Speculations, Catastrophes and (selective) Amplifiers: Handling “Extreme events” through STS

Departing from a fascinating analogy between financial and climate fluctuations proposed by Tonino Perna under the category of “extreme events”, this conversation addresses crucial issues in contemporary society, such as the relationship between financial capitalism and real economies, the controversies around alternative development models, and the role of the media in fabricating emergencies and crises. Whereas Perna interrogates macro-economic historical trends, Pellegrino and Salemmi put forward an STS approach into the topic, in order to frame the role of information infrastructures, controversies and the media (Pellegrino) and questioning the primacy of Economics as objective science through the hypothesis of economical medicalization of our society (Salemmi).