Andreas Roos

About Andreas Roos

Associate Senior Lecturer in Environmental Social Science.

I am a human ecologist (PhD 2021) and an interdisciplinary scholar studying human-environmental relationships. I draw on insights from ecological economics, political ecology, environmental history, environmental humanities, and philosophy of technology to illuminate and challenge global problems of ecological destruction, uneven development, and relations of power. My work contributes to a holistic understanding of human-environmental relations, with a particular focus on technology and its ecological and social dimensions.

Research themes

My research develops an ecological philosophy of technology as a broader framework for understanding the relationships between technology, ecology, society, and the Earth system. Within this larger research stream, I pursue two interconnected lines of inquiry: the political economy of green industrialism and global inequality, and the possibilities of organic and low-tech alternatives. Together, these strands examine how technologies shape, and are shaped by, ecological processes, social relations, and systems of power.

One part of this research examines green industrialism and global inequality. I study lower-carbon energy systems and digital infrastructures, including solar and wind power, biofuels, and information technologies, to understand how they depend on extractive processes and unequal flows of resources in the world economy. This research raises questions about the environmental and social implications of technological transitions and the possibilities for creating a more sustainable and just world.

Another part investigates the potential of organic and low-tech solutions as ecologically sustainable and socially just alternatives. This includes research on low-impact energy systems and forms of counter-hegemonic organisation, with particular attention to how alternative technological practices can challenge dominant relations between technology, society, and nature.

Across these areas, I am interested in why modern thinking tends to separate technology from ecology, how this separation shapes technological development and environmental policy, and how we might instead understand technology as embedded within ecological and social relations.

Current research

I am currently studying questions concerning technological ambivalence. Together with colleagues at the University of Helsinki, I am authoring a book investigating feelings of ambivalence associated with knowledge about the social-environmental impacts of “green” technological solutions.

I am also conducting research on the notion of petroculture as applied to oil corporate sustainability narratives. This research critically examines the strategy to mass-produce biofuels from pine oil (tall oil) emerging within the context of Swedish environmental state capitalism.

Teaching

I primarily teach at the bachelor’s level, including courses in Environmental Social Science, Human Ecology, Global Studies and International Relations. I also supervise students at bachelor’s and other levels.

Communication

I communicate research results and ideas through multiple media formats, including newspaper articles, op-eds and podcasts. I am interested in communicating research beyond academic settings and in making philosophical and interdisciplinary research accessible to wider audiences. On my Substack page, I publish essays, personal reflections, and preliminary research ideas on themes such as philosophy of technology, science and knowledge and questions of environment, community and belonging.