News

26.05.2025 00:00
 

Call for Papers: Political Economies of Mining in the Early Modern World

University of Vienna

September 25-26, 2025

Deadline for Submission: May 26th 2025

 

24.03.2025
 

Our second round of colloquiua just started!

Save the dates: 24.03, 10.04, 12.05, 18.06

26.11.2024
 

Job advertisement for a new student assistant position at the project SCARCE

Our project is looking for a reliable and committed person to take on a variety of project-related tasks as a study assistant.

01.11.2024
 

Our SCARCE team is almost complete - we are happy to welcome and introduce Claire Sabel, our postdoc who joined us on 1st of November.

01.09.2024
 

Our Team is growing again - we are glad to introduce Sebastian Leitner who is joining us from the 1st of September as a PhD student in the ERC project...

19.04.2024
 

We officially launched SCARCE! The presentations of the well-attended kick-off event were recorded and can be viewed on our website.

01.03.2024
 

Our Team is getting bigger - we are happy to introduce Sarah Seinitzer who is joining us from the 1st of March as a PhD student in the ERC project...

Events

04.06.2025 17:15
 

Speaker: Pamela Smith (Columbia University)

Public Lecture followed by reception

With comment by Hilary Becker (Binghamton University)

12.05.2025 14:30
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speaker: Andreas Lingg

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

25.09.2025 09:00
 

Political Economies of Mining in the Early Modern World

Workshop

Organized by Claire Sabel and Gabriele Marcon

University of Vienna

September 25-26, 2025

 

18.06.2025 12:00
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speaker: Philipp Rössner

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

10.04.2025 11:30
 

Research Colloquium History of Science and Knowledge & SCARCE Colloquium (Joint meeting)

Speakers: Julie Klinger and Eleanor Armstrong

University...

24.03.2025 14:30
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speakers: Sebastian Felten, Gabriele Marcon, and Claire Sabel

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

23.01.2025 14:30
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speaker: Joshua Batts

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

12.12.2024 14:30
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speaker: Oliver Tappe

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

09.12.2024
 

Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History

Talk by Sebastian Felten

University of Oslo

Hybrid event

14.11.2024 14:30
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speaker: András Vadas

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

10.11.2024 10:00
 

Futures of the Anthropocene: Historicizing Human-Environment Interactions

Roundtable organised by Claire Sabel and Sebastian Felten

History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Mérida, Mexico

18.10.2024 09:30
 

Methodenworkshop mit Andrea Westermann

Wissenschaftsgeschichte Universität Wien

17.10.2024
 

SCARCE Colloquium

Speakers: Vera Keller and Wenrui Zhao

University of Vienna

Hybrid event

07.10.2024 16:15
 

Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism

Thea Riofrancos (Providence College)

IE Talk

University of Vienna

26.09.2024
 

Higher Seminar in the History of Science and Ideas

Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University

26.06.2024 13:00
 

Before Resources: Managing Mineral "Treasures" in Early Modern Central Europe

Presentation by Sebastian Felten

Colloquium Humanities of Nature (online)

Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

20.06.2024 15:00
 

Metals as Poison and Remedy in Early Modern Central Europe A Research Report

Presentation by Sarah Seinitzer

History of Science and Knowledge Doctoral Colloquium

 

22.05.2024
 

Uses of the Past in Central European Mining

Presentation by Sebastian Felten and Sarah Seinitzer

Bergbaukolloquium Montanuniversität Leoben

17.04.2024 18:00
 

April 17, 6 pm, Aula am Campus, Hof 1.11 (Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna)

Join us for short presentations and refreshments. All are welcome!

About the Project

Sebastian Felten, Claire Sabel, Sarah Seinitzer, Sebastian Leitner (SCARCE): Research Agenda, April 17, 2024

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The extraction of mineral resources has sharply increased over the past hundred years, and the ongoing transition to “green energy” is driving demand for minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt. SCARCE provides a critical history of today's stakeholder conflicts by showing how contradictory principles of resource management – economic development, sustainability, and technological innovation – were forged in proto-industrial settings. It explores alternative, historical ways of provisioning for communities, making them available for current debates on environmental degradation and climate emergency.

This case, within its European and global entanglements, allows us to answer urgent questions across a range of fields: How did labour rationalization and joint ownership – building blocks of modern capitalism – emerge in locations outside of Atlantic commercial societies? How did administrative procedures (accounting, reporting) shape scientists/technicians’ understanding of natural processes? And how did the contradictions of extracting non-renewable resources shape modern sustainability thinking?

SCARCE is hosted by the History Department, which in turn is part of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies. Team members will work closely with colleagues from the Key Research Area History of Science.

The advisory board consists of Pamela Smith (Columbia University), Oscar Gelderblom (University of Antwerp), Ulinka Rublack (University of Cambridge), and Andrew Mendelsohn (Queen Mary University London).

The project is running from 1 November 2023 until 31 October 2028. The text of this homepage is adapted from the grant proposal. Download the project description as a PDF document here.