Descripción del proyecto
Estudiar las repercusiones sociopolíticas de los bosques inteligentes
Las tecnologías digitales, como los bosques inteligentes, se están desarrollando como estrategias importantes para abordar el cambio ambiental. Los bosques inteligentes tienen como objetivo aumentar los beneficios climáticos de los bosques y del sector forestal. Sin embargo, estas nuevas tecnologías pueden conducir a repercusiones sociopolíticas imprevistas, y los bosques inteligentes, al contrario que las ciudades inteligentes, siguen sin haberse estudiado en profundidad. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos SmartForests estudiará cómo se establecen los bosques inteligentes y cómo influencian las tecnologías digitales la gestión medioambiental. Teniendo en cuenta que los bosques inteligentes pueden correr el riesgo de crear desigualdades sociopolíticas y una gobernanza antidemocrática, el proyecto estudiará y analizará cómo las tecnologías digitales transforman los bosques y las comunidades forestales examinando las prácticas de supervisión, mitigación, regulación y transformación del cambio ambiental.
Objetivo
Forests are crucial to acting on environmental change. They are key contributors to the carbon cycle and biodiversity, as well as air and water quality. At the same time, digital technologies are reshaping forests in order to manage and enhance their environmental contributions. However, these new technologies are generating social-political impacts that have yet to be extensively researched. For the first time, this groundbreaking project addresses the vital question of how forests are becoming “smart” through the increasing use of digital technologies to manage these environments. Smart forests span locations from Germany to New York City to Thailand, and from remote to urban areas. While there is now extensive research on smart cities, other “smart” environments have been less well studied. This is problematic, since it is necessary to assess how these technologies enable and constrain particular modes of governance and engagement. Without this research, smart environments such as smart forests run the risk of producing social-political inequities and undemocratic governance, as has been identified with smart cities. Using inventive digital practices, fieldwork, participatory workshops and mapping, the research will investigate the transformation of forests and forest communities through digital technologies. Through 5 case studies, the project will analyze the ways in which forest technologies are transforming practices of observing, mitigating, participating in, and regulating environmental change. SmartForests asks not just how digital technologies are remaking forests, but also investigates how forests become social-political technologies for addressing environmental change. Situated at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and digital media studies, the research will demonstrate how these technologies impact socio-ecological relations, and will propose more equitable approaches to digital and environmental practice and policy.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Reino Unido