On Wednesday, 7 June, the 2023 Holberg Prize Laureate Joan Martinez-Alier held the lecture: "Land, Water, Air and Freedom" in the University Aula in Bergen. 

Mapping geographies of resistance at the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal in a world counter-movement for environmental justice.

As the industrial economy grows, there is also growth and changes in the Social Metabolism. The economy is not circular, it is entropic. There are thousands of “ecological distribution conflicts” at the frontiers of commodity extractions and waste disposal. Their protagonists display many different valuation languages and repertoires of action. “Land, Water, Air and Freedom” seems a good slogan and also a short description of the aims of the world movements for environmental justice.

Photo: Joan Vidal / The Holberg Prize

Joan Martinez-Alier: "Land, Water, Air and Freedom"

The Holberg Prize is awarded annually to a scholar who have made outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law or theology. The Prize amounts to NOK 6 000 000.

The Holberg Prize also awards the Nils Klim Prize (NOK 500 000) to young Nordic scholars in the same academic fields. 

In this channel we publish interviews and lectures with the Laureates, Holberg Week Guests and other events.

Joan Martinez-Alier: "Land, Water, Air and Freedom"

Holberg Prize Talks