Who is taking responsibility for the ecological crisis and who is capable of taking action against it and by what means? These questions will be addressed at the conference "Who is in charge here? Conceptions of Nature, Culture and Agency in the Face of the Ecological Crisis" on Thursday, April 3 and Friday, April 4 at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). International researchers will discuss how different theoretical concepts of nature, culture and agency can contribute to rethinking the ecological crisis and what role the type of media and artistic mediation plays.
The conference will be opened on Thursday, April 3, 1:00 pm, by Dr. Katharina Hoppe. The sociologist from Goethe University Frankfurt am Main will speak on the topic of "Eco-dependency: On the affirmation of dependencies in the Anthropocene". At the end of the day, philosopher Dr. Didier Debaise from the Université libre de Bruxelles will give the lecture "From nature to precarious beings. The strange materialism of Whitehead and Latour".
Other contributions on the two days of the conference will address topics such as the limits of growth, the interconnectedness of culture and nature and efforts to recognize ecosystems as legal entities.
Background to the conference
The ecological crisis has far-reaching consequences and is also reflected in the controversies and debates it has sparked. In addition to the term Anthropocene, which is used to describe the significant influence of humans on geological processes, there is also talk of the Capitalocene. This term describes the ecological crisis as a direct consequence of the capitalist economy based on growth. What these considerations have in common is that they focus on humans as subjects capable of action and see nature as passive and under human control.
The term "new materialisms" is used to describe various approaches that stand in opposition to this by eliminating the clear division between active humans and passive nature. This is replaced by the idea of a network-like interconnectedness of all existing beings. According to the "new materialisms", humans and non-human beings interact with each other and only ever produce new facts together. The conference will look at various materialist discourses and discuss their conceptions of nature, culture and agency.
Further information
The conference is organized by Marlen Reinschke and Patrick Müller, who are working on their doctorates at the Chair of Social Philosophy and the Chair of Popular Cultures at the European University Viadrina.
Interested parties are invited to follow the conference. Registration by e-mail to materialismen_konf@web.de is requested.
Venue: European University Viadrina, Senatssaal (Room 109), Große Scharrnstraße 59, 15230 Frankfurt (Oder)
The complete program can be found under the link.