Author: Sally Stone
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131539720X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory discusses one of the greatest challenges for twenty-first-century society: what is to be done with the huge stock of existing buildings that have outlived the function for which they were built? Their worth is well recognised and the importance of retaining them has been long debated, but if they are to be saved, what is to be done with these redundant buildings? This book argues that remodelling is a healthy and environmentally friendly approach. Issues of heritage, conservation, sustainability and smartness are at the forefront of many discussions about architecture today and adaptive reuse offers the opportunity to reinforce the particular character of an area using up-to-date digital and construction techniques for a contemporary population. Issues of collective memory and identity combined with ideas of tradition, history and culture mean that it is possible to retain a sense of continuity with the past as a way of creating the future. UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory has an international perspective and will be of interest to upper level students and professionals working on the fields of Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, Conservation, Urban Design and Development.
UnDoing Buildings
Author: Sally Stone
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131539720X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory discusses one of the greatest challenges for twenty-first-century society: what is to be done with the huge stock of existing buildings that have outlived the function for which they were built? Their worth is well recognised and the importance of retaining them has been long debated, but if they are to be saved, what is to be done with these redundant buildings? This book argues that remodelling is a healthy and environmentally friendly approach. Issues of heritage, conservation, sustainability and smartness are at the forefront of many discussions about architecture today and adaptive reuse offers the opportunity to reinforce the particular character of an area using up-to-date digital and construction techniques for a contemporary population. Issues of collective memory and identity combined with ideas of tradition, history and culture mean that it is possible to retain a sense of continuity with the past as a way of creating the future. UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory has an international perspective and will be of interest to upper level students and professionals working on the fields of Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, Conservation, Urban Design and Development.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131539720X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory discusses one of the greatest challenges for twenty-first-century society: what is to be done with the huge stock of existing buildings that have outlived the function for which they were built? Their worth is well recognised and the importance of retaining them has been long debated, but if they are to be saved, what is to be done with these redundant buildings? This book argues that remodelling is a healthy and environmentally friendly approach. Issues of heritage, conservation, sustainability and smartness are at the forefront of many discussions about architecture today and adaptive reuse offers the opportunity to reinforce the particular character of an area using up-to-date digital and construction techniques for a contemporary population. Issues of collective memory and identity combined with ideas of tradition, history and culture mean that it is possible to retain a sense of continuity with the past as a way of creating the future. UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory has an international perspective and will be of interest to upper level students and professionals working on the fields of Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, Conservation, Urban Design and Development.
Emerging Practices in Architectural Pedagogy
Author: Laura Sanderson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000452298
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Book Description
Emerging Practices in Architectural Pedagogy explores the emergent techniques in architectural education that are helping to bridge the gap between the institutional setting and working practice. It demonstrates how teaching and learning can, and should, be directed towards tackling the real-world problems that students will encounter within their professional careers. Architectural and design practitioners are becoming less specialised, they are embracing cross-disciplinary connections and practical problem-solving. Architecture and design schools must align their teaching to reflect this changing world, and evolve from a fact-based acquisition process to a participatory method of learning. This book uses an extended case-study format to examine large-scale issues. Each chapter represents a specific mode of practice, which is linked to the wider debate on architectural and design pedagogy; this includes collaborative workshops and interventions, issues connected to sustainability and climate change, responses to rapid urbanisation, and, the creation of collaborative relationships across disciplines. The book has an international perspective, with contributions from the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Singapore, and includes a timely discussion on teaching in a remote climate. This book will be an invaluable resource for engaged academics and teaching practitioners interested in playing a key role in the future development of the architectural profession.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000452298
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Book Description
Emerging Practices in Architectural Pedagogy explores the emergent techniques in architectural education that are helping to bridge the gap between the institutional setting and working practice. It demonstrates how teaching and learning can, and should, be directed towards tackling the real-world problems that students will encounter within their professional careers. Architectural and design practitioners are becoming less specialised, they are embracing cross-disciplinary connections and practical problem-solving. Architecture and design schools must align their teaching to reflect this changing world, and evolve from a fact-based acquisition process to a participatory method of learning. This book uses an extended case-study format to examine large-scale issues. Each chapter represents a specific mode of practice, which is linked to the wider debate on architectural and design pedagogy; this includes collaborative workshops and interventions, issues connected to sustainability and climate change, responses to rapid urbanisation, and, the creation of collaborative relationships across disciplines. The book has an international perspective, with contributions from the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Singapore, and includes a timely discussion on teaching in a remote climate. This book will be an invaluable resource for engaged academics and teaching practitioners interested in playing a key role in the future development of the architectural profession.
Adaptive Reuse
Author: Liliane Wong
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3038213136
Category : Architecture
Languages : de
Pages : 256
Book Description
Building in existing fabric requires more than practical solutions and stylistic skills. The adaptive reuse of buildings, where changes in the structure go along with new programs and functions, poses the fundamental question of how the past should be included in the design for the future. On the background of long years of teaching and publishing, and using vivid imagery from Frankenstein to Rem Koolhaas and beyond, the author provides a comprehensive introduction to architectural design for adaptive reuse projects. History and theory, building typology, questions of materials and construction, aspects of preservation, urban as well as interior design are dealt with in ways that allow to approach adaptive reuse as a design practice field of its own right.
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3038213136
Category : Architecture
Languages : de
Pages : 256
Book Description
Building in existing fabric requires more than practical solutions and stylistic skills. The adaptive reuse of buildings, where changes in the structure go along with new programs and functions, poses the fundamental question of how the past should be included in the design for the future. On the background of long years of teaching and publishing, and using vivid imagery from Frankenstein to Rem Koolhaas and beyond, the author provides a comprehensive introduction to architectural design for adaptive reuse projects. History and theory, building typology, questions of materials and construction, aspects of preservation, urban as well as interior design are dealt with in ways that allow to approach adaptive reuse as a design practice field of its own right.
Overshoot
Author: William R. Catton
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252009884
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Our day-to-day experiences over the past decade have taught us that there must be limits to our tremendous appetite for energy, natural resources, and consumer goods. Even utility and oil companies now promote conservation in the face of demands for dwindling energy reserves. And for years some biologists have warned us of the direct correlation between scarcity and population growth. These scientists see an appalling future riding the tidal wave of a worldwide growth of population and technology. A calm but unflinching realist, Catton suggests that we cannot stop this wave - for we have already overshot the Earth's capacity to support so huge a load. He contradicts those scientists, engineers, and technocrats who continue to write optimistically about energy alternatives. Catton asserts that the technological panaceas proposed by those who would harvest from the seas, harness the winds, and farm the deserts are ignoring the fundamental premise that "the principals of ecology apply to all living things." These principles tell us that, within a finite system, economic expansion is not irreversible and population growth cannot continue indefinitely. If we disregard these facts, our sagging American Dream will soon shatter completely.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252009884
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Our day-to-day experiences over the past decade have taught us that there must be limits to our tremendous appetite for energy, natural resources, and consumer goods. Even utility and oil companies now promote conservation in the face of demands for dwindling energy reserves. And for years some biologists have warned us of the direct correlation between scarcity and population growth. These scientists see an appalling future riding the tidal wave of a worldwide growth of population and technology. A calm but unflinching realist, Catton suggests that we cannot stop this wave - for we have already overshot the Earth's capacity to support so huge a load. He contradicts those scientists, engineers, and technocrats who continue to write optimistically about energy alternatives. Catton asserts that the technological panaceas proposed by those who would harvest from the seas, harness the winds, and farm the deserts are ignoring the fundamental premise that "the principals of ecology apply to all living things." These principles tell us that, within a finite system, economic expansion is not irreversible and population growth cannot continue indefinitely. If we disregard these facts, our sagging American Dream will soon shatter completely.
Critical Built Heritage Practice and Conservation
Author: Johnathan Djabarouti
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003803865
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
Critical Built Heritage Practice and Conservation - Evolving Perspectives supports an alternative point of departure for engaging with the historic built environment, by critically questioning the legitimacy of dominant conservation concepts and methods that are often taken for granted within building conservation, architecture, and adaptive reuse. The meaning of heritage is changing. From pastness to presentness, from preservation to participation, and from tangible to intangible, heritage is increasingly understood as a dynamic, social, and intangible process across many disciplines. Consequently, the role and remit of the built heritage practitioner – and in particular the architectural conservationist – is becoming progressively complex and in need of a critical gaze. Is restoration really a falsehood from beginning to end? Should the condition of existing materials determine the conservation method? Is authenticity really an inherent quality within old buildings? By engaging with a critical interpretation of heritage, this book makes space for practitioners to consider the evolution of their own role within a rapidly changing context of built heritage practice. Reinforced by a shift in emphasis from materials to meanings, a ‘socio-material outlook’ is proposed which champions an enhanced focus on intangible heritage within the built heritage sector, whilst still acknowledging the physical condition of old buildings is a priority for many stakeholders. This book has been written with practitioners, students, and educators of architectural conservation in mind – although will also be of relevance to the broader built heritage industry; as well as academics, researchers, and heritage students with a passion for contemporary dialogues in heritage studies.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003803865
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
Critical Built Heritage Practice and Conservation - Evolving Perspectives supports an alternative point of departure for engaging with the historic built environment, by critically questioning the legitimacy of dominant conservation concepts and methods that are often taken for granted within building conservation, architecture, and adaptive reuse. The meaning of heritage is changing. From pastness to presentness, from preservation to participation, and from tangible to intangible, heritage is increasingly understood as a dynamic, social, and intangible process across many disciplines. Consequently, the role and remit of the built heritage practitioner – and in particular the architectural conservationist – is becoming progressively complex and in need of a critical gaze. Is restoration really a falsehood from beginning to end? Should the condition of existing materials determine the conservation method? Is authenticity really an inherent quality within old buildings? By engaging with a critical interpretation of heritage, this book makes space for practitioners to consider the evolution of their own role within a rapidly changing context of built heritage practice. Reinforced by a shift in emphasis from materials to meanings, a ‘socio-material outlook’ is proposed which champions an enhanced focus on intangible heritage within the built heritage sector, whilst still acknowledging the physical condition of old buildings is a priority for many stakeholders. This book has been written with practitioners, students, and educators of architectural conservation in mind – although will also be of relevance to the broader built heritage industry; as well as academics, researchers, and heritage students with a passion for contemporary dialogues in heritage studies.
Contemporary Perspectives on Architectural Organicism
Author: Gary Huafan He
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000888894
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
This project is born out of similar questions and discussions on the topic of organicism emergent from two critical strands regarding the discourse of organic self-generation: one dealing with the problem of stopping in the design processes in history, and the other with the organic legacy of style in the nineteenth century as a preeminent form of aesthetic ideology. The epistemologies of self-generation outlined by enlightenment and critical philosophy provided the model for the discursive formations of modern urban planning and architecture. The form of the organism was thought to calibrate modernism’s infinite extension. The architectural organicism of today does not take on the language of the biological sciences, as they did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but rather the image of complex systems, be they computational/informational, geo/ecological, or even ontological/aesthetic ‘networks’. What is retained from the modernity of yesterday is the ideology of endless self-generation. Revisiting such a topic feels relevant now, in a time when the idea of endless generation is rendered more suspect than ever, amid an ever increasing speed and complexity of artificial intelligence (AI) networks. The essays collected in this book offer a variety of critiques of the modernist idea of endless growth in the fields of architecture, literature, philosophy, and the history of science. They range in scope from theoretical and speculative to analytic and critical and from studies of the history of modernity to reflections of our contemporary world. Far from advocating a return to the romantic forms of nineteenth-century naturphilosophie, this project focuses on probing organicism for new forms of critique and emergent subjectivities in a contemporary, 'post'-pandemic constellation of neo-naturalism in design, climate change, complex systems, and information networks. This book will be of interest to a broad range of researchers and professionals in architecture and art history, historians of science, visual artists, and scholars in the humanities more generally.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000888894
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
This project is born out of similar questions and discussions on the topic of organicism emergent from two critical strands regarding the discourse of organic self-generation: one dealing with the problem of stopping in the design processes in history, and the other with the organic legacy of style in the nineteenth century as a preeminent form of aesthetic ideology. The epistemologies of self-generation outlined by enlightenment and critical philosophy provided the model for the discursive formations of modern urban planning and architecture. The form of the organism was thought to calibrate modernism’s infinite extension. The architectural organicism of today does not take on the language of the biological sciences, as they did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but rather the image of complex systems, be they computational/informational, geo/ecological, or even ontological/aesthetic ‘networks’. What is retained from the modernity of yesterday is the ideology of endless self-generation. Revisiting such a topic feels relevant now, in a time when the idea of endless generation is rendered more suspect than ever, amid an ever increasing speed and complexity of artificial intelligence (AI) networks. The essays collected in this book offer a variety of critiques of the modernist idea of endless growth in the fields of architecture, literature, philosophy, and the history of science. They range in scope from theoretical and speculative to analytic and critical and from studies of the history of modernity to reflections of our contemporary world. Far from advocating a return to the romantic forms of nineteenth-century naturphilosophie, this project focuses on probing organicism for new forms of critique and emergent subjectivities in a contemporary, 'post'-pandemic constellation of neo-naturalism in design, climate change, complex systems, and information networks. This book will be of interest to a broad range of researchers and professionals in architecture and art history, historians of science, visual artists, and scholars in the humanities more generally.
Undoing Border Imperialism
Author: Harsha Walia
Publisher: AK Press
ISBN: 184935135X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Book Description
“Harsha Walia has played a central role in building some of North America’s most innovative, diverse, and effective new movements. That this brilliant organizer and theorist has found time to share her wisdom in this book is a tremendous gift to us all.”—Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine Undoing Border Imperialism combines academic discourse, lived experiences of displacement, and movement-based practices into an exciting new book. By reformulating immigrant rights movements within a transnational analysis of capitalism, labor exploitation, settler colonialism, state building, and racialized empire, it provides the alternative conceptual frameworks of border imperialism and decolonization. Drawing on the author’s experiences in No One Is Illegal, this work offers relevant insights for all social movement organizers on effective strategies to overcome the barriers and borders within movements in order to cultivate fierce, loving, and sustainable communities of resistance striving toward liberation. The author grounds the book in collective vision, with short contributions from over twenty organizers and writers from across North America. Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist, writer, and popular educator rooted in emancipatory movements and communities for over a decade. Praise for Undoing Border Imperialism: “Border imperialism is an apt conceptualization for capturing the politics of massive displacement due to capitalist neoglobalization. Within the wealthy countries, Canada’s No One Is Illegal is one of the most effective organizations of migrants and allies. Walia is an outstanding organizer who has done a lot of thinking and can write—not a common combination. Besides being brilliantly conceived and presented, this book is the first extended work on immigration that refuses to make First Nations sovereignty invisible.”—Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author of Indians of the Americas and Blood on the Border “Harsha Walia’s Undoing Border Imperialism demonstrates that geography has certainly not ended, and nor has the urge for people to stretch out our arms across borders to create our communities. One of the most rewarding things about this book is its capaciousness—astute insights that emerge out of careful organizing linked to the voices of a generation of strugglers, trying to find their own analysis to build their own movements to make this world our own. This is both a manual and a memoir, a guide to the world and a guide to the organizer's heart.”—Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World “This book belongs in every wannabe revolutionary’s war backpack. I addictively jumped all over its contents: a radical mixtape of ancestral wisdoms to present-day grounded organizers theorizing about their own experiences. A must for me is Walia’s decision to infuse this volume’s fight against border imperialism, white supremacy, and empire with the vulnerability of her own personal narrative. This book is a breath of fresh air and offers an urgently needed movement-based praxis. Undoing Border Imperialism is too hot to be sitting on bookshelves; it will help make the revolution.”—Ashanti Alston, Black Panther elder and former political prisoner
Publisher: AK Press
ISBN: 184935135X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Book Description
“Harsha Walia has played a central role in building some of North America’s most innovative, diverse, and effective new movements. That this brilliant organizer and theorist has found time to share her wisdom in this book is a tremendous gift to us all.”—Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine Undoing Border Imperialism combines academic discourse, lived experiences of displacement, and movement-based practices into an exciting new book. By reformulating immigrant rights movements within a transnational analysis of capitalism, labor exploitation, settler colonialism, state building, and racialized empire, it provides the alternative conceptual frameworks of border imperialism and decolonization. Drawing on the author’s experiences in No One Is Illegal, this work offers relevant insights for all social movement organizers on effective strategies to overcome the barriers and borders within movements in order to cultivate fierce, loving, and sustainable communities of resistance striving toward liberation. The author grounds the book in collective vision, with short contributions from over twenty organizers and writers from across North America. Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist, writer, and popular educator rooted in emancipatory movements and communities for over a decade. Praise for Undoing Border Imperialism: “Border imperialism is an apt conceptualization for capturing the politics of massive displacement due to capitalist neoglobalization. Within the wealthy countries, Canada’s No One Is Illegal is one of the most effective organizations of migrants and allies. Walia is an outstanding organizer who has done a lot of thinking and can write—not a common combination. Besides being brilliantly conceived and presented, this book is the first extended work on immigration that refuses to make First Nations sovereignty invisible.”—Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author of Indians of the Americas and Blood on the Border “Harsha Walia’s Undoing Border Imperialism demonstrates that geography has certainly not ended, and nor has the urge for people to stretch out our arms across borders to create our communities. One of the most rewarding things about this book is its capaciousness—astute insights that emerge out of careful organizing linked to the voices of a generation of strugglers, trying to find their own analysis to build their own movements to make this world our own. This is both a manual and a memoir, a guide to the world and a guide to the organizer's heart.”—Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World “This book belongs in every wannabe revolutionary’s war backpack. I addictively jumped all over its contents: a radical mixtape of ancestral wisdoms to present-day grounded organizers theorizing about their own experiences. A must for me is Walia’s decision to infuse this volume’s fight against border imperialism, white supremacy, and empire with the vulnerability of her own personal narrative. This book is a breath of fresh air and offers an urgently needed movement-based praxis. Undoing Border Imperialism is too hot to be sitting on bookshelves; it will help make the revolution.”—Ashanti Alston, Black Panther elder and former political prisoner
The Life of Structures
Author: G.S.T Armer
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483100383
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 469
Book Description
The Life of Structures: Physical Testing covers the proceedings of a seminar of the same name. The said seminar is focused on the actions on structures and the performance of existing populations of structures; the properties and performance of building materials; and the internal and external environments of buildings. The book covers topics such as the methodology for the prediction of the life of existing structures; reliability of service-proven structural systems; and some effects of micro-environment on materials. Also covered are subjects such as the assessment of structures through field measured dynamic response; physical properties of structures investigated by dynamic methods; and the stiffness damage test. The text is recommended for engineers who would like to know more about the strength and lifespan of structures, as well as the effectivity of the materials involved in their construction.
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483100383
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 469
Book Description
The Life of Structures: Physical Testing covers the proceedings of a seminar of the same name. The said seminar is focused on the actions on structures and the performance of existing populations of structures; the properties and performance of building materials; and the internal and external environments of buildings. The book covers topics such as the methodology for the prediction of the life of existing structures; reliability of service-proven structural systems; and some effects of micro-environment on materials. Also covered are subjects such as the assessment of structures through field measured dynamic response; physical properties of structures investigated by dynamic methods; and the stiffness damage test. The text is recommended for engineers who would like to know more about the strength and lifespan of structures, as well as the effectivity of the materials involved in their construction.
Undoing Drugs
Author: Maia Szalavitz
Publisher: Hachette Go
ISBN: 0738285757
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
From “one of the bravest, smartest writers about addiction anywhere” (Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author)—the untold story of harm reduction, a surprisingly simple idea with enormous power Drug overdoses now kill more Americans annually than guns, cars or breast cancer. But we have tried to solve this national crisis with policies that only made matters worse. In the name of “sending the right message,” we have maximized the spread of infectious disease, torn families apart, incarcerated millions of mostly Black and Brown people—and utterly failed to either prevent addiction or make effective treatment for it widely available. There is another way, one that is proven to work. However, it runs counter to much of the received wisdom of our criminal and medical industrial complexes. It is called harm reduction. Developed and championed by an outcast group of people who use drugs and by former users and public health geeks, harm reduction offers guidance on how to save lives and improve health. And it provides a way of understanding behavior and culture that has relevance far beyond drugs. In a spellbinding narrative rooted in an urgent call to action, Undoing Drugs tells the story of how a small group of committed people changed the world, illuminating the power of a great idea. It illustrates how hard it can be to take on widely accepted conventional wisdom—and what is necessary to overcome this resistance. It is also about how personal, direct human connection and kindness can inspire profound transformation. Ultimately, Undoing Drugs offers a path forward—revolutionizing not only the treatment of addiction, but also our treatment of behavioral and societal issues.
Publisher: Hachette Go
ISBN: 0738285757
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
From “one of the bravest, smartest writers about addiction anywhere” (Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author)—the untold story of harm reduction, a surprisingly simple idea with enormous power Drug overdoses now kill more Americans annually than guns, cars or breast cancer. But we have tried to solve this national crisis with policies that only made matters worse. In the name of “sending the right message,” we have maximized the spread of infectious disease, torn families apart, incarcerated millions of mostly Black and Brown people—and utterly failed to either prevent addiction or make effective treatment for it widely available. There is another way, one that is proven to work. However, it runs counter to much of the received wisdom of our criminal and medical industrial complexes. It is called harm reduction. Developed and championed by an outcast group of people who use drugs and by former users and public health geeks, harm reduction offers guidance on how to save lives and improve health. And it provides a way of understanding behavior and culture that has relevance far beyond drugs. In a spellbinding narrative rooted in an urgent call to action, Undoing Drugs tells the story of how a small group of committed people changed the world, illuminating the power of a great idea. It illustrates how hard it can be to take on widely accepted conventional wisdom—and what is necessary to overcome this resistance. It is also about how personal, direct human connection and kindness can inspire profound transformation. Ultimately, Undoing Drugs offers a path forward—revolutionizing not only the treatment of addiction, but also our treatment of behavioral and societal issues.
Undoing the Demos
Author: Wendy Brown
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1935408704
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Tracing neoliberalism's devastating erosions of democratic principles, practices, and cultures. Neoliberal rationality—ubiquitous today in statecraft and the workplace, in jurisprudence, education, and culture—remakes everything and everyone in the image of homo oeconomicus. What happens when this rationality transposes the constituent elements of democracy into an economic register? In Undoing the Demos, Wendy Brown explains how democracy itself is imperiled. The demos disintegrates into bits of human capital; concerns with justice bow to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings, and investment climates; liberty submits to the imperative of human capital appreciation; equality dissolves into market competition; and popular sovereignty grows incoherent. Liberal democratic practices may not survive these transformations. Radical democratic dreams may not either. In an original and compelling argument, Brown explains how and why neoliberal reason undoes the political form and political imaginary it falsely promises to secure and reinvigorate. Through meticulous analyses of neoliberalized law, political practices, governance, and education, she charts the new common sense. Undoing the Demos makes clear that for democracy to have a future, it must become an object of struggle and rethinking.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1935408704
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Tracing neoliberalism's devastating erosions of democratic principles, practices, and cultures. Neoliberal rationality—ubiquitous today in statecraft and the workplace, in jurisprudence, education, and culture—remakes everything and everyone in the image of homo oeconomicus. What happens when this rationality transposes the constituent elements of democracy into an economic register? In Undoing the Demos, Wendy Brown explains how democracy itself is imperiled. The demos disintegrates into bits of human capital; concerns with justice bow to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings, and investment climates; liberty submits to the imperative of human capital appreciation; equality dissolves into market competition; and popular sovereignty grows incoherent. Liberal democratic practices may not survive these transformations. Radical democratic dreams may not either. In an original and compelling argument, Brown explains how and why neoliberal reason undoes the political form and political imaginary it falsely promises to secure and reinvigorate. Through meticulous analyses of neoliberalized law, political practices, governance, and education, she charts the new common sense. Undoing the Demos makes clear that for democracy to have a future, it must become an object of struggle and rethinking.