-ControlCareConvivialityPoliticsTechSust.pdf (1.45 MB)
Control, care, and conviviality in the politics of technology for sustainability
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 21:58 authored by Saurabh AroraSaurabh Arora, Barbara Van Dyck, Divya SharmaDivya Sharma, Andrew StirlingAndrew StirlingThis article discusses currently neglected distinctions between control, care, and conviviality in the politics of technology for sustainability. We conceptualize control as the ambition to maintain fictitious borders between hierarchically ordered categories such as subjects and objects. This ambition is materialized into a wide range of Modern technological innovations, including genome editing and deep sea mining. Contrasting with control, we conceptualize values of care that constitute socio-technical practices where connections are prioritized over categories and hierarchy is countered with egalitarian commitment. In caring practices, objects are thus treated as subjects, often within political contexts that are dominated by ambitions to control. Building on care, we explore hopes for conviviality as mutualistic autonomy and decolonial self-realization to orient plural socio-technical pathways for moving beyond Modernity. We argue that such pathways are crucial for democratic transformations to sustainability. We illustrate our concepts using two brief case studies of agricultural developments. The first case discusses the politics of control in agricultural biotechnologies in Belgium. The second case reports on care within rural people's coping strategies in a south Indian "green revolution" landscape laden with control. In conclusion, we emphasize the need to situate attempted materializations of control, care, and conviviality in specific historical junctures. Situated understandings of the interplay between control, care, and conviviality can help realize sustainability that does not reproduce the centralizing, control-driven logic of Modern technocratic development.
Funding
Towards a rational approach to agency for building pathways out of poverty; G1926; ESRC-ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL; ES/N014456/1
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Sustainability: Science, Practice, and PolicyISSN
1548-7733Publisher
CSA, NBIIExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
16Page range
247-262Department affiliated with
- SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-10-23First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-10-23First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-10-22Usage metrics
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