Dist-urbances : Embodying, Voicing, Challenging Comfort, Safety and Trust in Land- and Waterscapes of TechnoScience The First Uppsala Supradisciplinary Feminist Technoscience Symposium

• Recent examples have very dramatically exposed how energy and power systems are vulnerable structures, which may cause severe and fatal damages on both short term and long term; for instance the British Petroleum Oil Spill in the Mexican Gulf 2010, the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, March 2011, the Wivenhoe dam causing the flooding in Brisbane, January 2011. Energy production as well as consumption is a highly contested area within both short term as well as long-term policy making. Scientific claims of human induced climate change currently affects both policy making and efforts in energy transitions, as well as funds invested in new technology development. At the same time, the recent natural disasters have raised growing concerns about the structural safety in regard to energy and power systems, calling for all states to review their own safety procedures. In Sweden, as is the case in many other countries, the natural resource extractions being the basis for a large part of the energy production takes place within contested territories, where upon indigenous people reside and have their daily life and traditional economic activities. Being a complex scenario already, it is further complicated by the fact that the actors involved in the critical decision-making are found on all possible levels; from the household level to international negotiations. Furthermore, it concerns both every day practices in terms of operation at the power plants and grids, as well as the long-term power production strategies of power companies. Each actor, at any level, is also involved as an individual with his or her specific historical and social contexts, knowledges, perceptions, emotions, and affections, not to forget power position. Thus, actors on governmental level, as well as on all other decision-making levels including the power companies, are in for dealing with the sometimes extreme forces of nature, a potential climate change with all its consequences, continued demand of energy and electricity. At the same time, in Sweden as in many other countries, they are supposed to take into consideration international conventions and treaties signed by the state in regard to biological diversity as well as the rights of indigenous peoples to their territories. This scenario calls for new approaches which combine the use of old and new technologies for energy production (and consumption), analyze the assumptions and visions attached to these technologies and while taking into account contentious issues of the contested territories affected by the energy and power production.The aim of this symposium is to bring together persons from different disciplines and backgrounds, inside and outside academia, to present perspectives, ideas and ongoing research which can be linked to feminist technoscience and energy systems. Within this aim, the idea of the symposium is to tie together issues of silence, voicing, technoscience, feminist embodiment and security/safety/risk. The ultimate objective is to form a feminist technoscience platform with basis in Uppsala, to work as a ground for future research collaborations. The symposium is organized by Dr. May-Britt Öhman, Centre for Gender Research, in collaboration with the symposium participants and the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University, and partly in collaboration with UPPSAM, the Association for Sámi Related Studies in Uppsala [Föreningen för samiskrelaterad forskning i Uppsala].The symposium is financed by research funds from the Swedish Scientific Research Council [Vetenskapsrådet] the research project DAMMED: Security, Risk and Resilience around the Dams of Sub Arctica (2010-2012), and with financial and organizational contribution from GenNa/ Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University.

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Feminist technoscience

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