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NEW PAPER: Disassembling from within

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Lechowicz, K., & Kuchler, M. (2024). Disassembling Poland's high-carbon imaginaries from within: The case of local activism in Upper Silesia. Energy Research & Social Science, 111, 103461. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103461


Abstract

This paper seeks to understand how dominant high-carbon imaginaries, such as those associated with coal, can be disassembled from within. Although resistance can have a disruptive potential to threaten the prevailing energy narrative, in certain contexts, the complete replacement of the dominant imaginary with an alternative one may not always be feasible or preferable. The paper shows how thinking about disassembly from within can be achieved by bringing the interpretative envelope of sociotechnical imaginaries (STI) into productive conversation with the concepts of hyperobject and hyposubjects. While the analytical framework of STI accounts for the material-normative co-production of future-making, the hyperobject emphasises the effects of human-natural interconnectedness, and hyposubjects elucidate how this mesh can be used generatively through attunement and subscendence. The paper illustrates this way of thinking about disassembling from within by focusing on Upper Silesia, a region in Poland uniquely bound to coal. Through the case of a local activist group Queer Silesia, the paper provides a perspective on disassembly from within where elements of the old but prevailing imaginary can be repurposed to create visions of the post-coal future without erasing the resource's legacy or compromising social cohesion.



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