What are knowledge infrastructures good for?
Book launch: Revealing Relations: Knowledge Infrastructures for Liveable Futures
Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development invites you to a special event marking the launch of the book Revealing Relations: Knowledge Infrastructures for Liveable Futures by Professor Anne Beaulieu. This event introduces Prof. Beaulieu to the Faculty of Geosciences and university, opening a wider conversation about what knowledge infrastructures are, why they matter, and how they shape sustainability research in practice.
From biodiversity loss to climate change, many of the urgent challenges we face are not only difficult because of a lack of knowledge, but also because of the way infrastructures shape how knowledge is produced, organised and circulated. With responses from colleagues across the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, this event explores how knowledge infrastructures influence the production, circulation and use of knowledge, and why rethinking them is essential for creating more liveable futures.
Programme
Welcome and introduction to the book: Prof. Anne Beaulieu
Responses: What are knowledge infrastructures good for?
- Futures: Prof. Maarten Hajer (Urban Futures Studio)
- Human–nature relations: Dr. Diana Almeida (Environmental Governance)
- Collective power of citizens: Prof. Flor Avelino (Innovation Studies)
Response by Prof. Anne Beaulieu and closing
About the book and author
Do our tools for knowing about the world actually obscure important knowledge? Revealing Relations: Knowledge Infrastructures for Liveable Futures uncovers how knowledge infrastructures that include satellite tracking, climate models, machine learning and citizen science apps shape our knowledge of contemporary crises. Rooted in logics of resource assessment, these systems often reinforce extractive thinking, even when intended to protect. Beaulieu calls for a radical focus on relations to reimagine liveable futures: from monitoring and measuring to fostering connection, care and interdependence. Drawing on science and technology studies and feminist critique, this book offers tools for transforming data practices, designing more responsive interfaces and better infrastructures of survival.
Anne Beaulieu is Professor of Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. Between 2021 and 2025, she held the Aletta Jacobs Chair of Knowledge Infrastructures at the University of Groningen.
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- Location
- Vening Meinesz building A, Lava (Utrecht Science Park)