THECO

Research

One of THECO’s aims is to bring together and disseminate research that addresses different current ecosocial challenges from Ecological Humanities perspectives. Within these, we pay special attention to those that place technology at the centre of their interests.

THECO Seminar Series

THECO

The aim of the THECO seminar is to open a space for ecological humanities and technology studies at UC3M. Through open discussion sessions -which will combine research by members of the group with invitations to renowned researchers-, we contribute to the urgent task of reconstructing our disciplines to overcome the paradigm of economic growth, anthropocentrism, colonialism or androcentrism. We focus especially on studying, from a transdisciplinary perspective, the role of technology in the current trajectories of ecosocial collapse. Finally, we join in the construction of multidimensional alternatives that give shape to Degrowth, a desirable horizon towards which we are heading.

 

All sessions will be held in Room 17.2.47 of the Getafe Campus (UC3M). Link online: THECO / S4N

Upcoming dates

  • 29th May 2026 (12:00-13:30h): “Unravel the naturocultures linked to milk and defend the territory from extractivist threats like Altri”, under the care of Ana Escáriz and Ana Moure.
  • 26th June 2026 (12:00-13:30h): «On the concept of the pre-industrial person: based on the anthropology of the person and political anthropology», under the care of Simone Madonna
  • 25th September 2026 (12:00-13:30h): “Between freedom and domination: republicanism for Artificial Intelligence”, under the care of Lucía Ortíz de Zárate.
  • 30th October 2026 (12:00-13:30h): «From a (Geological) Epoch to a (Epochal) Phenomenon: Towards a “Post-geological Anthropocene», al cuidado de Agostino Cera.
  • 27th November 2026 (12:00-13:30h): “Ecofeminism as theory and praxis”, under the care of Alicia H. Puleo.
  • 18th December 2026 (12:00-13:30h): «History of technology for the ecological humanities:», under the care of Jaume Sastre and Jaume Valentines.

Past Seminars – Recordings and complementary materials

Seminar THECO

 

Workshop Agroecología en Madrid:

 

Speak4Nature’s Seminar Series & Workshops:

Research projects

LOGCOMMONS-CM – The logistical geographies of urban commons 

We participate in the project “LOGCOMMONS-CM – The logistical geographies of urban commons” (PHS-2024/PH-HUM-336), funded by the Community of Madrid in its call for R&D in human and social processes. It is developed by a consortium formed by the Social and Cultural Anthropology research group (ANTROSOCUL – CSIC), the Group of Critical Urban Studies (GECU – UNED) and the research group in Ecological Techniques and Humanities (THECO-UC3M). In this last group, their IPs are Adrián Almazán and Andoni Alonso

The project is structured around three objectives. One of them focuses on the field of care. Its specific objective is to better understand the logistics budgets of care networks. Its area of ​​study will be the San Cristóbal neighborhood and is coordinated by the ANTROSOCUL research group.

The second objective focuses its housing activism. It is focused in understanding the powers and obstacles faced by a movement like El Sindicato de Inquilinas in Madrid. It will specifically study the Puerta del Ángel neighborhood and it is coordinated by the GECU research group.

The third objective has an ecosocial approach and focuses on the issue of food sovereignty. It will focus its study on the Ecomarca initiative. This initiative is a network of consumer groups that pursues the creation of a logistical network that facilitates their autonomous creation. It has the desire, therefore, to become a tool for scaling agroecological initiatives in the city and functions as a stable bridge between Madrid and the neighboring territory. This study is coordinated by the THECO group.

Throughout the development of the project, three ethnographies will be carried out, each associated with an objective, with the objective of unraveling the logistical characteristics of each area of ​​study. Based on them, and having a greater knowledge of these material conditions of operation of the urban commons, a systematic and comparative study of them will be carried out. With it we intend to obtain information on invisible logistical limitations, possibilities of synergies, escalation trajectories and spatial distribution of the means and resources of the urban commons, among other areas.

SPEAK4NATURE: Interdisciplinary Approaches on Ecological Justice

THECO participates in the European project ‘Speak for Nature: Interdisciplinary Approaches on Ecological Justice’ (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-SE-01-01 / 101086202), whose PI at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid is Adrián Almazán. The complexity of today’s ecological challenges requires the development of new methods to understand how we interact with the environment, and the need to displace an anachronistic, human-centred conceptions of nature. The project is the result of a consortium of 9 academic (universities and research centres) and non-academic (a for-profit company and NGOs) international interdisciplinary institutions from the European Union and Latin America. Speak4Nature aims to develop new socio-legal tools and methodologies that provide a common theoretical and operational basis in social and environmental sciences to give voice to non-human beings in legal instances, and contribute to the creation of a shared vision towards the treatment of ‘nature’ itself useful for the adaptation of the political process to current ecological challenges. The project contributes to the competences of the staff involved through interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral secondments and knowledge transfer mechanisms, fostering the exchange and dissemination of knowledge on issues related to the ecology of law, contributing to the improvement of ecological justice standards and policies.

 

YUFE: European Philosophies of Technology: Ecology, Digital Media, and History 

We participate in the YUFE European project: European Philosophies of Technology: Ecology, Digital Media, and History. Across Europe, technology continues to transform how we relate to one another, our connection with the natural world, and our ways of knowing and acting. In line with this, there are philosophical perspectives that interpret these transformations through diverse themes, such as ecology, work, ethics, history, and communication, among others. The numerous and valuable reflections that highlight these themes and perspectives demonstrate that there are as many ways to conceive of technology as there are technologies themselves.

The pedagogical objective of our project is to offer a comprehensive and far-reaching summer school in the philosophy of technology that embraces this philosophical, methodological, and technological pluralism. We will develop and coordinate a one-week summer school, organized by YUFE in June 2027, entitled “European Philosophies of Technology,” structured around three themes corresponding to each partner’s area of ​​expertise: ecology, social movements, and technology (Carlos III University of Madrid); AI and digital media (Sorbonne Nouvelle University); and the history of the philosophy of technology (Maastricht University). This school will be aimed at selected doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and master’s students. Participants will come from our universities, the YUFE network, and motivated students working in the field of philosophy of technology. Each of the three partner institutions will organize two lectures and seminars on its specific theme (ecology, social movements, and technology; digital media and AI; and the history of the philosophy of technology). Each institution will be responsible for organizing two lectures given by leading researchers and for delivering seminars on topics related to its thematic area. The innovative aspect of this summer school lies in its philosophical pluralism. Unlike other educational programs on the philosophy of technology that focus on a particular approach (ethics, responsible innovation, design) or a specific technology (robotics, AI), we maintain that modern technological society is too complex and diverse to be reduced to a single approach or technology. Drawing on the expertise of each partner university in the philosophy of technology, this project will encourage students to reflect on technology from different levels of philosophical and technological analysis. This will be the first program of its kind in Europe and will pave the way for a new standard of interdisciplinarity and multiple perspectives in the design and implementation of philosophy of technology education.

Energy Humanities: Energy and socio-cultural imaginaries between the Industrial Revolution and the Ecosocial Crisis

THECO participates in the project ‘Energy Humanities: Energy and socio-cultural imaginaries between the industrial revolution and the ecosocial crisis’ (PID2020-113272RA-I00, HUMENERGE), whose PIs are Jaime Vindel and Emilio Santiago Muíño (CSIC). The research project is situated in the field of Energy Humanities, an aspect of Ecological Humanities that analyses both the material and symbolic importance that energy has acquired through its link with the exploitation of fossil fuels and productivist ideology, and which has not yet been explored in Spain. The intention of this project is to generate a space for study and research that has as its axis the discussion of the role of the imaginaries of energy during Industrial Modernity, in the light of the climate emergency and its challenges. This project addresses the double dimension of energy: as a physical reality and as a cultural construction, in a temporal arc that spans the last two centuries to go from the origin of industrialism to the current Ecosocial Crisis.

Ecological Humanities and Ecological Transitions. Ethical, Aesthetic and Pedagogical Proposals for the Anthropocene

THECO participates in the project ‘Ecological humanities and ecosocial transitions. Ethical, aesthetic and pedagogical proposals for the Anthropocene’ (PID2019-107757RB-I00), whose PIs are José Luis Albelda Raga and María Paula Santiago Martín de Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia). Here we pursuit our objective of proposing projects and creating synergies between disciplines to face the urgent challenges of a global ecosocial transition to an environment with less availability of energy and materials and with an Earth-system that has already begun its destabilisation as a consequence of anthropogenic climate change.

 

 

Selected publications

Main articles:

  • Almazán, A. (2024). A socio-historical ontology of technics: Beyond technology. Environmental Values. (33) 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/09632719231209742
  • Almazan, . A. & Nuñez Pastor, M. (2025). Gaia y Pachamama en la jurisprudencia “ecocéntrica”: ¿más allá del antropocentrismo?. Isegoría, (72), 1651. https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2025.72.1651
  • Alonso Puelles, A. (2023) Desarrollo y necesidades en el siglo XXI (una lectura decrecentista). Las Torres de Lucca. Revista internacional de filosofía política. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/ltdl.78857
  • Aguilera, A., Ruiz-García, V., Martínez, R., Joaquín, R., & Masera, O. (2025). Challenges for a sustainable energy transition in rural Mexico: A 37-year comparative analysis for Cheranatzicurin Village. Energy for Sustainable Development, 88, 101823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2025.101823 
  • Antepara, I. (2021). Under-Consumption Penalties in the Low Carbon Market: Reflections From a Spanish Social Housing Provider. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 3, 635149. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2021.635149
  • Arias, A. (2024). Ancient Inner Feelings: Interoceptive Insights into the Evolution of Consciousness. Biological Theory 19, 246–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-024-00474-4
  • del Buey Cañas, R. & Galanzino, M. (2025). Aportes a la ecología del derecho: los casos del Delta del Paraná y el Mar Menor. Isegoría, (72), 1661. https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2025.72.1661
  • Fusco, V. (2023). La revolución de la a/Autonomía. Itinerarios conceptuales y práctica política en Italia (1973-1979). Las Torres de Lucca. Revista Internacional de Filosofía Política, 12. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/ltdl.84900
  • Privitera, E., Pellow, D. N., & Armiero, M. (2024). Critical environmental justice and the Wasteocene: Oppression and resistance in an Italian prison during the Covid-19 pandemic. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 7(4), 1735-1756. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241243028
  • Roos, A. (2025). Greenwashing: a critical realist approach to the study of false ecological claims. Journal of Critical Realism, 24(2), 176–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2025.2503634
  • Ruiz-Rivas, U.; Martínez-Crespo, J. & Chinchilla-Sánchez, M. (2024) Assessment of Energy Poverty and Alleviation Strategies in the Global South. Energies, 17(13), 3224; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17133224
  • Ruuska, T.; Heikkurinen, P.; Hurtado, Joshua & Hämäläinen, Vilma(2025) Care as pluriversal strategy? Caring in counter-hegemonic struggles in the degrowth and environmental justice movements. Globalizations 22(2), 263-283. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2024.2373113
  • Tro-Cabrera, A., Lago-Aurrekoetxea, R., Martinez-de-Alegria, I., Villamor, E., & Campos-Celador, A. (2025). A methodology for assessing rooftop solar photovoltaic potential using GIS open-source software and the EROI constraint. Energy and Buildings, 331, 115401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115401
  • Valentines-Álvarez, J. (2025). A Mirrored City Underground: Air-Raid Shelters as Political Architectures in Barcelona and London, 1936–40. Technology and Culture, 66(2), 321-355. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2025.a956847 
  • Velasco, G. (2021). Filosofía de la inseguridad social. Un análisis de la revisión valorativa de la ansiedad y resentimiento en la filosofía contemporánea de las emociones. Daimon. Revista de la Filosofía. 83. https://doi.org/10.6018/daimon.369481

Main Books:

  • Almazán, A. & González, L. (2023). Decrecimiento. Del qué al cómo. Propuestas para el estado español. Icaria Editorial. ISBN 9788419200839.
  • Almazán, A. (2021). Técnica y tecnología. Cómo conversar con un tecnolófilo. Taugenit (Herder). ISBN 978-84-17786-13-7.
  • Almazán, A. & Barcena, I. (2023). Nuevos comunalismos. Una hipótesis política para el decrecimiento. Ned Ediciones. ISBN 9788418273889
  • Alonso, A. & Arzoz, I. (2023). Bienvenidos al Colapsoceno: distopía, horror y tecnomagia. Irrecuperables. ISBN 9788485209620.
  • Alonso, A. (2021). El desencanto del progreso: para una crítica luddita de la tecnología. Dykinson. ISBN 978-8413774992
  • Arias, A. (2021). Introducción a la ciencia de la conciencia. El estudio de la experiencia subjetiva en filosofía, psicología y neurociencias. Catarata. ISBN: 978-84-1352-174-9
  • Arias, A. (2020). La batalla por las ideas tras la pandemia. Crítica del liberalismo verde. Catarata. ISBN: 978-84-1352-082-7.
  • Aurélien, B. (2024). Autonomía y subsistencia. La Llevir-virus. ISBN: 9788417870423
  • Franquesa, J. (2023). Molinos y gigantes: La lucha por la dignidad, la soberanía energética y la transición ecológica. Errata Naturae Editores. ISBN: 9788419158239
  • Fusco, V. (2021). The Symbolic Potential of the Hybrid. Anita Blake and Horror and Vampire Literature. Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631857205
  • Gómez, A. & Velasco, G. (eds.). (2024). Atlas político de emociones. Trotta. ISBN 978-84-1264-215-4
  • Heikkurinen, P. (2024). Degrowth: An Experience of Being Finite. Mayfly Publishing. ISBN 978-1-906948-72-6
  • Heikkurinen, P. & Ruuska, T. (eds,). (2021). Sustainability Beyond Technology: Philosophy, Critique and Implications for Human Organization. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198864929
  • Pansera, M., & Lloveras, J.(2024). Science and Technology beyond growth. Critiques of Growth. An Introduction: 63. Post-Growth Innovation Lab, University of Vigo ISBN:  978-84-1188-038-1
  • Pérez Baeza, S. & del Buey Cañas, M. (2024). Una guía para la alfabetización ecosocial: Paz, decrecimiento y sustentabilidad para un mundo posfosilista. Ministerio de Derechos Sociales y Agenda 2030.
  • Sastre, J.; Bergeron, A. & Nieto-Galan, A. (2024). Science Populatization and Cold War Diplomacy: UNESCO (1946-1958). Amsterdam University Press.
  • Velasco, G. (2023). Pensar la polarización. Gedisa. 9788419406163
  • Ruiz-Rivas, U.; Tahri, Y.; Arjona, M. & Chinchilla, M. (2022). Energy Poverty in Developing Regions: Strategies, Indicators, Needs, and Technological Solutions. At Rubio-Bellido, Carlos & Solis-Guzmán, Jaime (eds.), Energy Poverty Alleviation. Springer.

Main chapters:

  • Almazán, A. (2023). Técnicas humildes para el siglo de la gran prueba. En Albelda, José; Arribas, Fernando y Madorrán, Carmen. (eds.). Humanidades ecológicas. Hacia un humanismo biosférico, 275-290. Tirant Lo Blanch.
  • Almazán, A. & del Buey, R. (2022). En busca de nuevas tecnologías viables en la era del dilema renovable. En Arenas, Luis; Naredo, José Manuel y Riechmann, Jorge. (eds.). Bioeconomía para el siglo XXI. Actualidad de Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, 157-168. Catarata y FUHEM ecosocial.
  • Gómez, A. (2023). Transitional Boredom. On Boredom and Self-knowledge. En Montes, Alba y Salice, Alessandro. (eds.). Emotional Self-knowledge, 168-188. Routledge.
  • Ruiz-Rivas, U.; Tahri; Y.; Arjona, M. & Chinchilla, M. (2022). Energy Poverty in Developing Regions: Strategies, Indicators, Needs, and Technological Solutions. En Rubio-Bellido, Carlos y Solis-Guzman, Jaime. (eds.). Energy Poverty Alleviation. Springer. 7
  • Valentines, J.& Sastre, J. (2022). A Fascist Coney Island? Salazar’s Dictatorship, Popular Culture and Technological Fun, 1933-1943. En Simoes, Ana y Diogo, María Paula. Science, Technology and Medicine in the Making of Lisbon, 1840-1940. Brill.
  • Velasco, G. (2024). La homeopatía democrática. En Fusco, Virginia y Greppi, Andrea. (eds.). Democracia Radical. Lengua de Trapo

Our network

L’Atelier d’écologie politique (ATECOPOL)

Ekopol

Estética fósil (EF)

Grupo de investigación en Humanidades Ecológicas (GHECO)

Grupo de Tecnologías Apropiadas para el Desarrollo Sostenible (GTADS)

Grupo de Innovación Ecotecnológica y Bioenergía (GIEB)

Grupo Ingeniería para el Desarrollo Humano (IDH)

Grupo de Investigación en Sociología del Cambio Climático y Desarrollo Sostenible

Teoría y Crítica de la Cultura (PhC&C)