"This is very happy news! Congratulations to Andrea Nightingale! This year's AdG to the staff at our faculty show that we hold leading researchers across the breadth of social science competence," states the Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Anne Julie Semb, and adds:
"The mobilization of the faculty's experienced researchers in connection with the ERC call has been very successful. It is a privilege to lead a faculty with so many creative and talented employees."
Earlier this spring, Andreas Moxnes from the Department of Economics and Vegard Skirbekk from the Department of Psychology received Advanced Grants for their projects, while Yves Steinbach from The department of political science became a collaborator in a third Advanced Grant at the faculty,
Unruly world
The fourth AdG project to the faculty is titled "Unruly entanglements of sociomaterial change, knowledge, and power in energy frontiers" (UNRULY) Principal investigator is Andrea Joslyn Nightingale at The department of sociology and human geography.
It received top marks from the ERC panel but was nonetheless on the waiting list for a while before the pleasant announcement was made.
"I was really surprised, delighted and relieved," says Nightingale.
She will study how society is creating more uncertainties by trying to anticipate the future, in this case by building large energy infrastructure in the Global South (Nepal and Zambia) designed to ensure economic and energy security,
"Unruliness as I define it, thus reclaims the term from its derogatory colonial roots to flag the often hidden and politically potent encounters wherein uncertainties arise and reshape abilities to govern socioenvironmental change."
Uncertain future
Social politics and biophysical changes, according to Nightingale, cascade in ways that defy stable probability patterns, reshaping not only ecosystem dynamics and knowledge of them, but also how people use their lands and the politics surrounding them - which further reshape ecosystems.
"In this project, we will seek to develop a conceptualisation of unruliness that holds in tension uncertainties which are impossible to predict, including those caused by climate change, and the need to prepare for a changing future,"
"I am especially interested in developing new methods that reflect advances in conceptual thinking on the entanglements of society and nature," she tells.
Teamwork
Her project, UNRULY, has been funded with approximately 26 million Norwegian kroner (2.5 million euros) from The European research council (ERC) over five years.
"I am immensely grateful for the support that I have received from my department colleagues and the Faculty. UiO has provided incredible support, both practical and motivational, which I know contributed to making the application a success," the professor concludes.