The prospect of transitions to low-carbon futures raises the possibility of critical engagement about the interests of industry, art, and science for enabling sustainability and under scenarios that aim to accommodate ideals of “economic growth”.

Two specialists on transitions from Rice University, Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer, engage with specialists from NTNU Transitions, institutes and research groups for an evening of open conversation to consider the critical practices of transition combined with its contradictions and potentialities.

In this event we explore: what are the possibilities and opportunities for meaningful critique amidst transitions? 
On the one hand, universities are increasingly engaging in industry heavy collaborations in a quest to instigate rapid societal change, often through “innovation missions” which rhetorically offer win-win solutions for Europe.  
On the other hand, the same institutions re-frame problem solving through engaging with the arts, co-creation exercises and other techniques, that do not necessarily seek to solve existing problems, but to re-formulate ideals of what good future societies might look like.
This event will feature both the instrumental and the experimental and ask if fruitful common ground can be found. Questions to explore include:
How does the Norwegian petrostate manage vulnerabilities in transition? What are practices and interests of contested histories (land tenure, power politics, opposition movements, state sovereignty)?

Structure:

Introduction - Arthur Mason (10 Minutes)

Speakers (10 minutes each)

Tomas Skjølsvold, KULT NTNU

Cymene Howe, Anthropology, Rice U

Ferne  Edwards, Design NTNU

Dominic Boyer, Anthropology, Rice U

Break

Discussants (5 - 7 minutes each)

Alexander Dodge, Geography

Hanna Musiol, Humanities

Asgeir Tomasgard, NTNU Energy (invited)

Ruth Woods, KULT

Hans Martin Thomassen, Social Anthropology

Jens Røyrvik, NTNU Samfunnsforskning

Bradley Loewen, KULT

Public participation!