reSEArch-EU - European University of the Seas

Title

Methanation Units Development in Brittany: Conceptualizing the links between Food Security, Climate Change and EnergyTransition in the Anthropocene 

Abstract

As biogas has been strongly developed in Brittany, attention has been paid by the sociology of mobilization to the potential nuisances it could have on the population – a key factor to explain the local oppositions to the projects of methanation units. As Climate Change deepens the problem of water supplies for agriculture, this communication analyzes the link between the international political economy of Britain intensive breeding, methanation units development, and the Anthropocene dynamics. As it will be argued, the “green” biogas appears to reproduce the destructive dynamics of the Anthropocene, as it provides intensive farming with a concrete and material argument for its reproduction. In a nutshell, we offer to stress the political dimension of methanation units massive development under the Anthropocene regime of historicity. 

Key words : methanation units; Anthropocene; Climate Change; Biodiversity; Intensive Farming

Short CV

Pierre-Yves Cadalen is currently post-doc researcher at the CRBC – Université Bretagne Occidentale and associate to the CERI-Sciences Po. He recently obtained his PhD in Political Science and International Relations. His works are mainly related to the relations of power around the Environmental Commons. His former studies, which also included a Bachelor in Philosophy, led him to theorize the new forms of power related to the Anthropocene era.

Recent publications 

« Pour une nouvelle approche du populisme au sein des démocraties représentatives contemporaines », Astérion. Philosophie, histoire des idées, pensée politique, no 24, 2021  

« L’Amazonie et le vivant à l’épreuve de l’écopouvoir », Raisons politiques, no 80, 2020, pp. 77-90

« Le populisme écologique comme stratégie internationale », Critique internationale, no 89, 2020, pp. 165-183

« Republican populism and Marxist Populism: Perspectives from Ecuador and Bolivia », in Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines – The Return of Populists and the People, Palgrave MacMilan, 2020

Contact: pierreyves.cadalen@sciencespo.fr