糖心Volg

Rony Emmenegger

photo

 rony.emmenegger@unifr.ch
 +41 26 300 9255
 

Senior Researcher
Department of Geosciences

PER 14 bu. 3.327.1
Ch. du Mus茅e 4
1700 Fribourg
Wednesday: morning and afternoon
PER 14, 3.327.1
+41 26 300 9255

Biography

I am a political geographer with a keen interest in the governance of human-environment relations, landscapes, and above- and below-ground infrastructure. In my current research, I am working on the politics of nuclear waste governance in Switzerland and beyond. Based on ethnographic research since 2019, I have been investigating the relationship between science, society, and democracy and how it is negotiated in a participatory governance process around issues of uncertainty, risk, and safety. In parallel, I have focused on the production of knowledge about the deep geological subsurface - where nuclear waste is to be stored for the next million years - and how it is articulated and contested in public controversies as the governance process progresses. This latter interest continues to be the focus of my (2024-2028) entitled "Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance", hosted by the Department of Geosciences at the 糖心Volg. Overall, my work is empirically grounded and theoretically inspired by debates and concepts in political geography, political geology, political ecology, political anthropology, science and technology studies, philosophy of science, critical sustainability studies, and environmental humanities. In addition, I have been involved in a number of collaborative arts and science projects, including the Unruly Natures project at the University of St. Gallen.

Research and publications

  • Publications
    37 publications


    Christine Eriksen, Kathleen Uyttewaal, Judith Kirschner, Gregory L Simon, Nathaniel O'Grady, Samuel L眉thi, Tim Prior, Filippo Zeffiri, Rony Emmenegger, Deniz Ay, Ksenia Chmutina, Emmanuel Raju, Kevin Grove, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (2025) | Journal article


    Rony Emmenegger, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space (2025) | Journal article


    Rony Emmenegger, (2025) | Preprint

    , in GeoAgenda
    Rony Emmenegger (28.2.2025) | Press article

    , in GeoAgenda
    Rony Emmenegger (28.2.2025) | Press article


    Rony Emmenegger , Critical Science Switzerland (2025) | Other


    Rony Emmenegger , Nagra: Das Jahrhundertmagazin (2024) | Other


    Rony Emmenegger (2024) | Review


    Rony Emmenegger, Petyo Bonev, Rony Emmenegger, Rony Emmenegger, Rony Emmenegger, Laura Forero, Kaloyan Ganev , Ralitsa Simeonova-Ganeva , Magnus S枚derberg, Energy Policy (2024) | Journal article


    Rony Emmenegger, Asebe Ragassa, S u b / u r b a n (2023) | Journal article

  • Research projects

    Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance (NUCSTRAT)
    Status: Ongoing

    Start 01.03.2024
    End 29.02.2028
    Funding SNSF 
    Deep geological disposal is considered the solution for nuclear waste from civil nuclear energy production. It is based on the idea that nuclear waste can be safely disposed in a suitable geological stratum鈥攕o that no human action is needed in the future. Although current and future societies will increasingly depend on geology, the way in which actors conceive subterranean strata and how such conceptions of geosocial relations affect nuclear waste governance has hardly been researched. The project Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance (NUCSTRAT) fills this gap. NUCSTRAT鈥檚 overall research objective is to unearth the geological dimension of nuclear waste governance. For examining the political significance of ideas about subterranean strata, it poses the research question: How are geosocial strata produced in nuclear waste governance processes? To answer this question, NUCSTRAT scrutinizes how scientific knowledge about the subterranean is communicated towards the public, and how this is mediated and contested. It examines ethnographically how subterranean strata manifest and consolidate in discursive and material form at various science-society interfaces at the surface. Based on a comparative research design, NUCSTRAT focuses on three case studies, each representing a long history of site explorations in a specific host rock formation鈥攃lay in Switzerland, salt in Germany and granite in Sweden. The comparative analysis acknowledges variations of the geological conditions of host rocks and levels of trust in scientific authority. As such, NUCSTRAT will provide important insights into how consent is fostered, or contestations are inspired, depending on generic, as well as country-specific political and geological circumstances. NUCSTRAT is hosted at the Department of Geosciences of the 糖心Volg, a strategic hub at the intersection of social science and geoscience research. Research will be carried out by the applicant and two PhD students, who will triangulate a set of qualitative research methods over 38 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the three respective countries. Theoretically, all case studies will employ a set of interrelated concepts鈥攕trata, vertical territory and interscalar vehicles鈥攖o better understand the spatio-temporal assemblage of geosocial strata. A strong international team of social scientists will bring together methodological skills, theoretical expertise, and long-term experience in nuclear waste governance research in the comparative analysis of the three cases. NUCSTRAT examines the co-constitution of the Earth鈥檚 stratified composition and the formation of (post-)nuclear nation-states, exemplifying the profound reworking of human-subterranean relations. NUCSTRAT contributes to the geological turn in the social sciences and to the institutionalization of political geology research on the subterranean in the field of geography in Switzerland. Strengthening this research orientation is particularly pressing for societies in light of ongoing political struggles about human-subterranean relations in fields of waste disposal, but also resource extraction, geothermal energy generation or carbon capture and storage.

    Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance (NUCSTRAT)
    Status: Ongoing

    Start 01.03.2024
    End 29.02.2028
    Funding SNSF 

    Deep geological disposal is considered the solution for nuclear waste from civil nuclear energy production. It is based on the idea that nuclear waste can be safely disposed in a suitable geological stratum-so that no human action is needed in the future. Although current and future societies will increasingly depend on geology, the way in which actors conceive subterranean strata and how such conceptions of geosocial relations affect nuclear waste governance has hardly been researched. The project Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance (NUCSTRAT) fills this gap.NUCSTRAT’s overall research objective is to unearth the geological dimension of nuclear waste governance. For examining the political significance of ideas about subterranean strata, it poses the research question: How are geosocial strata produced in nuclear waste governance processes? To answer this question, NUCSTRAT scrutinizes how scientific knowledge about the subterranean is communicated towards the public, and how this is mediated and contested. It examines ethnographically how subterranean strata manifest and consolidate in discursive and material form at various science-society interfaces at the surface. Based on a comparative research design, NUCSTRAT focuses on three case studies, each representing a long history of site explorations in a specific host rock formation-clay in Switzerland, salt in Germany and granite in Sweden. The comparative analysis acknowledges variations of the geological conditions of host rocks and levels of trust in scientific authority. As such, NUCSTRAT will provide important insights into how consent is fostered, or contestations are inspired, depending on generic, as well as country-specific political and geological circumstances.NUCSTRAT is hosted at the Department of Geosciences of the 糖心Volg, a strategic hub at the intersection of social science and geoscience research. Research will be carried out by the applicant and two PhD students, who will triangulate a set of qualitative research methods over 38 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the three respective countries. Theoretically, all case studies will employ a set of interrelated concepts-strata, vertical territory and interscalar vehicles-to better understand the spatio-temporal assemblage of geosocial strata. A strong international team of social scientists will bring together methodological skills, theoretical expertise, and long-term experience in nuclear waste governance research in the comparative analysis of the three cases. NUCSTRAT examines the co-constitution of the Earth’s stratified composition and the formation of (post-)nuclear nation-states, exemplifying the profound reworking of human-subterranean relations. NUCSTRAT contributes to the geological turn in the social sciences and to the institutionalization of political geology research on the subterranean in the field of geography in Switzerland. Strengthening this research orientation is particularly pressing for societies in light of ongoing political struggles about human-subterranean relations in fields of waste disposal, but also resource extraction, geothermal energy generation or carbon capture and storage.

Teaching and courses

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