TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT - (NO) CONTRADICTION?(!)

That the environment is to be protected from technology is as widespread an idea as the assertion of the indispensability of technical development to solve current and future environmental problems. Problems such as species extinction and climate change, ubiquitous plastic waste and urban sprawl have been and continue to be generated by technical products and industrial modes of production. How can this comprehensive mechanization of society, landscape and its resources be better understood and shaped? Answers to these and other questions are sought in the public lecture series "TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT - (K)EIN WIDERSPRUCH?(!)".

The lecture series takes place fortnightly, on Thursdays from 6:15 p.m. in the City-Saal am Brauhaus in Cottbus. Participation is free of charge, registration is not required. The hall has a maximum of 80 seats.

The total of six events in this lecture series will focus on the presentation and discussion of positions that understand technology and the environment as interrelated categories. Current and historical constellations will be presented, which also include cultural and artistic aspects. Examples include projects on renewable energies and coal-fired power generation, on post-mining landscapes and their uncertainties in material and knowledge resources, or on design and ownership issues. Historical, legal, design, sociological or philosophical questions are thus raised. The lecture series also addresses fundamental shifts in the understanding of technology and the environment in science, society and politics that have taken place in recent years, not least as a result of increased pressure to act.

In science, the natural and engineering environmental sciences have been joined by the environmental humanities, thus also opening up new fields of research, such as the history and philosophy of envirotechnology or environmental anthropology. In the contact zone of science, economy, politics and civil society, fighting terms such as eco-technology and the Anthropocene appear, new forms of knowledge and methods emerge, such as citizen science and participatory research.

Accordingly, not only the lecturers from science, politics and business are called upon to "contradict" in this lecture, but of course also civil society - that is, you as active participants in the debates.

First lecture:

April 27, 2023 Perspectives from the History of Technology -. In the long run, we are all dead ...?!

• "Grass over .... Not only a special exhibition of the German Mining Museum Bochum " with Dr. Torsten Meyer, Montanhistorisches Dokumentationszentrum (montan.dok), German Mining Museum Bochum, Leibniz Research Museum for Georesources.
• "No environment without technology" With Dr. Norman Pohl, Institute for Industrial Archaeology, History of Science and Technology, Head of Historicum, Technical University (TU) Bergakademie Freiberg.

Further dates and topics:

May 11, 2023: The energy transition, a contested terrain - perspectives from law and politics.

• "Germany's Deep Fall from Dependence: On the Failure of the Energy Transition " with Prof. Dr. Lothar Knopp (Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Environmental Law,. Director of the Center for Law and Administrative Sciences (ZfRV) at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
• (Lecture requested)Dr. Ingrid Nestle, Member of the German Bundestag, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen

May 25, 2023: Genesis and Management of Post-Excavation Landscapes - Perspectives from Planning and Industrial Culture .

June 8, 2023: Transformative production of energy, landscape, coal - perspectives from sociology

June 22, 2023: Philosophy meets Technology - Is this technology or can it go away? - Perspectives from the philosophy of technology

July 6, 2023: Cultivating "new landscapes" in art and technology - Perspectives from cultural studies.