Kristin Asdal and Béatrice Cointe co-organised an open panel at 4S2019 along with Pierre Delevenne (SPIRAL - University of Liège) and Kean Birch (York University): "Regeneration, promises and innovation in the bioeconomy".
Three papers were presented in the panel. First, Nitha Palakshappa and Sita Venkateswar from massey University (New Zealand) gave a talk on "Asset to zero waste: innovation, science and technology for circular waste bioeconomics", taking the audience to Bangalore and then to Japan. Kristin Asdal and Béatrice Cointe then presented "The economy, the good and its trouble: A new economics for «The Good Economy»?", a talk based on arecent Good Economy Working Paper and on some of the empirical work in the Little Tools project to analyse the documents and little tools that enact new relations between the good, the bio and the economy. Last, Duygu Kasdogan, from Izmir Katip Çelebi Üniversitesi presented on "Design Sustainability: the limits of technospatial growth imaginaries". Her exploration of algae-based technoprojects using waste as a resource raised challenging questions about growth and value. From these presentations and following discussions, it came out clearly that the "bioeconomy" forces us to think the economic and the material together, and to challenge conceptions of value.
Highlights of the conference included an exciting panel on Data and Markets, with a great talk by Marion Fourcade, as well as the final Bernal lecture by Emily Martin.