tranzit.ro/ bucurești/ cluj/ iași/ sibiu/

December 10th, at 7pm.

Moderator: Dana Domșodi

Technology and its triumphalist representation together with technologic progress represent not only defining elements of the modern imaginary, but also central pieces in the political anticapitalist repertoire. When talking about ecological crisis, labor emancipation or social-democrat measures designed to contain and mitigate the structural crises of global capitalism, technology always appears as a restraining tool of present contradictions. This presentation explores the role of technology in the context of capitalist ecomodernization and its possible functions within anticapitalist ecologist struggles while looking at the high-speed railway project from Spain. Spain, world leader in high-speed railway constructed kilometers, but also in the number of airports and built highway kilometers, has experienced in the last two decades a series of transformations that can serve as a benchmark in evaluating the progressive contemporary proposals such as Green New Deal and the technological modernizations as a solution to the problems of the capitalist society.

Natalia Buier has studied sociology and anthropology. Presently she researches the connection between economic crises, ecological transformations and infrastructure. She is a graduate of the Departament of Sociology and Anthropology from CEU, currently being affiliated to the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology. She obtained her Phd. at CEU with a thesis on historical memory and labor movements in the Spanish railway system.