RA 6 Workshop | Ecologization of Society

The ongoing distruction of the environment since the industrial age is a persistent challenge for the human identity. Dependent on a working ecosystem, humanity must accept responsibility for the destructionof the nature. This ecological paradigm is grounded on an image of man that is opposed to a notion of an unalterable nature - in our times, a dying nature. This perception however misappropriates the coherence of natural factors and human politics which have to strongly integrate natural issues in order for humanity to survive. Governing nature means also to be governed by nature on a global scale.

The workshop aims to explore the shifting webs of relationships between plitics and nature from political ecology to notions of human identity in the Anthropocene. The twofold strucute of the workshop is composed of a short talk by Dr. Scholz who will present his reasearch in the fields of political philosophy and ecology and a subsequent discussion. The basis for the workshop will be the text "Der Singular der Erde" which is the introduction of his upcoming publication Die Regierung der Natur. Ökologie und politische Ordnung (2022) and which you find attached below. The reading and discussion of the text will be the topic of our next Research Area meeting (tba!) that is planned as a preparation for the workshop.

Leander Scholz is a philosopher and writer. He is currently working as a Research Fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Literay and Cultural Research (ZfL) in Berlin. His research interests and publications encompass cultural and media philosophy, political ecology, identity politics and thanatology. In addition to his own publications and editorships, he regularly writes for the press and radio. Most recently published by him: Zusammenleben. Über Kinder und Politik. Berlin: Hanser (2018) and Die Menge der Menschen. Eine Figur der politischen Ökologie. Berlin: Kadmos (2019).

Please not that the workshop can only be offered in German. However, our next meeting where we will discuss the text is in English, of course. If you are interested in the topic and want to join the discussion, we invite you to join our next Research Area meeting regardless of whether you have read the text or not!

The workshop will take place online and I will grant the access shrotly in advance via circular email and Mattermost. Please register beforehand so that I can assess how many participants we will be: Robin.Probst@gcsc.uni-giessen.de