română/
tranzit.org/

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

ORBITING MODERNITY: FROM THE STEAM ENGINE TO THE GALACTIC DEBRIS

Can we cool a burning planet? Degrowth, technology, and the Green New Deal

Lecture & public discussion
held by Gareth Dale (Brunel University, Londra)

Thursday, 30 January 2020, 7 pm.

tranzit. ro/Cluj,
Napoca St, no 16, I floor, Cluj

In these past years, tranzit.ro/Cluj has developed an investigation deployed on multiple levels (philosophy, sociology, economy) and various formats (conferences, seminars, workshops, exhibitions) on the topic of capitalist modernity and its double legacy – as intellectual and material resources for critique and social progress, but also the challenges and contradictions that the project of modernity carries within itself and are exploding nowadays in acute ways.

Continuing on such previous endeavors, tranzit.ro/Cluj will launch this year „Orbiting Modernity: from the steam engine to the galactic debris”, an altogether new project which intends to investigate the relations between the defining elements of modernity (science and techology, socio-political configurations and dynamics, ideological structures) and their impact on the envinronment and our planet. The project’s goal is, on the one hand, to reveal the origins and causes of the current climate crisis in the long history of modern capitalism, but also, on the other hand, to identify those resources and legacies of modernity (critical rationality, universalism and equalitarianism, among others) that still allow us to hope in overcoming this crisis, taking a step forward towards a global eco-socialism which is today more urgent and necessary than ever, thus avoiding the eco- fascist dystopia, already in sight.

The project, which will unfold for the entirety of the year and will consist of conferences, workshops, seminars and exhibitions, will kick off at the end of this month with ‘Can we cool a burning planet?: Degrowth, technology, and the Green New Deal', a conference held by Gareth Dale. The lecture, which will be followed by a public discussion, explores the relationship between capitalism and the climate crisis, offering a critique of mainstream and radical solutions (from ‘green growth’ to degrowth and Green New Deal) and a discussion of the challenges that climate breakdown poses to socialist traditions.

Gareth Dale (Brunel University, Londra, author, among other books and numerous articles, of Karl Polany. A Life on the Left (2016), and Green Growth: Ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives (2016)).

Moderator: Attila Szigeti

Coordinators: Alex Cistelecan, Dana Domsodi, Attila Szigeti, Attila Tordai-S.

The main partner of tranzit.ro is ERSTE Foundation

Partners: Sociology Department of Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca; Biology and Ecology Department of Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca; Philosophy Department of Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, NECC (Nature, Education, Community Center).

Media partners: a szem, Transilvania Reporter, Vatra, Transindex

Thanks to Mircea Vlad.

Adress: tranzit.ro/Cluj

Str. Napoca (Jókai) no 16. ,1st floor, Cluj

Cluj-Napoca
www.tranzit.org

Photo: tranzit. ro/Cluj, 2020;
Cooling towers of Azomureș S.A, Târgu-Mureș.