95672 - Nature, Cultures, Technologies (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course addresses the interactions between nature, cultures, and technologies from a cross-disciplinary and long-term perspective. At the end of the course the students will have: – conducted an in-depth exploration of historical cases and contemporary data; – learned to assess the sources and use the critical tools to address these themes independently.

Course contents

Culturenature

From the Myth of Progress to the Reality of the Anthropocene

This seminar-based course begins on 17 September and meets on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 to 11 a.m.

Guiding question: Who are we, beyond the culture-nature dichotomy? This question will be the starting point for our discussions, because the way we choose to answer it will shape how we face the ongoing climate, social, and geopolitical crises.

 The course invites students to adopt a historical and at the same time evolutionary perspective, taking as privileged point of view that of the Earth system – or Gaia – in the formulation of James Lovelock (1919–2022) and Lynn Margulis (1938–2011). The objective is a double positioning: as a species among species, in context, and as subjects who conceive science and technology as practices and cultures that mediate between what we call nature and politics. For this reason, the course will begin with a discussion of the Anthropocene. We will ask: in light of the negative response from the scientific community (see, for example, Science, 2024, and nature, 2024), why did the International Commission on Stratigraphy, through its Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, reject the formal recognition of the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch? From the perspective of the social sciences and humanities, Anthropocene — now in use across all languages — can be used as an alternative to the concepts of ‘modern’ and ‘modernity’, allowing us to overcome or, better, to ignore the boundary between the natural and the social (Latour, 2019).

It is by referring to contexts in which the natural and social sciences engage on equal footing that positioning ourselves as one species among others will enable us to (re)cognize the network — environmental, technological, and social — of which we are nodes, or graphs, in our new, also digital, dimension. It means being aware that every action we take has an impact on that network and that, for this reason, we need to practice a culture of limits and reject a culture of domination, as many authors (at least since Shelley, 1818, as we will see) and scientists (from G. P. Marsh, 1864, to today) have invited us to do. It also means reducing our consumption of resources while lowering the tone of the debate. It means accepting that, at this point, the only possible goal is to adapt to the Anthropocene, slowing it down through a transition to renewable energy and — at the same time — to more just and equitable relationships: among species (animal and plant), between humanity and technologies (see Latour, Love Your Monsters), and among genders, classes, cultures, and diverse human populations across the planet.

Our aim in addressing these issues will be concrete: to develop forms of resilience that are also capable of supporting practices of environmental and social activism. For this reason, we will host guests who combine professional expertise and active commitment.

Our goal in exploring these issues will be concrete: to develop forms of resilience that can also support practices of environmental and social activism. For this reason, we will welcome guests who combine professional expertise with active engagement.

We will investigate these macro-themes by adopting an integrated approach that puts natural sciences in dialogue with social sciences, typical of science studies or studies on science, technology, and society (STS); an approach that will be introduced in the first lessons. STS supports innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations at the intersection of society and natural, technological, historiographical, and philosophical knowledge, advocating for less self-referential and anthropocentric policies and behaviors.

We will discuss technologies from both a historical perspective and the perspective of deep time, because the technologies we have produced have entered into synergy with the Earth system. To navigate this new dimension, we need awareness and tools that neither the natural sciences nor the social sciences alone can provide: we need all of them, and even then they are never enough (Crawford 2012; Govoni, Belcastro, Bonoli, Guerzoni 2024, see bibliography).

The proposal is to adopt a curious mindset, free from educational conformism and from the boundaries between domains of knowledge, as well as independent of hierarchies between academic, communicative, Western, and non-Western cultures, and so on. Error and conformist banality hide everywhere. For this reason, some sessions will be devoted to the history, forms, and functions of scientific popularization between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the assigned texts are by specialists who have engaged – in the natural sciences and in the social sciences from an STS perspective – with the challenge of communicating also to a non-academic audience.

Reference classics:

- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818.

- Charles R. Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Murray, London, 1859

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IMPORTANT NOTE
In case of coughs, colds, sore throats or other symptoms (even mild ones), those attending class are asked to wear a mask rated FFP2 or higher. Thanks!

Readings/Bibliography

Scienze filosofiche:

1. Texts, films, and PowerPoints posted (during the course) on the e-learning platform;

2. Bruno Latour, Essere di questa Terra. Guerra e pace ai tempi dei conflitti ecologici, a cura di Nicola Manghi, Torino : Rosenberg & Sellier, 2019 (Introduzione and three chapters of your choice).

3. Silvana Condemi e François Savatier, Noi siamo Sapiens. Alla ricerca delle nostre origini, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2019 (1° ed. orig. 2018).

4. Kate Crawford, Né intelligente né artificiale. Il lato oscuro dell'IA, il Mulino, Bologna, 2021.

5. P. Govoni, M.G. Belcastro, A. Bonoli, G. Guerzoni, Ripensare l'Antropocene. Oltre natura e cultura, Carocci, Roma, 2024.

Biodiversità e Evoluzione / Didattica e Comunicazione delle Scienze naturali:

1. Texts, films, and PowerPoints posted (during the course) on the e-learning platform;

2. Silvana Condemi e François Savatier, Noi siamo Sapiens. Alla ricerca delle nostre origini, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2019 (1° ed. orig. 2018).

3. Kate Crawford, Né intelligente né artificiale. Il lato oscuro dell'IA, il Mulino, Bologna, 2021, capitoli 1 e 2, Epilogo + altri due capitoli a scelta.

4. P. Govoni, M.G. Belcastro, A. Bonoli, G. Guerzoni, Ripensare l'Antropocene. Oltre natura e cultura, Carocci, Roma, 2024.

Please note: The syllabus is the same for attending students, non-attending students, and those on Erasmus mobility.’

Teaching methods

This course is part of the Digital Innovative Teaching (DDI) program. Materials and various documents (see point 1 of the Bibliography) will be uploaded to the Virtuale platform. Lectures will be recorded and made available through a link on Virtuale, and the recordings will remain accessible throughout the academic year. Students who watch the lectures at a later time may submit their questions or comments via the forum (on Virtuale) or by email (p.govoni@unibo.it).

As mentioned in the Contents section, the course will follow an interdisciplinary and largely seminar-based approach, including discussions (on dates to be posted on the platform) with:

- (24 September) engineer Andrea Bottazzi, a manager at Tper with a background in philosophy and social sciences, who will talk with us about the ‘Bologna case’: the ecological development of urban electric transport, smart cities, and STS approaches in business. This will also be an opportunity to discuss career paths.

- (26 September) Lucia Tedesco, who earned a master’s degree in Philosophical Sciences with a thesis on the petrochemical plant in Marghera and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Turin and the Bruno Kessler Foundation (Trento). With Lucia we will also discuss how to approach the master’s thesis and how to navigate further studies beyond the master’s level, in Italy or elsewhere.

- (2 October) professor Alessandra Bonoli, who will lead a discussion on the energy transition, the debate around nuclear power, and sustainable practices from the past and from other cultures.

Through these exchanges with our guests, this course also aims to support autonomy in learning, self-assessment practices, and collaboration among peers and with the instructor. As much as possible, we will try to move away from the traditional three-step model: lecture, independent study, examination. We will instead adopt, at least in part, practices inspired by “cooperative learning”.

Objectives: to facilitate deeper engagement with and communication of what is discussed in class and studied independently; to develop teamwork skills; to reduce competitiveness and performance anxiety in favor of working together to resolve doubts and problems. To this end, we will organize peer-to-peer activities that are an essential part of this course.

Attending students will give a presentation in class – individually, in pairs, or in groups – on one of the required readings or on a topic relevant to the course, agreed upon with the instructor, who will take these activities into account in the final evaluation.

Attending students may also, if they wish, submit a written assignment via Virtuale at the end of the course, no later than 7 days after the last class. Following a given prompt, students will be asked to develop a personal argument – drawing on their notes and properly cited online resources – on what was discussed in class and presented by the groups. This assignment will also be considered in the final evaluation.

Students who are unable to attend the lectures will simply study the texts listed in the Bibliography and available on the platform. As already mentioned, the lecture recordings will be available to them as well.

Assessment methods

How many exam sessions and when
The University of Bologna provides "at least six exam sessions per year", which for this course are scheduled as follows: one in September (before the start of classes); two in January (after my classes, which run from September to late December); one in May, one in June, and one in July.

How the oral exam is organized
The exam begins with a topic of your choice and develops into a discussion based on three/four questions drawn from the materials listed in the “Texts/Bibliography” section. The entire exam lasts approximately 20 minutes.

If you participated in in-class activities during the course, the results - which remain valid over time - will be given significant weight in the final assessment.

For more information about the exam, please see the Virtuale platform.

Assessment criteria
While knowledge of all the texts on the syllabus is essential, equally important is the ability to articulate what you have studied - and, for those attending classes, what was discussed in class - in a clear, coherent, and personal way. The aim is to assess how you have studied and with what goals.

For further details, please refer to the University’s Academic Regulations, particularly Article 16.

Students with specific learning disabilities or temporary/permanent impairments are kindly asked to contact the relevant University office as early as possible. The office will recommend any necessary exam accommodations, which must then be submitted to me for approval (at p.govoni@unibo.it) at least 15 days before the exam. Thank you for your cooperation.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint; e-learning tools.

Office hours

See the website of Paola Govoni