[Histport] Até 24/11: CONCRETE LANDSCAPES - CALL FOR ABSTRACTS (ESHS-HSS EDINBURGH 2026).

["M. Luisa Sousa" <luisacoelhosousa@yahoo.fr>]

Boa tarde,

Segue esta chamada para uma sessão para o encontro conjunto da European Society for the History of Science e da History of Science Society, que decorrerá de 13 a 16 de Julho de 2026 em Edimburgo.

Obrigada,

M. Luísa Sousa

  Dear colleagues,
  We are looking for contributions to the following panel session
proposal for the upcoming HSS/ESHS joint meeting in Edinburgh, 13–16
July 2026 [1]:

  CONCRETE LANDSCAPES: SCIENCE, POLITICS AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY
  Concrete is ubiquitous. Its use in all sorts of infrastructures and
buildings grew exponentially over the last century, turning it into one
of the man-made materials that define anthropocenic landscapes. Its
expansion went hand in hand with economic, architectural and social
transformations, and its production represents a major ecological
threat, with the cement industry being responsible for up to 8% of the
global CO2 emissions. Recent contributions by philosophers (Jappe,
2020), urban geographers (Choplin, 2023) and anthropologists (Elinoff &
Rubaii, 2025) have emphasized the social lives of concrete, but there is
still need for a better historical understanding of the specific actors,
practices and contexts that made it become hegemonic. Historians of
science and environmental historians have started to explore the
technopolitical history of the production, circulation and use of this
old yet highly significant material, linking it with capitalist labour
relations in the USA (Slaton, 2001), the construction of fascist states
in the Iberian Peninsula (Camprubí, 2014; Bolas, 2021) and the
production of space through territorial planning and large
infrastructures in postwar France (Magalhães, 2024). In dialogue with
this literature, which has put technoscientific practices at the center,
this panel gathers case-studies from different geographical and
chronological contexts in order to explore how concrete reshaped
landscapes, societies and imaginaries in the twentieth century.
  We look forward to contributions from the history of science and
technology that address, among other topics, dimensions and perspectives
such as the following, linking them with social, cultural or political
history:
  - The production and circulation of scientific knowledge on concrete.
  - Expert and lay critiques and resistances to the uses of concrete.
  - Colonial and postcolonial histories of concrete.
  - Socio-environmental controversies surrounding the production or use
of concrete.
  - Sociotechnical imaginaries and cultural appropriations of concrete.
  - Concrete and/as industrial heritage.
  - Concrete and/as waste.
  - Labour histories of concrete (including history of medicine).
  - Environmental histories of concrete.
  You can send us your proposals BY NOVEMBER 24 in the form of an
abstract of 2000 CHARACTERS MAX. to the following emails:
jaume.sastre@uab.cat; gemma.garcia@uab.cat; roger.fdez1@gmail.com. Feel
free to write if you have any doubts or comments.

  Best regards,
  Jaume Sastre-Juan
  Gemma Garcia Alonso
  Roger Fernàndez i Tudela