Soils and Interventions Linus William Lancaster Doctor

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Soils and Interventions Linus William Lancaster Doctor University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2015 Soils and Interventions Lancaster, Linus http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/4761 Plymouth University All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. SOILS AND INTERVENTIONS By LINUS WILLIAM LANCASTER A Dissertation Submitted to the University of Plymouth For Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Center for Advanced Inquiry in Interdisciplinary Arts January, 2014 1 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent 2 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions Dissertation Abstract The problem that I have identified during my research for this dissertation is the quantifiable depletion and exhaustion of large percentages of the world's soils through human activity in agriculture and other industrial practices. In the course of researching this problem I have looked closely at some of the primary causes, and a range of proposed and applied solutions in the field of ecology. The primary focus of the research has been in looking at how artists have responded to ecological issues and have engaged in environmental activism in their practices. Integral to the research has been direct participation in collaborative art practices that investigate and strive to raise public awareness about issues related to soil ecology. It has proceeded through reading established texts, interviewing expert practitioners, publishing my findings, and presenting at numerous conferences, concurrently with direct participation in ecologically oriented practices, related artistic projects, professional art exhibits, activist events, and working in the field of professional organic farming. During the research phase I attended nine Planetary Collegium Sessions with fellow researchers and received valuable direction from supervising professors. The result is a written, theoretical dissertation that documents the research through text and photography in seven chapters. It has also produced a body of sculptures and documented physical experiments and performances that are motivated by, and speak directly to issues of soil ecology. The efficacy of the artwork that has been made in the course of researching problems in soil ecology comes from its continuation of, and direct participation in, established, contemporary art projects and movements that have had a demonstrable influence of society. The contribution that it makes to new knowledge is by addressing in unique ways the emerging subject of soils, which have tended to be overlooked in many ecological discussions, and in so doing it also brings to bear a unique combination of influences in its practice. These include: Art practice, Situationist performances, Core Shamanic practice (as developed by Michael Harner), soil science, inspiration drawn from a number of continental theorists, participation in sustainable agriculture, and political activism, applied simultaneously in a transdisciplinary body of work described herein specifically on behalf of soils. In this endeavor the dissertation and its body of produced objects and performances has also sought to blur some of the conventional lines between theoretical research, contemplation and practice, as appropriate to a trans-disciplinary project. Numerous discoveries have been made in the course of the research, chief among them that the new transdisciplinary approach to soil studies that my collaborators and I have taken turns out to be of necessity if we are to avert large-scale collapses of agriculture due to soil degradation on a global scale in the course of this century. 3 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions List of Plates (All artwork and photography by Linus Lancaster unless otherwise noted). Figure 3-1 Pedon Profile Figure 3-2 Dirt Gallery "Pedon" Figure 3-3 Sonoma County Soil Survey Map (Courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service/Sonoma) Figure 3-4 Zamora Clay Loam Profile, Foss Creek Figure 3-5 Seed Bomb Figure 4-1 Olla Irrigation Jars Figure 4-2 Seed Bombs (Student Collaborations) Figure 4-3 Seed Bombing (Student Collaborations) Figure 4-4 Occupy Santa Rosa (Photo by Mari Lancaster) Figure 4-5 Marches Against Monsanto Figure 4-6 Occupy/Idle No More Sebastopol Figure 5-1 Listening to Materialities, Yosemite Installation (Photo by Frederick Young) Figure 5-2 Listening to the Merced River, Concord Figure 5-3 Suburban Drain (Photos by Frederick Young) Figure 5-4 Suburban Drain, Listening to the Merced River, Concord Figure 5-5 Healdsburg High Altitude Balloon Project Figure 6-1 Dirt Gallery (Soil-Body Jars & Dirt Display) Figure 6-2 Dirt Gallery Figure 6-3 Dirt Gallery (Displays) Figure 6-4 Meatline Figure 6-5 Jangseung Painting Figure 6-6 Jangseung Figure 6-7 Jangseung Pair Figure 6-8 Pedons Figure 6-9 Consulate Projects, Korea (Certificates of Authenticity) Figure 6-10 Dirt Shrines Figure 6-11 Five Looking West Exhibit, Seoul Figure 6-12 Five Looking West Exhibit, Chris Sarley Ceramics Figure 6-13 Five Looking West Exhibit, Marilyn Hulbert Photography Figure 6-14 Five Looking West Exhibit, Lois Lancaster Book Art/Print Figure 6-15 Five Looking West Exhibit, Mary Pettis-Sarley Ceramics Figure 6-16 Five Looking West Exhibit, Linus Lancaster Figure 6-17 Animalities Field Concert 4 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions List of Plates (continued) Figure 6-18 Animalities Projection Figure 6-19 Painting with Dawn Figure 6-20 Diving with TZARA Figure 6-21 TZARA-2 Figure 6-22 Gladys 2 Figure 6-23 TZARA-3 Figure 6-24 Gladys with TZARA-3 Figure 6-25 Listening to the Merced River Figure 6-26 Listening to the Merced River (TZARA-3) Figure 6-27 Yosemite Valley Listening "Monument" Figure 6-28 Carnevale Pataphysique Figure 6-29 Listening to Crane Creek (Temujin Licklider) 5 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions List of Contents Chapter One - Introduction Pages 9-20 Chapter Two - Methodologies Pages 21-54 Chapter Three - Soils and Agriculture Pages 55-96 Chapter Four - Soils and Ecology Pages 97-181 Chapter Five - Soils and Art Interventions Pages 182-231 Chapter Six - Soils and Liminal Performativities Pages 232-316 Chapter Seven - Conclusions Page 317-328 Bibliography 6 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions Acknowledgements The work for this dissertation would not have been possible without the generous support of my wife, Mari Lancaster and my family, Lew Lancaster, Lois Lancaster, Anne Lancaster, Nayo and Hassna. It was also thanks the guidance and encouragement of Professors Roy Ascott, Mike Phillips, and Jane Grant at Plymouth University, UK. I also wish to thank Frederick Young, Mary Pettis-Sarley, Chris Sarley, Marilyn Hulbert, the Healdsburg Unified School District Board of Trustees, the Healdsburg Education Foundation, the Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Sheelo and Ahmayo Bohm, Michael Harner, Marti Spiegleman, The Korean Cultural Foundation, Mr. Yang and the Korean Consulate of San Francisco, Charlie Dottie, John Bucher, Becky Deniz, Randy Masselink, Glen Schaezlein, Rand Derrico (Syar Vineyard), Robert Weiss, David Pisano, Mark Glaeser, Jack Burns, Temujin Licklider, Sue Vargas, Tim Dimock, Domenichelli Masonry, Brooks Quarry, Mark Allen, Tirza Latimer, Roger Bell, Jan Nunn, Mike McKamie, Lowell Darling, Peter Maravelis (City Lights Books), Bill Talen, Igor Vamos, and Jacques Servin, Annie, Dawn, Gladys, and soil. 7 Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions Author's Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. Work submitted for this research degree at the Plymouth University has not formed part of any other degree either at Plymouth University or at another establishment. Relevant academic seminars and conferences were regularly attended at which work was often presented; external institutions were visited for consultation purposes and several papers prepared for publication. Publications: Lancaster, Linus. The Real Dirt on Land and Location. Trondheim: Intellect Books, 2010. Lancaster, Linus & Frederick Young. Listening to Animalities, Soils, and Shipwrecks. Porto: Intellect Books, 2011. Lancaster, Linus & Frederick Young. Listening to Animalities, Soils, and Shipwrecks (Phase 2). Lisbon: Intellect Books, 2012. Presentation sessions and Conferences Attended: Research presentation sessions and Consciousness Reframed Conferences: Munich 2009, Porto 2010, Plymouth 2010, Trondheim 2010, Kefalonia 2011, Shanghai 2011, Lisbon 2011, Kefalonia 2012, Plymouth 2012. Additional Conference Presentations: Pacific Neighborhood Consortium/ECAI, Berkeley, California 2012. Deep Listening Institute Conference, Troy, NY. 2013. Word count of main body of the thesis: 63, 369 words Signed__Linus W. Lancaster______ Date____January,_2014__________ 8 Chapter One Soils and Interventions Introduction The problem that my research has identified is the
Recommended publications
  • Signaux Faibles Employée Que Dans Sa Manière D’Appréhender Les Nouvelles Manières De Penser, De Se Mouvoir, De S’Éduquer, D’Habiter, De Produire Et De Consommer
    Penser autrement les modes de vie en 2030 2 TOME Le programme « Penser autrement les modes de vie à horizon 2030 » souligne l’émergence des tendances à l’œuvre ou supposées porteuses de changement dans un avenir de moyen-long terme (10 à 20 ans). Fruit d’une intelligence collective et porté par un groupe de prospective transdisciplinaire, il est ici restitué dans quatre volumes faisant état d’une extraordinaire effervescence créative agitant un monde entre crises et mutations. Ainsi, la verticalité de la société industrielle coexiste avec l’horizontalité de la société en réseaux, laissant transparaître une relative aptitude au changement vers une société à la fois plus participative, collaborative, Cahier faibles signaux des Cahier des autonome et solidaire. Ce programme, conduit par la Mission Prospective du Commissariat Général au Développement durable (CGDD) est innovant et inédit tant dans la méthode prospective signaux faibles employée que dans sa manière d’appréhender les nouvelles manières de penser, de se mouvoir, de s’éduquer, d’habiter, de produire et de consommer,... dont la diffusion procède grandement de l’essor des nouvelles technologies. Par sa volonté d’anticiper l’action publique, ce programme devrait permettre de mieux comprendre et ensuite d’accompagner ces changements vers un monde plus empathique et plus soutenable. Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie Commissariat général au Développement durable 92055 La Défense cedex Tél. 01 40 81 21 22 Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable
    [Show full text]
  • Plunderphonics – Plagiarismus in Der Musik
    Plagiat und Fälschung in der Kunst 1 PLUNDERPHONICS – PLAGIARISMUS IN DER MUSIK PLUNDERPHONICS – PLAGIARISMUS IN DER MUSIK Durch die Erfindung der Notenschrift wurde Musik versprachlicht und damit deren Beschreibung mittelbar. Tonträger erlaubten es, Interpretationen, also Deutungen dieser sprachlichen Beschreibung festzuhalten und zu reproduzieren. Mit der zunehmenden Digitalisierung der Informationen und somit der Musik eröffneten sich im 20. Jahrhundert neue Möglichkeiten sowohl der Schaffung als auch des Konsums der Musik. Eine Ausprägung dieses neuen Schaffens bildet Plunderphonics, ein Genre das von der Reproduktion etablierter Musikstücke lebt. Diese Arbeit soll einen groben Überblick über das Genre, deren Ursprünge und Entwicklung sowie einigen Werken und thematisch angrenzenden Musik‐ und Kunstformen bieten. Es werden rechtliche Aspekte angeschnitten und der Versuch einer kulturphilosophischen Deutung unternommen. 1.) Plunderphonics und Soundcollage – Begriffe und Entstehung Der Begriff Plunderphonics wurde vom kanadischen Medienkünstler und Komponisten John Oswald geprägt und 1985 in einem bei der Wired Society Electro‐Acoustic Conference in Toronto vorgetragenen Essay zuerst verwendet [1]. Aus musikalischer Sicht stellt Plunderphonics hierbei eine aus Fragmenten von Werken anderer Künstler erstellte Soundcollage dar. Die Fragmente werden verfälscht, beispielsweise in veränderter Geschwindigkeit abgespielt und neu arrangiert. Hierbei entsteht ein Musikstück, deren Bausteine zwar Rückschlüsse auf das „Ursprungswerk“ erlauben, dessen Aussage aber dem „Original“ zuwiderläuft. Die Verwendung musikalischer Fragmente ist keine Errungenschaft Oswalds. Viele Musikstile bedienen sich der Wiederaufnahme bestehender Werke: Samples in populär‐ und elektronischer Musik, Riddims im Reggae, Mash‐Ups und Turntablism in der Hip‐Hop‐Kultur. Soundcollagen, also Musikstücke, die vermehrt Fragmente verwenden, waren mit dem Fortschritt in der Tontechnik möglich geworden und hielten Einzug in den Mainstream [HB2].
    [Show full text]
  • The Fibreculture Journal Issue 18 2011
    The Fibreculture Journal DIGITAL MEDIA + NETWORKS + TRANSDISCIPLINARY CRITIQUE Issue 18 : Trans edited by Andrew Murphie, Adrian Mackenzie and Mitchell Whitelaw The Fibreculture Journal is an Open Humanities Press Journal. The LOCKSS System has the permission to collect, preserve and serve this open access Archival Unit. The Fibreculture Journal is published under a Creative Commons, By Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivative License. ISSN: 1449 – 1443 , Published in Sydney, Australia Fibreculture Publications/The Open Humanities Press 2011 The journal is peer reviewed as per section 4.3.4 of the Australian HERDC Specifications. About the Fibreculture Journal The Fibreculture Journal is a peer reviewed international journal, first published in 2003 to explore the issues and ideas of concern to the Fibreculture network. The Fibreculture Journal now serves wider social formations across the international community of those thinking critically about, and working with, contemporary digital and networked media. The Fibreculture Journal has an international Editorial Board and Committee. In 2008, the Fibreculture Journal became a part of the Open Humanities Press , a key initiative in the development of the Open Access journal community. The journal encourages critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concern- ing a wide range of topics of interest. These include the social and cultural contexts, philosophy and politics of contemporary media technologies and events, with a special emphasis on the ongoing social, technical
    [Show full text]
  • Machine Machine Pringle Stiegler Stiegler
    Media Studies Pringle, Koch, Stiegler Thomas Pringle, Gertrud Koch, Bernard Stiegler Machine In today’s society of humans and machines, automation, animation, and ecosystems Machine are terms of concern. Categories of life and technology have become mixed in governmental policies and drive economic exploitation and the pathologies of everyday life. This book both curiously and critically MACHINE advances the term that underlies these new developments: machine. PRINGLE KOCH “‘The machine’ proves that whoever said that the rise of data was going to cause the end of theory could not be more wrong. The new forms of digital automation of society, the question STIEGLER of the relationship with the animated machine, and the new cybernetics of ecosystemic governance provide rich instigation to philosophy, proving that machines can and do make us think new thoughts.” — Tiziana Terranova, Naples Eastern University “A significant contribution to the understanding and politics of the becoming of machines and techno-systems in the twenty- first century.” —Yuk Hui, author of On the Existence of Digital Objects Published by the University of Minnesota Press in collaboration with meson press Cover image by Sascha Pohflepp Machine IN SEARCH OF MEDIA Götz Bachmann, Timon Beyes, Mercedes Bunz, and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Series Editors Pattern Discrimination Markets Communication Machine Remain Machine Thomas Pringle, Gertrud Koch, and Bernard Stiegler IN SEARCH OF MEDIA University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London meson press In Search of Media is a joint collaboration between meson press and the University of Minnesota Press. Bibliographical Information of the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography); detailed bibliographic information is available online at portal.d-nb.de.
    [Show full text]
  • An Interview with Bernard Stiegler Interview by Judith Wambacq
    ‘We have to become the quasi-cause of nothing – of nihil.’ An interview with Bernard Stiegler Interview by Judith Wambacq and Bart Buseyne Translation and introduction by Daniel Ross Abstract This interview with the philosopher Bernard Stiegler was conducted in Paris on 28 January 2015, and first appeared in Dutch translation in the journal De uil van Minerva. The conversation begins by discussing the fundamental place occupied by the concept of ‘technics’ in Stiegler’s work, and how the ‘constitutivity’ of technics does and does not relate to Kant and Husserl. Stiegler is then asked about his relationship with Deleuze, and he responds by focusing on the concept of quasi-causality, but also by arguing that there is a certain trajectory in Deleuze’s thought, situating his own philosophy in relation to its various moments. Stiegler is then asked to respond to the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks carried out three weeks prior to the interview. After making a couple of precautionary remarks, Stiegler relates such occurrences to the problem of what he calls ‘spiritual poverty’, to the intensification of ‘negative sublimation’ that can occur when there is a disconnection between the generations, and more generally to the growth of nihilism. All of these phenomena relate to the exploitation of technology by a virulent capitalism that irrationally believes that only the market is rational. After consideration of the complex historical relationship between Islam and modernization, and of both of these to Nietzsche’s ‘death of God’, and after recalling the destructive role played by the West in the rise of fundamentalism and jihadism, Stiegler concludes by reflecting on the fact that, ultimately, ‘intellectuals’ have failed to use technologies in ways that produce alternatives to consumerism.
    [Show full text]
  • Stiegler and Derrida on Technics and Cultural Politics by Robert Sinnerbrink
    2/17/2016 TRANSFORMATIONS Journal of Media & Culture ISSN 1444­3775 2009 Issue No. 17 — Bernard Stiegler and the Question of Technics Culture Industry Redux: Stiegler and Derrida on Technics and Cultural Politics By Robert Sinnerbrink [1] In the conclusion to his landmark 1996 study, Derrida and the Political, Richard Beardsworth outlines “two possible futures” for Derridean deconstruction. The first he describes as a “left-wing Derrideanism,” which would foreground “Derrida’s analysis of originary technicity,” and develop the supplementary logic of the trace “in terms of the mediations between [the] human and the technical” (Derrida and the Political 156). Such a future has been powerfully realised in the work of Bernard Stiegler, notably in his massive multi-volume work Technics and Time (1994- 2001), of which only volumes one and two have so far been translated into English. [2] The second possible future for deconstruction, what Beardsworth dubs “right-wing Derrideanism,” is perhaps more familiar. The latter, Beardsworth suggests, would pursue “Derrida’s untying of the aporia of time from both logic and technics,” and argue that it is the gift of time that remains to be thought; such a path would enact a messianic promise that requires a Derridean mobilization of religious discourse, and a “passive” orientation towards the advent of the future, of the incalculable “to-come” (Derrida and the Political 156). [3] Although Beardsworth then immediately qualifies this apparent opposition, stating that there is here, in fact, “no answer and no choice” (156), that what we have, rather, is an aporetic dynamic between the one and the other, there is nonetheless a clear sense in which his book – one that carefully situates Derrida’s thought within the history of philosophical reflection on the political from Kant and Hegel to Marx and Heidegger – affirms the “Left-Derridean” path while critically questioning its “Right-Derridean” counterpart.
    [Show full text]
  • Stiegler and the Lost Spirit of Capitalism. in G. Moore and C
    This is a pre-press version of Roberts, B., 2013. Memories of Inauthenticity: Stiegler and the lost spirit of capitalism. In G. Moore and C. Howells, eds. Stiegler and Technics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 225–239. Memories of inauthenticity: Stiegler and the lost spirit of capitalism The aim of this essay is to discuss Bernard Stiegler’s arguments about the condition and fate of contemporary capitalism. These arguments are formulated most succintly in For a New Critique of Political Economy but elements of this ‘new critique’ are discussed at greater length throughout Stiegler’s recent work and in particular in the series Mécréance et Discrédit (Disbelief and Discredit and De la Misère Symbolique (On Symbolic Misery). In the following discussion I have chosen to focus primarily on the third volume of the former, entitled L’Esprit perdu du capitalisme (The Lost Spirit of Capitalism), the first part of which is dedicated to a detailed critique of the Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello’s The New Spirit of Capitalism. There are two reasons for this focus. The first is that Boltanski and Chiapellos’s book has become an extremely influential account of contemporary capitalism; Stiegler’s arguments here help to demonstrate the problems and limitations of its approach. The second is that the contrast with Boltanski and Chiapello helps to bring out much that is genuinely novel and interesting about Stiegler’s own account of capitalism. It demonstrates in some detail the way in which his transformation of work by Derrida, Simondon and others has allowed a rearticulation of some of the concerns of the Frankfurt School.
    [Show full text]
  • 2. Mondo 2000'S New Media Cool, 1989-1993
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The web as exception: The rise of new media publishing cultures Stevenson, M.P. Publication date 2013 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Stevenson, M. P. (2013). The web as exception: The rise of new media publishing cultures. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:02 Oct 2021 2. Mondo 2000’s new media cool, 1989-1993 To understand how it was possible for the web to be articulated as an exceptional medium when it surfaced in the 1990s - that is, as a medium that would displace its mass and mainstream predecessors while producing web-native culture - one must see the historical and conceptual ties between web exceptionalism and cyberculture.
    [Show full text]
  • 1.1. Circuit-Bending and DIY Culture
    1.1. Circuit-bending and DIY culture Alexandre Marino Fernandez1 Fernando Iazzetta 1 Abstract This article analyses Circuit-Bending and its relation to the Do-it-yourself (DIY) culture. Circuit- bending is an experimental music practice which consists of opening up low voltage (battery powered) electronic devices (musical toys, radio devices, cd players, etc. – mostly technological waste) and of changing (bend) the way electricity flows through their circuits in order to achieve an ‘interesting’ result. After presenting the work of some artists who make use of this methodology we introduce the concept of proletarianisation by philosopher Bernard Stiegler and how such methodologies can act as de-proletarianisation tactics. Then, we present the Do-it-together (DIT) or Do-it-with-others (DIWO) discussion to bring into scene the notion of Relational Aesthetics. Keywords: Circuit-Bending; De-proletarianisation; DIY Culture; Relational Aesthetic Introduction This article relates Circuit-Bending to DIY culture focusing on the anti-consumerist, rebellious and creative aspects of this experimental practice. Generally speaking, circuit-bending consists of opening up battery powered electronic devices and of changing (bend) the way electricity flows through their circuits in order to achieve an ‘interesting’ result. One typically practices circuit-bending by removing and/or adding electronic components, connecting different circuits, or even adding organic elements to the circuit (bender’s body or even fruits and vegetables). The next step usually calls for soldering the components into the circuit or marking specific places to be touched. Finally, sometimes a case is designed for accommodating this newly created instrument. The technique was named in 1992 by Qubais Reed Ghazala, in a series of articles he wrote for Experimental Music Instrument magazine.
    [Show full text]
  • Degrowth, Commons and Convivial Technology. Many People Criticizes
    Degrowth, Commons and convivial Technology. Many people criticizes both the growth and the concept of degrowth, that is why they talk about “alter-growth” (Christian Arnsperger for example) or “misgrowth” (Bernard Stiegler, for example). But, defending the degrowth, Serge Latouche use the word “a-growth”… So, words about degrowth are uncertain. It is important to notice that there is, in France but probably also everywhere, a violent debate between theorists of the degrowth and the critics of the growth. Why criticizing growth is not enough to support the degrowth? One of the main differences between the theorists of the degrowth and the eco-socialists, is not only about the “ecological interests of class” (according to an expression of Stéphane Lavignotte), but also because they have different philosophies of technology. Without going so far as to say that degrowth is a bourgeois concept, we think that it is important not to confuse degrowth with the (bourgeois) idea of a “return to nature”. The real question, the one who reconciles sustainability and equity, is to know which idea of the common, and more exactly which idea of the common industrial milieu, hides behind this concept of degrowth. In fact, at the time of galloping urbanization, our milieu is and will remain industrial. The theorists of degrowth often quote Karl Polanyi, but they forget to specify that according to him: “the congenital weakness of the XIXth century society does not come from the fact that it was industrial, but from the fact that it was a market society” (The Great Transformation, tr. fr., p.
    [Show full text]
  • INTERVIEW with BERNARD STIEGLER Ern Society
    Krisis Journal for contemporary philosophy One the other hand, however, Stiegler’s philosophical enterprise can also be seen as a continuation of the project of critical theory, of its social cri- PIETER LEMMENS tique, its critique of political economy and its critique of the culture in- dustry. This can be identified as the ‘Marxist’ strand of his work. Most ‘THIS SYSTEM DOES NOT PRODUCE PLEASURE ANYMORE’ remarkably, it is on the basis of his techno-critical project that Stiegler provides a sociopolitical critique of contemporary capitalist and postmod- AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD STIEGLER ern society. This society suffers from what he calls a state of generalized proletarianization. Krisis, 2011, Issue 1 Proletarianization, Stiegler argues with Gilbert Simondon and Karl Marx, www.krisis.eu consists essentially in the loss of knowledge and know-how (savoir-faire) in individuals and collectives. Whereas nineteenth-century capitalism proletarianized workers by delegating their knowledge and know-how to machines, reducing them to labor power, twentieth-century capitalism has proletarianized consumers by depriving them of their own ways of life and massively replacing them with preformatted and standardized ‘life- Although the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler (1952) is still largely styles’ fabricated and marketed on a worldwide scale by global corpora- unknown in the Netherlands, he is without doubt one of the most impor- tions exclusively driven by profit. In today’s service economies, consumers tant continental thinkers of today. His voluminous and rapidly expanding are ‘discharged’ of the burden as well as the responsibility of shaping their œuvre is gaining increased attention within academia and his three vol- own lives and are reduced to units of buying power controlled by market- ume magnum opus Technics and Time has become available recently in ing techniques.
    [Show full text]
  • A Systems Based Analysis of Creativity, Community and Narrative Formation
    A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details 1 Spaces after modernity: a systems based analysis of creativity, community and narrative formation Bella Wheeler University of Sussex A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work and Social Care April 2017 2 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature.................................................................................... Date………………………………………………………………….. 3 This thesis is dedicated with love to my daughter Cara and to the memory of my brother Ollie 4 Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter One: Introduction and context...................................................................................... 10 1.1 Rationale ..........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]