Doctoral Thesis defence:

Marie Widengård will defend her PhD thesis “Becoming Biofuels. The messy assembling of resources, sustainability, poverty, land use, and nation-states” on the 7th of May 2015. The defense will take place 13.15-15.00, in room A326 at Annedalsseminariet, Campus Linné, Seminariegatan 1A in Göteborg.

Focus area: 

I am investigating the coupled processes of environmental-social change and continuity. My work is located in environmental social science, involving political ecology, political economy, science and technology studies, assemblage thinking, and governmentality.

My PhD work has focused on the theme of biofuels, and I have examined some of the processes, discourses, materialities, technologies, and relationships involved in the production of biofuels. I approached production as an assembling of components that are both material and expressive, and I looked at the work needed to maintain and/or dismantle biofuel resources and the implications. Main research question was how biofuels shape, and are shaped by, their constitutive components.

Background:

Previous to my PhD work, I worked four years in non-governmental organisations in sub-Saharan Africa. My university studies include law, environmental and water engineering, and rural development. My bachelor and master theses investigated the theme of participatory plant breeding and intellectual property rights of plants and genes, with field work in Nicaragua. Currently I am consulting in sustainability standard development and certification application, and scientific literature reviews.

Key words:

biofuels, jatropha, assemblages, governmentality, political ecology, political economy, ethnography, governance, materiality, authority, territory, sovereignty, resources, poverty, sustainability, land use change, states, standards, certification, Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, EU