Descrizione del progetto
Studiare gli impatti socio-politici delle foreste intelligenti
Le tecnologie digitali quali le foreste intelligenti si stanno sviluppando come importanti strategie per affrontare i cambiamenti ambientali. Le foreste intelligenti mirano ad aumentare i benefici climatici derivanti dalle foreste e dal settore forestale. Tuttavia, queste nuove tecnologie possono portare a impatti socio-politici imprevisti, e le foreste intelligenti, a differenza delle città intelligenti, rimangono poco studiate. Il progetto SmartForests, finanziato dall’UE, approfondirà il modo in cui le foreste intelligenti vengono costituite e come le tecnologie digitali influiscono sulla gestione dell’ambiente. Prendendo in considerazione il fatto che le foreste intelligenti corrono il rischio potenziale di creare disuguaglianze socio-politiche e governance non democratica, il progetto esplorerà e analizzerà il modo in cui le tecnologie digitali trasformano le foreste e le comunità forestali esaminando le pratiche di monitoraggio, mitigazione, regolazione e trasformazione dei cambiamenti ambientali.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantIstituzione ospitante
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Regno Unito