[-empyre-] Neo-eco-liberalism

[Susan Kozel]

Hello

And I'm delighted by this framing of a topic 'neo-eco-liberalism' for several reasons. I'm currently based in at Malmö University in Sweden, I teach mainly for the Interaction Design programme but my own background is in philosophy and dance. 

I contribute the 'embodied' strand to the Master's and PhD education but am increasingly uncomfortable with the way bodies play into interaction design, just as a placeholder for the word 'context,' or more worryingly as another domain for design to colonise under the rhetoric of increased personal freedom, efficiency or health benefits. 

I was fascinated by wearable technologies, and indeed worked actively in this area for a few years, but now I cringe with the next wearable watch or sensor to pump our data into the cloud. This relates to sustainability and the neo-liberal agenda in that the words sustainable, smart, or green are so frequently appended to the words growth or well-being. So we have 'sustainable growth', 'green growth', etc, as viable agendas within national economies and design research initiatives, when what they actually mean is depletion, physical and environmental depletion.

Sweden is about to have an election, 4 days before the Scottish independence vote, and the campaigns offer an avalanche of neo-liberal rhetoric in a country which seemed to have the good sense and social democratic legacy to be inoculated from it. I would argue that the many faces and hybrids of neo-liberalism need to be unearthed and exposed and called to account by as many people as possible in the current climate.


On Sep 9, 2014, at 3:11 AM, Adam Nocek wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi all, 
> 
> I'd like to welcome Ross Exo Adams and Adrian Parr to the first week at -empyre!
> 
> This week's topic addresses what I'm calling, "Neo-eco-liberalism." The title references the complicated way that "ecological catastrophe" dominates so many design discourses today. In an era when the Anthropocene (hypo)thesis is hotly debated in nearly all academic fields, it is designers in particular who often feel a responsibility to correct for the footprint left by modern, industrial-scale design, and design with an eye to the deep time of the planet. No doubt the myriad discourses on “sustainable,” “ecological,” or “smart” technologies come to mind as possible ways of addressing the deep time of design. For example, great progress has been made in the application of biotechnology, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology to design fields, so that “programmable” or “mediated matter” now provides a viable means for designing complex (even semi-living) systems that adapt and evolve in response to wider, non-human environments— surely a post-humanist framework for design. 
> 
> But as our guests know, the many discourses and technologies surrounding “sustainable” and “eco" design do not easily avoid neoliberal capture, and in fact, have too often become a resource for private investors to strengthen the firm grip of capital. Urban developers in particular, as Ross has noted elsewhere, have been quick to embrace the discourse of “ecological catastrophe” as a way to ensure that the private development of urban space proceeds without reproach, and destroys the last vestiges of public space.
> 
> As a way into this week's topic, I'm wondering if our guests would begin the conversation by meditating or complicating this tension. 
> 
> 
> Here are our guests bios one more time:
> 
> Ross Exo Adams (US) is an architect, urbanist and educator whose work looks at the political and historical intersection between circulation and urbanization. He is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University. His writing has been published in Log, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Radical Philosophy, Thresholds, Architectural Review among others. Previously he has taught at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, The Architectural Association, the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, NL and at Brighton University in the UK. His work has been exhibited in the Venice Biennale, the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City, the Centre of Contemporary Architecture in Moscow and the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. As an architect and urban designer he has worked in offices such as MVRDV, Foster & Partners, Arup Urban Design and Productora-DF. He holds a Master of Architecture from the Berlage Institute and a Ph.D. from the London Consortium for which he was awarded the 2011 LKE Ozolins Studentship by the RIBA.
>  
> Adrian Parr (US/AU) specialist on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, and has published widely on the sustainability movement, climate change politics, activist culture, and creative practice. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and School of Architecture and Interior Design at the University of Cincinnati. Some of her recent books include the _Deleuze Dictionary_ (ed.) (2005), _Hijacking Sustainability_ (2009), _New Directions in Sustainable Design_ (ed. with Michael Zaretsky) (2010), and _The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics_ (2013).
> 
> 
> Thanks again!
> 
>  
> 
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