Speaker: Andrew Lakoff, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, University of South California
By the end of 2024, over 2000 jurisdictions in 40 different countries had declared a “climate emergency.” But there is a certain paradox in this formulation. On the one hand, climate change is an inexorable process, irreversibly transforming our conditions of existence. On the other hand, the concept of emergency suggests a sudden and disruptive event, after which—if we have responded adequately—we may return to a prior condition of normalcy. In this talk, Lakoff will consider how this contradiction is dealt with in the practice of governing actual climate emergencies. Specifically, this talk focuses on the use of the category of emergency in managing the recent drought in California. In this context, Lakoff argues, the “climate emergency” is not the punctuated event of drought per se, but rather the challenge of sustaining infrastructural access to flows in the context of an ever-changing baseline.
This is a virtual seminar. Join via Zoom.