Responsible Geographies and Geographies of Response Educating Geographers in an Era of the Anthropocene Ph.D. Thesis Thomas Skou Grindsted Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change Roskilde University, Denmark Responsible Geographies and Geographies of Response Educating Geographers in an Era of the Anthropocene Ph.D. Thesis by: Thomas Skou Grindsted Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Changes, Roskilde University, Denmark March 2015 © 2015 Thomas Skou Grindsted Layout: Thomas Skou Grindsted and Ritta Juel Bitsch Front page: Thomas Skou Grindsted and Ritta Juel Bitsch Print: Prinfo Paritas Digital Service ISBN 978-87-7349-900-9 Contents Foreword ....................................................................................................5 Acknowledgement ......................................................................................7 Abstract (Danish) .......................................................................................9 Abstract (English) ....................................................................................11 Introduction ............................................................................................13 Chapter 1. When Climate Changes Science -Change(?) ..........................17 1.1 Responsible Geographies .................................................................. 24 1.2 Geographies of Response .................................................................. 28 Chapter 2. Critical Geography and the Neoliberal University .................35 2.1 Kant and the Dispute between Faculties as Academic Working ............ Climate(s) ........................................................................................ 36 2.2 The Dispute over Climate Change ..................................................... 43 2.3 The Dispute over Academic Climate(s) – Regimes of Accountability and the Disciplining of Academics at Work ............................................. 49 2.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 60 Chapter 3. Keywords, Buzzwords and the Power of Reference .................61 3.1 The Art of Making References - Distinguishing Keywords from ........... Buzzwords ........................................................................................ 62 3.2 Practicing Discourses and Discourses of Practice .............................. 65 3.3 The Power of Reference ..................................................................... 66 3.4 The Dialectics of Sustainable Discourse ............................................. 71 3.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 74 Chapter 4. Space-Time Dialectics and Contradictions of Sustainability ..77 4.1 Space-Time Dialectics, Sustainability and the Human Environment Interface .......................................................................................... 78 4.2. Geographical Imaginary: Scaling and Materializing the Power of Reference ......................................................................................... 82 4.4 Conclusions .................................................................................... 103 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 5. Spatio-Temporal Tides and Waves and Abstractions of the Human Environment Interface ......................................105 5.1 Anthologies and Ontologies of Social Nature(s) ............................. 106 5.2 Spatio-Temporal Tides and Waves – Co-Constructing Nature(s) ..... 109 5.3 Co-constructing Methods: ............................................................. 122 Chapter 6. Geographers at Work: Re-naturalizing the Human-Environment Theme..........................................131 6.1 Greening Educational Policy and Response(abilities) ...................... 132 6.2 Is the Human-Environment Theme Being Reconfigured in Geography? ................................................................................. 134 6.3 Curricula Constructs in an Era of the Anthropocene ....................... 140 6.4 How are Issues of Sustainability Addressed in Curricula? ................. 149 6.5 What Is the Influence on Danish Universities of the Lucerne Declaration, EU or National ESD Plans Concerning Geography? .. 153 6.6 Conclusion - Toward Analyzing Contradictions .............................. 155 Chapter 7. Educating Geographers in an Era of the Anthropocene: ......159 7.1 Paradoxical Cultures - Paradoxical Natures: .................................... 160 7.2 Frictions and Fractions: the Importance of Sustainability and the Substitution of Concepts........................................................... 161 7.3 Frictions and Fractions: Integration of Sustainability as Implicit Curricula – Learning Agendas of Socializing ‘Sustainable’ Nature(s) 167 7.4 Discussion: Dilemmas, Paradoxes and Contradictions .................... 171 7.5 Conclusions .................................................................................... 175 8. The Social Natures of Climate Change Modelling ..............................177 8.1 Human Environment Interfaces in an Era of the Anthropocene ..... 178 8.3 Spatio-Temporal Figurations and the Geopolitics Modeling ............ 181 8.4 Multiple Spatio-Temporalities – Multiple Rationalities .................... 182 8.5 Modeling Spatio-Temporal Tides and Waves in an Era .................... 184 8.6 The Geopolitics Models (Continued) .............................................. 189 Final Discussion ....................................................................................193 References ..............................................................................................199 Glossary .................................................................................................211 Appendix ...............................................................................................225 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword I urge you to be skeptical towards all you are going to read. Empowered with posi- tive skepticism, individually and collectively we enrich academic understanding, responses and responsibilities to urgent issues in present time. Through positive skepticism, radical critique and engagement, academia produces new knowledge and insights; insights that do not always serve the interest of those in authority. This dissertation examine the role of academia in society, responses and responsibilities when confronted with some of its own “most groundbreaking” [scientific] discov- eries of our time [that]…tell us that human beings have caused global warming over the cause of their history” (Malm and Hornborg 2014, p. 66). Responsible Geographies and Geographies of Response is more than a study of how academia and geographers respond to issues of climate change and sustainability: It aims to enrich a radical awareness and critical examination of some of the social dynam- ics that enclose academics at work by ways in which the scientific climate and responses to climate change are mutually conditioned. Once again I urge you to hold a skeptical attitude toward what you are going to read. Through mind we change (what) matter(s). FOREWORD 5 Acknowledgement It is tempting but wrong to think that the writing of a thesis is one (wo)man’s work. While many hours are spent in isolation it is at the same time a process of connecting. Connections continue to have great emancipatory potentials when meetings take place. With gratitude, hospitality and encouragement I have been enriched by a number of people and their co-presence have heavily influenced my work. I am foremost thankful to Henrik Toft Jensen, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Social and Spatial Change, (ENSPAC), Roskilde University, Denmark. He has deeply inspired my way of thinking, and without him this work (and I) would not have been the same. Likewise, Bo Elling, Professor, Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change, (ENSPAC), Roskilde University, Denmark, has played a prominent part. With criticism and inspiration he has gradually improved the intellectual capacity of earlier drafts. I also express my sincere thanks to Eric Clarke, Professor, Department of Human Geography, Center of Excellence for the Integration of Social and Natural Dimen- sions of Sustainability, (LUCID), Lund University, Sweden and Juanita Sundberg, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, (UBC), Canada. I am grateful for their hospitality and the enriching debates we had, when I was in their hands during internship. Their critical engagement and enthusiasm were illuminating. The list of relations is ever expanding and many more have inspired, helped, provoked and criticized. Finally I thank all interview participants (see appendix 5.1), they are the empirical basis, among others, upon which this work is based. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 7 Abstract (Danish) Denne afhandling undersøger danske geografers artikulering af ansvar for og svar på at repræsentere globale miljømæssige forandringer. Med udgangspunkt i tesen om antropogene klimaforandringer belyses geografers kampe om at repræsentere og udvikle menneske-natur traditionen. Hovedvægten ligger på den teoretiske del, der gennem ’the social nature approach’ dels behandler denne teses ontologi- ske og epistemologiske konsekvenser i et faghistorisk perspektiv, dels undersøger geografers svar og ansvar for co-produktive elementer, som denne tese indebærer. Det konkluderes, at selvom geografer finder ’sustainability’