Research output per year
Research output per year
Alf Hornborg is PhD in Cultural Anthropology (Uppsala University, 1986) and Professor of Human Ecology at Lund University since 1993. He is author of The Power of the Machine (AltaMira, 2001), Global Ecology and Unequal Exchange (Routledge, 2013) and Global Magic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and editor of Rethinking Environmental History (AltaMira, 2007), The World System and the Earth System (Left Coast Press, 2007), Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia (University of Colorado Press, 2011), and Ecology and Power (Routledge, 2012). His main research interests include economic anthropology, environmental history, political ecology, and ecological economics. He has conducted field research in Canada, Peru, and Brazil. Although his research has ranged widely from kinship systems in Amazonia and Andean ethnoarchaeology to indigenous environmentalism in Nova Scotia, most of his publications address global issues of sustainability and environmental justice. Based on historical and contemporary data, he has argued that currently mainstream understandings of economic growth and technological progress are cultural illusions obscuring how unequal exchange (asymmetric transfers) of biophysical resources are prerequisite to modern, globalized technologies. In a nutshell, his argument on "machine fetishism" and "ecologically unequal exchange" can be phrased in the form of a syllogism: (1) The phenomenon of money cannot be grasped without recognizing its function as a mystification of unequal exchange, and (2) the phenomenon of modern technology cannot be grasped without recognizing its reliance on money. To complete the syllogism, (3) the phenomenon of technology cannot be grasped without recognizing its reliance on unequal exchange.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication or newspaper › Specialist publication article › Popular science
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Busch, H. (PI), Ramasar, V. (Researcher), Islar, M. (Researcher), Brogaard, S. (Researcher), Mundaca, L. (Researcher), Uvo, C. B. (Researcher), Nowag, J. (Researcher), Åhman, M. (Researcher) & Hornborg, A. (Researcher)
2021/09/01 → 2021/12/31
Project: Research
Barinaga, E. (Researcher), Paulsson, A. (Project coordinator), Hornborg, A. (Researcher) & Radeljak, F. (Research student)
2020/12/01 → 2024/12/01
Project: Research
Ramasar, V. (PI), Hornborg, A. (Researcher), Uvo, C. B. (Researcher), Busch, H. (Researcher), Nowag, J. (Researcher), Mundaca, L. (Researcher), Åhman, M. (Researcher), Islar, M. (Researcher), Brogaard, S. (Researcher) & Carton, W. (Researcher)
2016/10/01 → 2017/05/31
Project: Network
Roos, A. (PI), Hornborg, A. (Supervisor) & Ramasar, V. (Supervisor)
2016/09/01 → 2021/04/28
Project: Dissertation
Kollnig, S. (PI), Hornborg, A. (Assistant supervisor) & Burman, A. (Supervisor)
2014/09/01 → 2018/09/01
Project: Dissertation
Paulsson, A. (Role not specified), Radeljak, F. (Role not specified), Barinaga, E. (Role not specified), Hornborg, A. (Role not specified), Raffaelli, P. (Role not specified) & Ocampo, J. (Role not specified)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organisation of workshop/ seminar/ course
Paulsson, A. (Role not specified), Radeljak, F. (Role not specified), Barinaga, E. (Role not specified) & Hornborg, A. (Role not specified)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in workshop/ seminar/ course
Wittbom, C. (Organiser), Hall, M. (Organiser), Clough, Y. (Organiser), Boyd, E. (Invited speaker), Mukhtar-Landgren, D. (Invited speaker), Hornborg, A. (Invited speaker), Svenbro, M. (Invited speaker) & Andersson, U. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organisation of workshop/ seminar/ course