Overview

Ecology has become one of the most urgent and lively fields in both the humanities and sciences. In a dramatic widening of scope beyond its original concern with the coexistence of living organisms within a natural environment, it is now recognized that there are ecologies of mind, information, sensation, perception, power, participation, media, behavior, belonging, values, the social, the political… a thousand ecologies. This proliferation is not simply a metaphorical extension of the figurative potential of natural ecology: rather, it reflects the thoroughgoing imbrication of natural and technological elements in the constitution of the contemporary environments we inhabit, the rise of a cybernetic natural state, with its corresponding mode of power. Hence this ecology of ecologies initiates and demands that we go beyond the specificity of any particular ecology: a general thinking of ecology which may also constitute an ecological transformation of thought itself is required. In this ambitious and radical new volume of writings, some of the most exciting contemporary thinkers in the field take on the task of revealing and theorizing the extent of the ecologization of existence as the effect of our contemporary sociotechnological condition: together, they bring out the complexity and urgency of the challenge of ecological thought—one we cannot avoid if we want to ask and indeed have a chance of affecting what forms of life, agency, modes of existence, human or otherwise, will participate—and how—in this planet’s future.

Full Product Details

Author:   Erich Hörl (Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany) ,  James Edward Burton (Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, Germany)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.40cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.739kg
ISBN:  

9781350014701

ISBN 10:   1350014702
Pages:   400
Publication Date:   04 May 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction to General Ecology: the Ecologization of Thinking (Erich Hörl, Professor of Media Culture, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany) 1. Computational Logic and Ecological Rationality (Luciana Parisi, Reader in Cultural Theory, Goldsmith's, University of London, UK) 2. Elements for an Ecology of Separation: Beyond Ecological Constructivism (Frédéric Neyrat, a French philosopher and Assistant professor in Comparative Literature at University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA) 3. General Ecology, Economy, and Organology (Bernard Stiegler, a French philosopher. He is head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou, France) 4. Critique of the Cosmology of the Moderns (Didier Debaise, Professor of Philosophy, ULB, Brussels, Belgium) 5. Deep Times and Media Mines: A Descent into Ecological Materiality of Technology (Jussi Parikka, media theorist, writer and Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK) 6. Planetary Immunity: Biopolitics, Gaia Theory, the Holobiont, and the Systems Counterculture (Bruce Clarke, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Literature and Science, Texas Tech University, USA) 7. Ecologizing Biopolitics, or, What is the “Bio-” of Biopolitics and Bioart? (Cary Wolfe, Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English and Director, 3CT: Center for Critical and Cultural Theory, Rice University, USA) 8. Ecologies of Communication, Contagion and Bataille (David Wills, Professor of French Studies, Brown University, USA) 8. Metafiction and General Ecology: Making Worlds with Worlds (James Burton, fellow of ICI, Berlin, Germany) 9. An Ecology of Differences: Communication, the Web, and the Question of Borders (Elena Esposito, Professor of Sociology at the University Modena/Reggio Emilia, Italy) 10. Specters of Ecology (Timothy Morton, Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English, Rice University, USA) 11. Devastation (Matthew Fuller, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK and Olga Goriunova, Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 12. Virtual Ecology and the Question of Value (Brian Massumi, Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Montréal, Canada) List of Contributors Bibliography Index

Reviews

Proponents of the philosophy called deep ecology view humans as one of the many integral components of the biosphere. They do not place humans above or outside the rest of nature. Rather humans are considered a natural constituent that modifies nature according to cultural and economic value systems. This book does not explain the principles of ecology in a traditional scientific manner. In contrast, the various chapter authors describe ecology from a deep ecology philosophical perspective. The first chapter begins with an essay on how societal interpretations of ecology vary between cultures and change over time as cultures develop economically and philosophically. This is followed by a diverse array of essays on the influence of computational logic, economics, politics, popular literature, prevailing social norms, religion, and technology on setting a paradigm for conceptualizing ecology. All of these perspectives are used to explain how current environmental issues, such as extinction, are valued by society. Plus, the contributors exactingly prognosticate the influence of the Anthropocene epoch on the natural processes of the Earth. The content and readability targets an audience well versed in bioethics and philosophy. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals. * CHOICE * Because digital mediation has permeated every aspect of life, economy and culture in our techno-scientific societies, we need to learn to think differently about ourselves. In this remarkable collection Erich Horl makes a powerful case for shifting our theoretical horizons away from disciplinary distinctions between Media studies, Literary and Cultural studies towards a more integrated approach: a new general ecology replaces the obsolete distinction between natural and social environments and calls for a multi-layered relational approach to sustainable futures. -- <i>Rosi Braidotti, Professor of the Humanities, Utrecht University, The Netherlands A brilliant collection that interrogates and exemplifies the current turn in critical theory to ecology and the environment. Bringing together the very best thinkers, it maps the entangled relationship between the ecological and the technological. A must read. * Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, USA * With ground-breaking contributions from a renowned cast of international scholars General Ecology issues a call to arms to anyone interested in the concept of the environment. By radicalizing several strands of research in the humanities and social sciences, including cybernetics, phenomenology, systems theory, process philosophy and discourses on the anthropocene, the essays gathered here transform our approach to the concept of ecology along three axes. In variant and often mind-expanding ways, we are urged to substitute a general ecology of relations for the mathematization of relation central to contemporary global capital, to invest in a third stage environmental cybernetics rooted in the technoecology of sense, and to resist the Anthropocene illusion by tracking the explosion of environmental agencies in today's global technosphere. General Ecology offers nothing less than a new ecological image of thought. * Mark B. N. Hansen, Professor of Literature and Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Duke University, USA * An impressive group of theorists who also appear to do real work in thinking through major concepts that are often left uninterrogated in ecophilosophy. There was a very popular edited volume put out by Minnesota a couple of years back on ecotheory beyond the green . It was so popular and did not do much at all, in my opinion. These essays seem far more substantive. -- <i>Anthony Paul Smith, Assistant Professor, La Salle University, USA original and provocative This volume's focus on technology and ecology fills an important gap in the existing literature. To my knowledge there is no other collection on General Ecology on the market nor is there a collection that pushes the relationship of technology and ecology in the way this volume does. It is quite original. -- <i>Rick Elmore, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Appalachian State University, USA

"Proponents of the philosophy called “deep ecology” view humans as one of the many integral components of the biosphere. They do not place humans above or outside the rest of nature. Rather humans are considered a natural constituent that modifies nature according to cultural and economic value systems. This book does not explain the principles of ecology in a traditional scientific manner. In contrast, the various chapter authors describe ecology from a deep ecology philosophical perspective. The first chapter begins with an essay on how societal interpretations of ecology vary between cultures and change over time as cultures develop economically and philosophically. This is followed by a diverse array of essays on the influence of computational logic, economics, politics, popular literature, prevailing social norms, religion, and technology on setting a paradigm for conceptualizing ecology. All of these perspectives are used to explain how current environmental issues, such as extinction, are valued by society. Plus, the contributors exactingly prognosticate the influence of the Anthropocene epoch on the natural processes of the Earth. The content and readability targets an audience well versed in bioethics and philosophy. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals. * CHOICE * Because digital mediation has permeated every aspect of life, economy and culture in our techno-scientific societies, we need to learn to think differently about ourselves. In this remarkable collection Erich Horl makes a powerful case for shifting our theoretical horizons away from disciplinary distinctions between Media studies, Literary and Cultural studies towards a more integrated approach: a new general ecology replaces the obsolete distinction between natural and social environments and calls for a multi-layered relational approach to sustainable futures. * Rosi Braidotti, Professor of the Humanities, Utrecht University, The Netherlands * A brilliant collection that interrogates and exemplifies the current turn in critical theory to ecology and the environment. Bringing together the very best thinkers, it maps the entangled relationship between the ecological and the technological. A must read. * Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, USA * With ground-breaking contributions from a renowned cast of international scholars General Ecology issues a call to arms to anyone interested in the concept of the environment. By radicalizing several strands of research in the humanities and social sciences, including cybernetics, phenomenology, systems theory, process philosophy and discourses on the anthropocene, the essays gathered here transform our approach to the concept of ecology along three axes. In variant and often mind-expanding ways, we are urged to substitute a ""general ecology of relations"" for the mathematization of relation central to contemporary global capital, to invest in a third stage environmental cybernetics rooted in the ""technoecology of sense,"" and to resist the ""Anthropocene illusion"" by tracking the explosion of environmental agencies in today's global ""technosphere."" General Ecology offers nothing less than a new ecological image of thought. * Mark B. N. Hansen, Professor of Literature and Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Duke University, USA * An impressive group of theorists who also appear to do real work in thinking through major concepts that are often left uninterrogated in ecophilosophy. * Anthony Paul Smith, Assistant Professor, La Salle University, USA * Original and provocative - this volume’s focus on technology and ecology fills an important gap in the existing literature. To my knowledge there is no other collection on General Ecology nor is there a collection that pushes the relationship of technology and ecology in the way this volume does. It is quite original. * Rick Elmore, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Appalachian State University, USA *"

A brilliant collection that interrogates and exemplifies the current turn in critical theory to ecology and the environment. Bringing together the very best thinkers, it maps the entangled relationship between the ecological and the technological. A must read. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, USA With ground-breaking contributions from a renowned cast of international scholars General Ecology issues a call to arms to anyone interested in the concept of the environment. By radicalizing several strands of research in the humanities and social sciences, including cybernetics, phenomenology, systems theory, process philosophy and discourses on the anthropocene, the essays gathered here transform our approach to the concept of ecology along three axes. In variant and often mind-expanding ways, we are urged to substitute a general ecology of relations for the mathematization of relation central to contemporary global capital, to invest in a third stage environmental cybernetics rooted in the technoecology of sense, and to resist the Anthropocene illusion by tracking the explosion of environmental agencies in today's global technosphere. General Ecology offers nothing less than a new ecological image of thought. Mark B. N. Hansen, Professor of Literature and Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Duke University, USA

A brilliant collection that interrogates and exemplifies the current turn in critical theory to ecology and the environment. Bringing together the very best thinkers, it maps the entangled relationship between the ecological and the technological. A must read. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, USA

Author Information

Erich Hörl is a philosopher and cultural theorist. He is professor of Media Culture at the Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM) at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. James Burton is a lecturer in Cultural Studies and Cultural History at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of The Philosophy of Science Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2015).

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