Jaume Franquesa: Windmills and Giants. The struggle for dignity, energy sovereignty and the ecological transition

This seminar revolves around the book Molinos y gigantes: La lucha por la dignidad, la soberanía energética y la transición ecológica (Errata Naturae, 2023), which carries out a historical ethnography of the "energy transition" in southern Catalonia. The book makes a critical reading of the model that characterizes wind development in Spain, dominated by large companies with an extractive approach, concentrated in rural areas where it produces a significant degradation of the lives of its inhabitants, without many environmental concerns and lacking mechanisms for democratic participation. Molinos y gigantes studies the most nuclearized region of Catalonia and Spain, which has also one of the highest density of wind farms, through an ethnography that delves into both the historical roots of the present and the social and political complexities of the "energy transition" and the struggle for dignity in Terres de l'Ebre.

Jaume Franquesa is a professor and researcher in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Buffalo, in the United States. His research interests focus on political ecology, from a view that always integrates ethnographic analysis within the framework of a historical perspective and linked to social struggles. He is the author of the books Urbanismo neoliberal, negocio inmobiliario y vida vecinal (Icària, 2013) and Molinos y gigantes: La lucha por la dignidad, la soberanía energética y la transición ecológica (Errata Naturae, 2023). He has also published numerous book chapters and articles in some of the most prominent journals in his field, such as Current Anthropology, Antipode or Dialectical Anthropology. You can read a recent interview here.

This seminar is part of the Interuniversity Master's Degree in History of Science. Aimed especially at master's students, it is also open to the entire academic community and to people interested in the social dimensions of the "energy transition".