Artificial cooling fundamentally shapes the world in which we live. Since the onset of the Cold War, cooling and freezing technologies have become increasingly vital for a wide array of everyday practices, from nutrition, health and reproduction to dwelling, telecommunication, scientific research and economic productivity. A global system of cold storages, cold chains and air-conditioned spaces has become an energy-intensive yet barely considered planetary infrastructure: an “artificial cryosphere”. Artificial cold has drastically restructured life both on a biological and social level, yet the far-reaching impact of this technology is still largely unexplored and unresearched. Recent studies estimate that global cooling demand will increase five-fold by 2050, dramatically exceeding our future energy budget and urgently calling for change. CultCryo argues that avoiding the impending global cooling crisis will be impossible if we do not understand how the planetary infrastructure of artificial cold is deeply interwoven in cultural practices. Thus, in order to analyze the constitution of “cryogenic cultures”, we will undertake four interdisciplinary multi-sited case studies in the domains of food supply, air conditioning, biomedicine and computing. We develop innovative approaches using mixed-methods rooted in the history of technology, geography, digital history of concepts, ethnography and the philosophy and ethics of technology. Breaking ground for an innovative interdisciplinary field of research, CultCryo will provide the first geographical mapping of the cryosphere, a historical reconstruction of its emergence, an ethnographic account on its cultural constitution, and a philosophical analysis and ethical assessment of its underlying norms and values. Thereby, we develop a corpus of urgently needed knowledge to critically analyze a pressing global phenomenon while also identifying alternatives towards a more sustainable future of artificial cold.

IMAGINE is based on 6 partners from 5 countries eligible to Biodiversa funding IMAGINE brings together multidisciplinary and complementary expertise (landscape ecology, restoration ecology, sociology, land planning, modelling), IMAGINE promote a place based approach of Socio-Ecological Systems integrative analysis of GI ecological integrity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services and disservices, IMAGINE will test its approach on Case Study Territories with two main gradients: rural-urban gradient within case studies and latitudinal across case studies, IMAGINE will conduct its transdisciplinary research activities in close contact with stakeholders (land managers, municipalities, nature conservation services, NGOs and users), IMAGINE will apply the place based approach of socio-ecological systems to CST and integrates from the very beginning relevant stakeholders of the case study areas. IMAGINE aims to solve problems linked with GI in interaction with regional and local stakeholders and to offer EU Level transferability of knowledge and methods, IMAGINE propose an integrative territorial analysis of GI multifunctionality and ecosystem services address sustainability and resilience issues.