Concrete landscapes: technology, politics, and environment in the twentieth century

This project aims to contribute to debates on new materials for energy transitions by exploring the environmental and technopolitical history of the production, circulation, and consumption of an old yet highly significant material: concrete.

“Energy transitions” are intrinsically linked to materials, both historically and in the present. Concrete, the most widely used construction material, has expanded rapidly over the past century, becoming a potential stratigraphic marker of the Anthropocene. Its production poses a major ecological challenge, with the cement industry responsible for 4–8% of global CO₂ emissions. As environmental pressures grow, the cement industry acknowledges the need to decarbonize. Meanwhile, materials scientists work to develop advanced materials and technologies to reduce concrete’s global impact.

Yet concrete is a multi-layered product, shaped by geological, scientific, and historical processes, and its social, economic, and political dimensions should also be considered.

This project seeks to understand how concrete became hegemonic and how it reshaped landscapes, societies, and imaginaries. History has proven crucial to reframing narratives of energy transitions and climate debates (Fressoz, 2024). A historical focus on concrete—now receiving growing attention from anthropologists (Elinoff & Rubaii, 2025), urban geographers (Choplin, 2023), philosophers (Jappe, 2020), and environmental historians (Magalhães, 2024)—is expected to inform broader discussions on the material history of energy.

The PhD dissertation will develop a historical case study focused on the twentieth century, with its specific geographic and chronological scope tailored to the candidate’s background, interests, and linguistic skills. The project may address environmental, colonial, scientific, cultural, and diplomatic dimensions, as well as socio-environmental controversies surrounding concrete.

Academic background

• Master’s degree in history of science (or related disciplines – STS, Environmental Humanities, Cultural Anthropology, Contemporary History, Urban Geography). 
• Previous research and publications on the topic are valued but not required. 

Languages:

• Intermediate-high level of English
• Intermediate-high level of a second language other than English

Skills:

• Collaborative skills, ability to work with autonomy and willingness to participate in local and international transdisciplinary teams. 
• Ability to combine empirical archival or ethnographic work with historiographical/theoretical approaches. 

The research project Exchange Zones of Epistemic Resistance and Alternative Innovation: Activism, Grassroots Movements and Expertise, 1970s-1990s (PID2023-150413NB-C21, PI: Jaume Valentines-Álvarez) delves into the exchange zones between activists, grassroots groups and experts, in three main areas:

1. Environment, energy and communities;
2. Body, gender and identities;
3. The city, mobility and urban sustainability. 

Each of these project areas studies two intertwined domains:

1. Local communities and social movements as epistemologically active actors: Through local and transnational networks, their demands and political practices have been closely linked to the production, circulation and appropriation of scientific knowledge;
2. Activism as a driving force of sociotechnical innovation: Opposition to specific socio-technical projects has often triggered a great deal of ingenuity and innovation. The project brings together 18 members from Spain and Portugal (mainly historians of science, but also including environmental historians, artists and research technicians).

Although the project focuses on the Iberian Peninsula and the last decades of the 20th century, other geographies and time periods are also of interest.