Introduction by the hosts:

How much is too much? Economists and ecologists, especially from the 1960s onwards, have been arguing against pathological affluence in the western hemisphere and endeavoured planetary management through calculations, models, and simulations to predict habitable futures within limits. Focusing on the period between the late 1960s and the present, this talk examines the intellectual history of market-based approaches that aim to integrate nature into circuits of capital. In a historical-sociological approach, I investigate how nature has become calculable, governable and investable through the commonalities and ruptures in the interwoven intellectual histories of the economics vis-à-vis ecology. I delve into the various concepts and tools serving as political technologies of the environmentalization of economics vis-à-vis the economization of nature, examining the contradictory constellations of actors, discourses, and institutions – ‘economics in the wild’ – invested in the valuation of ecosystems. Ultimately, I propose a conceptual approach of biosolutionism to capture the rationalities of economics in the wild against the prevailing cultural logic of environmentalization.

Speakers: Vicky Kluzik (Goethe Universität Frankfurt) and Arnaud Orain (CRH, EHESS)

Date : Friday, March 7th 2025, 11:00-13:00 CET

Lieu : Ecoles des Mines, 60 bd Saint Michel, 75006 Paris, room V119

The seminar will be streamed on Zoom. If you choose to participate online, a link will be sent shortly before the seminar.

The session will be held in English.

Here you can get to the registration website.