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 insights from the fields of 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. The purpose of my work is to contribute to a holistic understanding of past and present human-environmental relations with a particular focus on technological progress and its implications for the actualisation of sustainable degrowth societies.

Research themes

A central part of my work examines green industrialism and global inequality. I study lower-carbon energy systems and digital infrastructures—such as solar and wind power, biofuels, and information technologies—and show how they often depend on unequal flows of resources between the Global South and the Global North. This research raises important questions concerning sustainability, technological progress, and environmental justice in attempts to transition to a more sustainable world.

Another strand of my research develops an ecological philosophy of technology. Drawing on philosophy of technology, ecological economics and ecological humanities, I study why modern thinking tends to separate technology from ecology, and how this differentiation limits our understanding of technology’s role within the Earth system.

Finally, I investigate the potential of organic and low-tech solutions as ecologically sustainable and socially just alternatives, including low-impact energy systems and counter-hegemonic organisation.

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 concerning 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 am working with student supervision.