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Project

Project type/Form of grant
Grant to research environment
Title [sv]
Nature as Culture: the (re)production of common sense
Title [en]
Nature as Culture: the (re)production of common sense
Abstract [sv]
The aim of AMARA is to investigate how reproduction and kinship are changing inEurope and what a future Europe might look like in the light of these changes. Manyfactors influence the need to understand those changes. On the one hand, depopulationand simultaneously a proliferation of reproductive opportunities, and of divergenthousehold formations and new forms of togetherness and co-living. These, togetherwith new migrant streams, precarious labour, political and economic conditions,climate change, are set to change the face of Europe. AMARA therefore seeks toanswer the following questions: who is reproducing Europe? And what does‘reproducing Europe’ in this context actually mean? Further, how do we understand‘reproduction’ here? Is it about populations and kin, or is it about wider concerns? Wealso ask what kind of European futures do we imagine in the light of contemporaryreproduction and kinship related policies? And: how do these questions link to issuesof reproductive justice? To answer these questions we focus on five thematic areasthat the PhD students and senior scholars in AMARA will co-investigate: 1)reproducing Europe (as concept and practice); 2) sustainable populations; 3)reproductive mobilities; 4) population paradoxes; 5) household and kin: new forms oftogetherness. AMARA consists of international researchers located in universities andcentres with established expertise in these thematic areas from five Europeancountries (Greece, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, the UK), and twelve associate nonacademicpartners from the civil and public sectors. They will work cross-sectorallywith 10 doctoral researchers utilizing multi-method approaches that will significantlyadvance our understanding and inform policies of how reproductive issues, family andkinship, and European futures look from the vantage point of younger people now. Fuelled by the urgency of contemporary political and scientific debates and with the aim of aserious (re)consideration of what is frequently taken as ‘common sense’, the multidisciplinarynetwork “Nature as Culture: The (Re)production of Common Sense” (NaC) aims toinvestigate and discuss first, how the concepts of nature and culture figure and are articulatedin various disciplinary contexts, and secondly, how these concepts, precisely through beingtaken as ‘common sense’, feature to establish truth claims within different scientific culturalformations. With 12 members representing 5 faculties and 7 departments, the network aimedto explore core challenges for thinking interdisciplinarily and to learn from one another aboutdisciplinary epistemologies and ontologies. Less focused on output, the aim was to havediscussions on the shifting and differential meanings of fundamental concepts that operateboth within public discourse and as a basis for scientific work, such as nature, culture, sex,gender, race, reproduction and kinship. Participants are all leaders in their respective fieldsand will use their own professorial research time and current research projects as points ofdeparture in developing the workshops. In addition, participants brought additionalcolleagues, in particular PhD students and early career scholars. Due to the global pandemicand the challenges that followed, the original plan was adjusted and the work more centred oninter.departmental collaborations, new grant applications and a large symposium.
Abstract [en]
The aim of AMARA is to investigate how reproduction and kinship are changing inEurope and what a future Europe might look like in the light of these changes. Manyfactors influence the need to understand those changes. On the one hand, depopulationand simultaneously a proliferation of reproductive opportunities, and of divergenthousehold formations and new forms of togetherness and co-living. These, togetherwith new migrant streams, precarious labour, political and economic conditions,climate change, are set to change the face of Europe. AMARA therefore seeks toanswer the following questions: who is reproducing Europe? And what does‘reproducing Europe’ in this context actually mean? Further, how do we understand‘reproduction’ here? Is it about populations and kin, or is it about wider concerns? Wealso ask what kind of European futures do we imagine in the light of contemporaryreproduction and kinship related policies? And: how do these questions link to issuesof reproductive justice? To answer these questions we focus on five thematic areasthat the PhD students and senior scholars in AMARA will co-investigate: 1)reproducing Europe (as concept and practice); 2) sustainable populations; 3)reproductive mobilities; 4) population paradoxes; 5) household and kin: new forms oftogetherness. AMARA consists of international researchers located in universities andcentres with established expertise in these thematic areas from five Europeancountries (Greece, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, the UK), and twelve associate nonacademicpartners from the civil and public sectors. They will work cross-sectorallywith 10 doctoral researchers utilizing multi-method approaches that will significantlyadvance our understanding and inform policies of how reproductive issues, family andkinship, and European futures look from the vantage point of younger people now. Fuelled by the urgency of contemporary political and scientific debates and with the aim of aserious (re)consideration of what is frequently taken as ‘common sense’, the multidisciplinarynetwork “Nature as Culture: The (Re)production of Common Sense” (NaC) aims toinvestigate and discuss first, how the concepts of nature and culture figure and are articulatedin various disciplinary contexts, and secondly, how these concepts, precisely through beingtaken as ‘common sense’, feature to establish truth claims within different scientific culturalformations. With 12 members representing 5 faculties and 7 departments, the network aimedto explore core challenges for thinking interdisciplinarily and to learn from one another aboutdisciplinary epistemologies and ontologies. Less focused on output, the aim was to havediscussions on the shifting and differential meanings of fundamental concepts that operateboth within public discourse and as a basis for scientific work, such as nature, culture, sex,gender, race, reproduction and kinship. Participants are all leaders in their respective fieldsand will use their own professorial research time and current research projects as points ofdeparture in developing the workshops. In addition, participants brought additionalcolleagues, in particular PhD students and early career scholars. Due to the global pandemicand the challenges that followed, the original plan was adjusted and the work more centred oninter.departmental collaborations, new grant applications and a large symposium.
Principal InvestigatorDahl, Ulrika
Co-InvestigatorGriffin, Gabriele
Co-InvestigatorWahlström Henriksson, Helena
Co-InvestigatorHussenius, Anita
Co-InvestigatorBull, Jacob
Co-InvestigatorMolina, Irene
Co-InvestigatorGardell, Mattias
Co-InvestigatorSinger, Anna
Co-InvestigatorSkoog Svanberg, Agneta
Co-InvestigatorThapar-Björkert, Suruchi
Co-InvestigatorBradby, Hannah
Co-InvestigatorSvaleryd, Helena
Coordinating organisation
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Center for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS)
Funder
Period
2019-01-01 － 2023-01-01
National Category
Gender StudiesOther Humanities not elsewhere specifiedLaw and SocietyOther Health SciencesSociologyHealth Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health EconomyPolitical ScienceEconomics
Identifiers
DiVA, id: project:8266
v. 2.43.0
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