Oil Spaces [13.12.2021]

In the last years, energy transition has been part of international political debates with increasing frequency and preoccupation, especially in Europe. In these discussions, oil is often portrayed as an outdated fossil fuel, belonging to a past soon to be forgotten. On the contrary, recent multidisciplinary research on oil shows how this viscous liquid is still largely present in the everyday life of most people around the world. As the recent book Oil Spaces. Exploring the Global Petroleumscape (Routledge – Taylor&Francis, 2022) edited by Carola Hein (TU Delft) reveals, oil has been creating spaces for decades through its material flow and agency, in multiple forms and scales. Looking at the energy transition debate from this perspective, planners, landscape architects, and conservationists are urged to reconsider the global petroleumscape, how this materialises at the local level, and how this could be transformed. Thanks to a collaboration between the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität in Munich, the seminar Oil Spaces draws scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds together, to shed light on spaces, as well as histories, geographies, representations, and conflicts around oil, in a time of transition.