You are warmly invited to attend the workshop ‘Planetary Development and Planetary Politics’ on 28 and 29 September 2026.
The workshop invites debate on the planetary as a novel way to engage politics and today’s development landscape. As a condition and a mode of thought, the planetary recognizes recognises humans’ inescapable embeddedness in the Earth system, which we either steward to our benefit or neglect to our detriment. Accordingly, the planetary lens opens up possibilities for a conceptual and analytical shift towards an emphasis on an unwieldly planetary interconnectedness and its, often frictional encounters, with persistent forces of globalization and the global political order.
Preliminary programme
Monday, September 28
9:30-10:45: Opening Remarks and First Panel (Leeuwenborch B0079)
Opening Remarks
Stephanie Ketterer, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
Planetary design: Reframing design agency in a planetary condition
Samaneh Nickayin, Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning, Wageningen University
Logic(s) of infrastructural violence in planetary urbanisation
Sumit Vij, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
10:45-11:00: Coffee break
11:00-12:30: Second Panel (Leeuwenborch B0079)
From the global to the planetary and from governance to politics
Rak Kim, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
On Fire: the governing boundaries of planetary capitalism
Robert Coates, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
Picking up arms against a collapsing planet: militarized ecologies on a planetary scale
Esther Marijnen, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
Corinne Lamain, International Institute of Social Studies
12:30-14:00: Lunch
14:00-15:30: Third Panel (Leeuwenborch B0079)
An anthropological perspective on the planetary: from Earth to outer space and back
Anna Szolucha, Adam Mickiewicz University
Where do planetary data begin? Datafication and the formation of observational units
Frederic Hanusch, Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Planetary touristification: Towards a theory of uneven geographical development
Robert Fletcher, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
15:30-15:45: Coffee break
15:45-17:00: Plenary: Conceptualizing the Planetary (Leeuwenborch B0075)
Anna Szolucha, Adam Mickiewicz University
Annet Pauwelussen, Environmental Policy, Wageningen University
Frank Biermann, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
Frederic Hanusch, Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Kwame Gwusu-Daaku, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of West Florida
Tuesday, September 29
9:30-11:00: Fourth Panel (Orion B3030)
Re-excavating the planetary mine: Relationalities, criticalities and the particular
Glenn Banks, People, Environment and Planning, Massey University
Tracing gold: An ethnography across a planetary supply chain
Jenni Viitala, Sustainable Design Research Group, Aalto University
Title TBC
Bas Verschuuren, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Wageningen University
11:00-11:15: Coffee Break
11:15-12:30: Fifth Panel (Orion B3030)
(Bio)securitization of mobile oysters and disease in restoration practice across the Atlantic
Annet Pauwelussen, Environmental Policy, Wageningen University
Planetary heritage and planetary senses of belonging
Ana Aceska, Cultural Geography, Wageningen University
12:30-14:00: Lunch
14:00-15:30: Concluding Plenary (Leeuwenborch B0075)
Aarti Gupta, Environmental Policy, Wageningen University
Ingrid Boas, Environmental Policy, Wageningen University
Annah Zhu, Environmental Policy, Wageningen University
Stephanie Ketterer, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
The co-organizing team: Stephanie Ketterer (stephanie.ketterer@wur.nl); Aarti Gupta (aarti.gupta@wur.nl); Ingrid Boas (ingrid.boas@wur.nl); Annah Zhu (annah.zhu@wur.nl)
The workshop is co-sponsored by the NWO (Veni, ‘Data Exploits’), the Wageningen Sustainability Governance Hub (WSGH) and its Planetary Politics Incubator theme, and the Centre for Space, Place and Society.
This is an in-person only event, room capacity is limited (40-60) (no registration).
For questions, please reach out to the organizing team.
Centre for Space, Place and Society 