Consumerism, Cheap Nature and State Socialism: A Transnational Waste Regime Perspective

• Vortrag

Research Lecture by Zsuzsa Gille (University of Illinois)

Abstract:

The goal of this lecture is to reevaluate state socialism’s environmental record from a transnational rather than a comparative perspective. Arguing that state socialist modernity had its own view of nature and materials, as well as a largely misunderstood ethical stance to consumption that is ignored in today’s studies of Capitalocene examining the interrelations of capitalism and climate crisis. The presentation will provide an overview of the environmental advantages and disadvantages of central planning with an eye to demonstrating how Cold-War-era trans-bloc relations and a unique socialist economic logic mutually constituted each other. Instead of returning to the rightfully criticized Anthropocene term, she will argue for a more central role for waste and materiality in our understanding of the current dilemmas around global environmental problems.

Zoom-Link: https://uni-regensburg.zoom.us/j/61447621903

Further information: https://www.gsoses-ur.de/events-and-news/detail/consumerism-cheap-nature-and-state-socialism-a-transnational-waste-regime-perspective