National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
1. Short Description
This Elective is designed to support research on how to re-establish how we value, care for, and nurture our collective affairs through the commons, across: the production of things and meeting of social needs; organisation and coordination of knowledge, skills, and capabilities; the social reproduction of our lives and nature; and the relation to our emotions and our own bodies, our time, effort, and affect beyond economic production. Due to the cross-disciplinarity and complexity of these matters, the commons framework is used as the fabric that can bring together diverse perspectives from both STS-related theory and practice.
2. Areas/Directions
On the grounds of a focus on the commons-technology relationship, this Elective encourages research on issues of relevance to a) the cosmolocalism approach, which focuses on how to appropriately combine the global and the local, b) the study of technological maintenance, repair and reconfiguration of technology-in-use, which challenges the conventional the understanding of technology and innovation, and, further and more broadly, c) the assumption that technological change can only be connected to growth.
3. Examples of Thesis Topics
- Commons, cosmolocalism, maintenance, degrowth topics of relevance to energy, transportation and computing artifacts and infrastructures
- Knowledge commons
- Commons and sustainability
- Digital commons
- Open-source technology
- Peer-to-peer production
- Urban commons
- Global North-South and technology, global commons
- Feminist approaches to commons
4. Methods/Theories
This elective draws upon interdisciplinary methodological approaches from STS, including social construction of technology, and infrastructure studies. Theoretical frameworks encompass political ecology, feminist technoscience, and post-colonial STS perspectives. Research methods include ethnographic studies of commons governance, participatory action research with communities managing shared resources, and comparative case study analysis of different commons arrangements. Students engage with design anthropology methods for understanding technology-in-use, as well as critical discourse analysis for examining narratives around growth, innovation, and technological change. The approach emphasises reflexive methodology that considers the researcher’s positionality within systems of knowledge production and technological development.
5. Core Literature Short List
- Bollier, David, and Silke Helfrich. Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2019.
- Federici, Silvia. Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons. Oakland: PM Press, 2019.
- Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies 14, no. 3 (1988): 575-599.
- Hecht, Gabrielle. “Political Designs: Nuclear Reactors and National Policy in Postwar France.” Technology and Culture, 35, No. 4 (1994), 657-685.
- Kostakis, Vasilis, Vasilis Niaros, and Chris Giotitsas. “Beyond Global Versus Local: Illuminating a Cosmolocal Framework for Convivial Technology Development.” Sustainability Science 18 (2023): 2309-2322.
- Kallis, Giorgos, Vasilis Kostakis, Steffen Lange, Barbara Muraca, Susan Paulson, and Matthias Schmelzer. “Research on Degrowth.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 43 (2018): 291-316.
- Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
- Tympas, Aristotle. ‘Technological black boxing versus ecological reparation: From encased-industrial to open-renewable wind energy’, in Papadopoulos D., Puig de la Bellacasa, M., & Tacchetti, M., Eds.). Ecological Reparation. Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2023, 362-377.
- Winner, Langdon. “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” Daedalus 109, no. 1 (1980): 121-136.
6. Organization of Introductory Course
The Introductory Course is offered in the beginning of the Spring Semester through a collaboration between two ESST partners, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (the host institution of this Elective, home institution of one of the two coordinators of this Elective) and the Tallinn University of Technology (home institution of the second coordinator of this Elective).
7. Potential Supervisors
Prof. Vasilis Kostakis (commons, cosmolocalism, degrowth)
Prof. Aristotle Tympas (renewability, sustainability, technology-in-use)
8. Coordinators/Contact
Vasilis Kostakis, Professor, Tallinn University of Technology
Aristotle Tympas, Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Contact: tympas@phs.uoa.gr
