Anders Blok

Anders Blok is a Danish sociologist who is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. Despite his young age he is acclaimed in the fields of Science Studies (STS) and environmental sociology.

Professional life

Anders Blok was born in Denmark. He holds a Ph.d. in Sociology and STS from Copenhagen University and Harvard University (Harvard Kennedy School),.^[1] He is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at Copenhagen University. Combining an interest in STS with a background in socio-political theory and environmental sociology, his research focuses on the knowledge politics of science in global processes of environmental governance.^[2] He has received The Elite Researchers Grant awarded to exceptional young researchers ^[3] by the Danish Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, and is a fellow of the Harvard University – Kennedy School of Government.^[4] He is the co-author of the book Bruno Latour: Hybrid Thoughts in a Hybrid World,^[5] which is one of the best ^[6] introductory books on the thoughts of Bruno Latour. Blok is also the director of the research center CEVES, Center of Science, Expertise and Society,^[7] at the University of Copenhagen.

He has done extensive research on Japanese whaling and the international controversies surrounding it, and on the cosmo-politics of climate change. He is currently researching under the headline: sociological perspectives on global climate change, risk-communities and trans-local solidarity. Blok is part of the ERC (European Research Council) funded research project Methodological Cosmopolitanism – in the Laboratory of Climate Change (the Cosmo-Climate Research Project),^[8] where he leads the work package Greening Cosmopolitan Urbanism.^[9] The overall project is headed by internationally acclaimed sociologist Ulrich Beck. In this research, as with Bloks previous work, he is in part invoking the concepts of risk society and cosmopolitization, which is are terms coined by Ulrich Beck.^[10]

Publications and books

• Blok, A & Elgaard Jensen, T, 2011, 'Bruno Latour: Hybrid Thoughts in a Hybrid World', Routledge.
• Blok, A 2010, Divided Socio-Natures: Essays on the co-construction of science, society, and the global environment . Department of Sociology, University of copenhagen, Kbh. Ph.d.-afhandling, nr. 55
• Kropp, K & Blok, A 2010, ' Mode 2 Sociologies in Denmark?: From Crisis to Stabilization in Times of Pressures for Policy-Relevant Research, 1980s-2000s '. M Burawoy, M Chang & MF Hsieh (red), i: Facing an Unequal World: Challenges for a Global Sociology. Vol. 3. Academia Sinica, Taiwan, s. 43-86.
• Blok, A 2009, ' Retfærdighed i klimapolitikken?: Om de sociale og etiske dilemmaer ved CO2-markeder '. P Nedergaard & P Fristrup (red), i: Klimapolitik: Dansk, europæisk, globalt. Djøf / Jurist- og Økonomforbundet, Kbh., s. 85-108.
• Blok, A 2007, ' Naturkapitalens kultur: Om strategisk miljøforskning og miljøøkonomi i Danmark '. J Holm, L Kjerulf Petersen, J Læssøe, A Remmen & C Jahn Hansen (red), i: Økologisk modernisering på dansk: Brug og bevægelser i miljøindsatsen. Frydenlund, Kbh., s. 52-88.
• Blok, A 2011, ' War of the Whales: Post-Sovereign Science and Agonistic Cosmopolitics in Japanese-Global Whaling Assemblages ' Science, Technology & Human Values, vol 36, nr. 1, s. 55-81.
• Magelund Krarup, T & Blok, A 2011, ' Unfolding the social: Quasi-actants, virtual theory, and the new empiricism of Bruno Latour ' The Sociological Review, vol 59, nr. 1, s. 42-63.
• Blok, A 2011, ' Clash of the eco-sciences: carbon marketization, environmental NGOs, and performativity as politics ' Economy and Society, vol 40, nr. 3, s. 451-476.
• Blok, A 2010, ' Topologies of climate change: Actor-network theory, relational-scalar analytics, and carbon-market overflows ' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol 28, nr. 5, s. 896-912.
• Blok, A 2012, ' Configuring homo carbonomicus: Carbon markets, calculative techniques, and the green neoliberal '. L Pellizzoni & M Ylönen (red), i: Neoliberalism and Technoscience: Critical Assessments. Ashgate, Surrey, s. 187-208.
• Blok, A 2010, ' Mapping the Super-Whale: Towards a Mobile Ethnography of Situated Globalities ' Mobilities, vol 5, nr. 4, s. 507-528.
• Blok, A 2010, ' Sociologi om kritik og retfærdiggørelser: Om a-kritiske attituder i nyere fransk pragmatisk sociologi ' Sosiologisk Aarbok. Ny Serie, nr. 3-4, s. 4-30.
• Blok, A, Jensen, M & Kaltoft, P 2008, ' Social identities and risk: Expert and lay imaginations on pesticide use ' Public Understanding of Science, vol 17, nr. 2, s. 189-209.
• Blok, A & Jensen, M 2008, ' Pesticides in the risk society: The view from everyday life ' Current Sociology, vol 56, nr. 5, s. 757-78.
• Blok, A 2008, ' Contesting global norms: Politics of identity in Japanese pro-whaling counter-mobilisation ' Global Environmental Politics, vol 8, nr. 2, s. 39-66.
• Blok, A 2007, ' Actor-networking ceta-sociality, or, what is sociological about contemporary whales? ' Distinktion : Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, nr. 15, s. 65-89.
• Blok, A 2007, ' Experts on public trial: on democratizing expertise through a Danish consensus conference ' Public Understanding of Science, vol 16, nr. 2, s. 163-182.
• Blok, A 2012, ' Wandering around Cities with ANTs: Review of Ignacio Farias & Thomas Bender (Eds.): Urban assemblages: How Actor-Network Theory changes urban studies. Milton Park, Routledge 2010 ' Science as Culture, vol 21, nr. 2, s. 283-287.
• Blok, A 2012, ' Anm. af Luc Boltanski: Pragmatisk sociologi. En tekstsamling. Kbh., Hans Reitzel 2011 ' Dansk Sociologi, vol 23, nr. 2, s. 119-121.
• Blok, A 2010, ' Anm. af Bruno Latour: The Making of Law: An Ethnography of the Conseil D'État. Cambridge, Polity 2010 ' Dansk Sociologi, vol 21, nr. 3, s. 86-88.
• Blok, A 2010, ' Book Review: Hiroyuki Watanabe: Japan's Whaling: The Politics of Culture in Historical Perspective. Tokyo, Toshindo 2006. ' East Asian Science Technology and Society - an International Journal, vol 4, nr. 4, s. 619-622.
• Blok, A 2009, ' Anm. af Bülent Diken & Carsten Bagge Laustsen: Sociology through the Projector. London, Routledge 2007 ' Dansk Sociologi, vol 20, nr. 1, s. 107-109.
• Blok, A 2009, ' Material Feminisms: Taking turns with feminism: one more turn after the discursive turn - Review of Stacey Alaimo & Susan Hekman (eds.): Material Feminisms. Indiana University Press, 2008 ' Kvinder, Køn og Forskning, vol 18, nr. 3-4, s. 112-114.

Notes

External links

• Bruno Latour: Hybrid Thoughts in a Hybrid World, written by Anders Blok and Torben Elgaard Jensen
• Blok currently holds a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen
• Blok received The Elite Researchers Grand awarded to exceptionally talented young researchers
• Harvard University – Kennedy School of Government
• Anders Blok is the director of the research center CEVES, Center of Science, Expertise and Society, at the University of Copenhagen