New publications for 2022

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm pleased that a number of publications from various projects and activities are now available.

The first this year is a chapter in the CRESC-inspired collection Speaking for the Social: A Catalogue of Methods available open access from the wonderful Punctum Books. It was a real pleasure to work with Temporal Design colleagues Larissa Pschetz and PhD researcher Ryan Bowler to reflect on a number of events and projects undertaken under the Temporal Design banner to explore how they challenge how we talk with 'the public' about time, and indeed what kinds of questions they can explore and challenge. Some of this thinking was in response to the UK consultation on the debates around removing the leap second from UTC, and the deference given to technical experts rather than opening wider questions about the possibility of discussing time.

Pschetz, L., Bastian, M., Bowler, R. (2022) Revealing social infrastructures of time. In eds. Knox, H, John, G Speaking for the Social: A Catalogue of Methods Punctum Books. pp255-293 Published Version [PDF]

Next, with support from the Independent Social Research Foundation, I have been working on a new project on phenology, the scientific study of lifecycle timing in plants, animals, fungi and others! In collaboration with Rowan Bayliss Hawitt, a PhD reseracher I'm working with here at the University of Edinburgh, we produced a scoping study of reserach on phenology from within the humanities. We wrote this up, and also included a series of discussions and examples to explore how a focus on phenology could open up a range of fascinating avenues for researach in environmental humanities in general, but also areas such as critical plant studies and extinction studies.

Bastian, M., & Bayliss Hawitt, R. (2022). Multi-species, ecological and climate change temporalities: Opening a dialogue with phenology. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486221111784

Most recent is another co-authored project on The Material LIfe of Time conference, the 2nd international conference of the Temporal Belongings network. After running our first event in person in Edinburgh, we decided in 2019 to move the event online in response to the growing demand for universities to reduce the built in carbon costs that come from business as usual. Recognising that one of the most common critiques of the online conference often comes in the form of the cry 'but what about the coffee break?!', we decided to tackle the problem of online sociality head on. Our first set of reflections on this are now available from Geo: Geography and Environment.

Bastian, M., Flatø, E.H., Baraitser, L., Jordheim, H., Salisbury, L. & van Dooren, T. (2022) ‘What about the coffee break?’ Designing virtual conference spaces for conviviality. Geo: Geography and Environment, 9, e00114. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.114