Vivimos un revival de la arquitectura abstracta, totalmente pasada de moda (Spanish Edition)

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Mientras que en Ogre Tones buena parte del material simplemente no daba la talla, para XV han escrito algunas de sus mejores canciones en mucho tiempo. A tiempo para el estertor final Rock de desguace, vasto, sucio, machista No pudo salir mejor Archivado en Discos Yes Las reinvenciones rara vez salen bien. En la banda, sin embargo, pocos cambios. Archivado en Discos Urge Overkill Saturation No obstante, es el mejor disco de la banda. Es impecable de principio a fin y gana con cada nueva escucha. Muere Bo Diddley, uno de los padres del rock Primero fue el azul en su disco debut, luego el verde en su tercer LP y ahora el rojo en este sexto trabajo de estudio de los americanos.

Los verdaderos "guitar heroes" Archivado en Discos Sonic Youth Sister En su quinto trabajo, Sister , la banda culmina este proceso de perfeccionamiento y alumbra su primera obra maestra. Nada es gratuito ni hay atisbo de pretenciosidad en Sister. Bien por ellos Lo mejor de Stop Drop and Roll!!! Suena pasado de moda. Por eso es genial. Pero era ya un secreto a voces.

Stop Drop and Roll!!! No se trata de cualquier cosa. Que tiemble Barenboim Archivado en Reportajes En realidad no creo que le preocupe mucho, especialmente ahora que ha conseguido librarse del director de la Staatsoper Peter Mussbach , pero el caso es que los ingenieros de Honda han encontrado una nueva utilidad a su robot ASIMO: No se anduvo con medias tintas a la hora de responder.

En fin, que nos encanta el buen rollo que se traen las estrellas del rock actual. Sin eso no hay red y sin red no hay internet hay otra cosa. Archivado en Discos Love Forever Changes Un imprescindible al que conviene dar un repaso. Archivado en Discos Blondie Parallel Lines Haciendo historia casi sin pretenderlo Archivado en Discos The Byrds Mr.

Pero todo eso es historia. Cada nueva escucha de Wild Wood es un descubrimiento. Working Class Dog no es uno de esos discos que hay que escuchar antes de morir. Pero en Momofuku Costello recupera parte de una frescura casi juvenil que recuerda por momentos a las grabaciones con the Attractions. Reznor regala lo nuevo de NIN en su web Mirando hacia adelante no como otros Aunque se siguen distinguiendo trazos de sus discos anteriores "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" , en Let it Be son evidentes las nuevas referencias de la banda.

Nunca es tarde si la dicha es buena Archivado en Novedades Mudcrutch Mudcrutch Mudcrutch nunca llegaron a grabar un disco cuando nacieron en con Tom Leadon y Tom Petty al frente. Muchas novedades sobre Coldplay Archivado en Novedades Madonna Hard Candy A Madonna le quedaba un disco para terminar su contrato con Warner Bros. Se trata de un directo que recoge sus actuaciones conjuntas de junio del y septiembre de A la venta el 10 de julio. Johannes Brahms, Variaciones Haydn Franz Liszt, Concierto para piano No. Entre la literatura y el cine Sin embargo, Brandstrup se ha refugiado en otras influencias para crear su ballet.

Hasta ahora los objetos eran custodiados por Eileen Law , empleada del grupo desde el El segundo es un single de adelanto del nuevo trabajo de Tom Petty junto a su primera banda, Mudcrutch , reformada recientemente. Muere el cantautor Paul Davis, primer single de lo nuevo de Coldplay, Boston de gira y Scott Weiland prepara nuevo disco Entre sus hits se cuentan: La fecha coincide con el 44 aniversario del regreso de la banda a su ciudad de origen tras la primera gira del grupo por Estados Unido s. Nine Inch Nails han colgado en su web oficial un nuevo single que podemos descargar de forma gratuita.

No Intelligence Allowed por utilizar "Imagine" sin permiso. Arctic Monkeys y the Strokes preparan ya sus respectivos siguientes trabajos. EL documental ha sido producido por el director Saam Farahmand. Pues bien, Bill Kenwright , productor teatral y amigo del rockero londinense Tommy Steele , afirma lo contrario. La causa de la muerte fue, al parecer, una insuficiencia renal. Pocas han conseguido ser tan originales e influyentes como the Feelies. Archivado en Discos Pulp Different Class Pero el incipiente agotamiento del grupo y la inconsistencia de su debut en Warner, desaparece en Warehouse.

Sencillamente el mejor disco de country rock de la historia. En realidad The Byrds no eran nuevos en el country, ya desde su segundo disco, Turn! Temporada de caza Lo consiguen siendo honestos consigo mismos y evolucionando como grupo. Rosas de piedra Metallica han lanzado una nueva web en la que prometen ofrecer en primicia parte de su nuevo disco antes de su salida oficial al mercado, prevista para finales de este verano.

Muere un genio del rock Su muerte nos ha sobrecogido especialmente. A pesar de todo ello, Onslow es hoy un gran olvidado. Los Cult iban sobrados. Desde han publicado ya siete discos. Ryan Adams se sincera en su blog Pues bien, el cantautor se ha despachado en su blog con la siguiente frase: Siempre lo he hecho". Discos gratis en la web de Yep Roc Rcords Uno de los artistas disponibles es nuestro idolatrado Nick Lowe. Y si pinchamos el enlace podemos escuchar su fenomenal disco debut, Jesus of Cool , enterito y totalmente gratis. Archivado en Novedades Echolyn Mei El motivo es la entrega de un premio a su trayectoria por parte de la revista musical NME.

El estreno tuvo lugar la semana pasada en la ciudad de Atlanta. Archivado en Reportajes Los portales Last. FM y Wikipedia han unido sus fuerzas para crear una web que, si bien no pasa de ser un mero pasatiempo, puede hacernos pasar horas entretenidos casi sin darnos cuenta. FM o hacerlo con el reproductor que elige por su cuenta los grupos. Springsteen se encuentra consigo mismo Born to Run, El Boss tuvo que adecuar su estilo de cantautor folk a ese potente sonido.

Sorprendentemente el cambio es imperceptible. Aunque no se ha dado a conocer una fecha para el lanzamiento, han trascendido otros detalles, como el nombre del productor. Tristemente Konk se queda lejos de confirmar a los Kooks como una de las grandes bandas del panorama actual. Para Elvis Presley Enterprises , la empresa que gestiona el legado comercial de Elvis , ha declarado, por boca de su portavoz, Kevin Kern , que el hallazgo ha supuesto toda una sorpresa para ellos, tanto por la cantidad como por la calidad del material.

Sin embargo, no todo son ventajas. En segundo lugar, el mayor inconveniente: A lo que hay que sumar otros por el Melody No2. Prueba con Coldplay Otros marcan un nuevo camino en la carrera de la artista. Madonna psicoanaliza a Justin Timberlake y toca la guitarra junto a Timbaland en su nuevo disco The Kooks, the Rolling Stones, Pitchfork.

Pero las posturas siguen siendo las mismas. En ella podemos sentir la llamada del destino a nuestra puerta, amenazante, que simboliza la lucha interna del propio artista, resumida en el conocido motivo inicial. Carl Orff, Carmina Burana Los datos proceden de un estudio realizado por la empresa NPD que concluye que iTunes ha superado a los grandes almacenes Wal-Mart en ventas de discos. Pero merece la pena, son uno de los mejores grupos de los Fuera del escenario Iggy es un hombre muy amable y educado". Viernes de estrenos en clave musical: Del primero se lleva hablando mucho tiempo.

Consta de dos simuladores de sintetizador y una drum machine. En esto ocupa su tiempo libre Pete Doherty Aunque no lo parezca, es un rollo tremendo. Se trata del proyecto del director Rudy Langlais basado en las memorias de la viuda del cantante, Rita Marley. Foxboro Hot Tubs han publicado un nuevo single, "The Pedestrian", que puede ser descargado directamente desde la web de la banda foxborohottubs. Instrumentos musicales para el iPhone Es el caso de iBand , quienes incluso han creado sus propias canciones y pretenden sacar un disco al mercado.

Al ser hallado delirando en su celda fue trasladado urgentemente al hospital. Tanto Def como Beyonce cuentan ya con una larga experiencia en el medio. El decimocuarto disco de R. Para el tercer corte se reservan el ya conocido "Supernatural Superserious", que lo tiene todo para ser un mega hit.

Es pegadiza, guitarrera y corta. Archivado en Reportajes Muxtape es una web que nos permite crear listas de canciones que podemos compartir con el resto de internautas. U2 fichan por los promotores de Madonna Este grupo fue liderado por Petty a principios de los 70, antes de que formara los exitosos Heartbreakers. La lista es larga: No tengo mucha certeza de nada en este momento. No tengo idea de lo que va a pasar. Axl Rose ficha un nuevo equipo directivo para los Guns N' Roses La banda ha fichado nuevos managers y los de Dr Peeper se han echado a temblar. En un comunicado publicado en la web del grupo, Axl Rose afirma: Antonio Vivaldi, Las cuatro estaciones The Who Sell Out es, sin duda, uno de los mejores discos del grupo.

Ni que decir tiene que las interpretaciones son sobresalientes. A pesar de alabar el trabajo de Scorsese en su conjunto, a Watts no le gustan nada los flshbacks de Shine a Light. De lo bueno que sea, no tengo ni idea. Es estupendo de ver. Se lo pueden permitir. Axl Rose responde a la oferta de Dr Pepper Se refieren a Chinese Democracy , el disco que Axl Rose lleva preparando supuestamente desde y de que no se sabe nada. El cuarto DVD incluye un extenso documental sobre las giras. Lowery ha sido recientemente descartada como autora del asesinato.

Se trata del tema "Mister Bellamy", que pudiera ser un juego de palabras con Mills betray me Mills me traiciona. Siempre dijo que no" , relata Davies. Su disco duro permite almacenar y reproducir hasta 1. Desde que anunciaran su lanzamiento la semana pasada, se ha hablado mucho del grupo y se ha hecho memoria de su primer trabajo. En vez de tomar el proyecto como un mero pasatiempo, han optado por trabajar en serio como grupo. Un paso adelante para una propuesta que realmente merece la pena.

Muere Neil Aspinall, el "quinto beatle" Rex, Beatles, Madness, etc. El mundo se merece escuchar estas canciones". Los Beach Boys llegan a un acuerdo para utilizar el nombre de la banda Edvard Grieg, Concierto para piano y orquesta Internet se abre camino El resultado es que la velocidad de descarga se multiplica hasta por seis y las operadoras ahorran en consumo de ancho de banda. Verizon , una operadora norteamericana, ha sido una de las primeras en testar el sistema.

La velocidad de descarga media es del doble que en P2P y puede llegar a ser seis veces superior. El segundo CD incluye nueve canciones grabadas en directo durante el concierto de la banda en Amsterdam. En ese momento la malhadada estrella fue arrastrada hacia el backstage por el personal del local. La capacidad de personas del local fue ampliamente sobrepasada.

Archivado en Discos Debut en solitario y por todo lo alto de esta leyenda viva del pop, un artista tan inconmensurable como imperdonablemente ignorado por muchos. Todo ello integrado en en un procesador Core 2 Duo T a 1. Nuevo disco de Queen y primer recopilatorio de Dream Theater Keith Richards advierte a Amy Winehouse del peligro de las drogas El guitarrista de los Stones fue entrevistado el pasado domingo en The Guardian. Transparency, objective comparison of alternatives, not racing forward, the chance for amendments, a monitoring of functions and the collective evaluation of the results.

Now is the time to rethink the assembly of the city. Compactness based on the interests that fall in the category of public preoccupation. Urban models that renew the pact for distributing wealth and balancing out the access to resources which inaugurated the development of rational planning.

Industrial pacts that connect the growth of the city with the implementation of work conditions and innovations in knowledge. In short, an assembly based in. The call from Marie Vanhamme to recover our political framework as a place for criticism and the projection of the urban,14 becomes a priority in a city where the public controversies that have accompanied the growth of recent years, recorded in the audiovisual projects that Montserrat Soto has included in this edition, have had a marginal influence in their definitive resolution. A central question is being asked in the technological studies of today: It is probably within this priority that we will find a renewed interest in the urban, in this era of the ecosystem.

More than ever, the city is renewing the project of building resilient reserves. Ultimately, contexts of complex exchanges and adaptability in the face of the unpredictable. The paradoxes of diversity. Lecture by Marie Vanhamme. Lecture by Juan Freire. Lecture by Maurizio Carta. Lecture by Juan Herreros. The concept of the political. Madrid, The Third Name, This means defining how, and within what timeframe, the territory will be developed.

This process has not been gradual, but instead has taken place in successive leaps of organisation and scale. The first stage, which took place in the s and 70s, is well documented. These are formed by commuter towns which undergo rapid, yet discontinuous growth and are supported by the primitive network of ring-roads and rural nuclei. The new cities are born with hardly any basic infrastructure and are completely dependent on Central Madrid for employment and essential services.

The imbalances associated with this type of growth are obvious. South, based on environmental quality and Central vs. Thus, the imbalances in the distribution of employment, services. These policies of equilibration, at first thought to be fanciful or unrealistic, found sympathy in the endogenous tendencies towards transformation in the Metropolitan Area. Now, the most significant point of this stage is that it brought about a substantial change to the organisation of the territory: In fact, three tendencies of great importance to the future of Madrid overlap in this period.

Attractors and nodes The qualitative leap in the spread of accessibility led to the most important spatial transformation of Madrid of the last ten years. They also play an even more relevant role in the formation of nodes, which then colonise new territory. Despite their routes having being conceived in a somewhat autistic manner with regard to their immediate surrounds, the new orbital roads have generated a constellation of strategic points of maximum accessibility at their intersections, links and connections to transport exchanges.

Of specific note are the tertiary suburban corridors specialising in services to business and consumerism: Historically, centrality is a quality that has come from a long process singularising certain parts of the city, both spatially and functionally. This method of colonising territories results in the multiplication of spaces with no construction control: While we are discussing whether the city block These pieces base their success on the administration of quantity: However, at the hypermarket, the emphasis on spatial rationalisation does not filter through to its architecture.

Its posterior evolution into a closed, high-ceilinged gallery has created a. They also represent a controlledscale reproduction of spontaneous suburban creation of plots. From the campus model, they adopted the autonomy and openness of the constructions. In the case of commercial parks, the addition of a large hypermarket is the norm, and this functions as an engine for the. Only when one enters into a building does one get the feeling of habitat. Access from the motorway, parking lots and the entrance to the building itself cannot actually be termed places. Buildings are configured to be autistic, introspective volumes of space with no interest in a figurative external presence.

We must mention the two most important of these: As a consequence of this sustained urban pressure, rural land has tended to disappear completely, except in protected areas such as National Parks. Meanwhile, residual territories have multiplied in expectation of developments in the outer areas of the cities. Town planning over the final years of the past century responded to this phenomenon by zoning practically every empty space in the city to saturation point.

In my view, the evolution of the city of Madrid does not stop with the consolidation of the city-region. We find ourselves on the thresh-. The emerging Toledo-Madrid-Guadalajara corridor already constitutes the main urban region on the Peninsula and is the primary territorial attraction for international investments. The city-region, geographically fragmented and functionally specialised, is progressively transformed into a fractal territory. Metropolitan geography becomes a mosaic of self-contained entities. From fragmentation to fractality: The real key however, as we will see, is in the way in which territory is occupied.

In the same manner, the geometric illusion that has so often captivated engineers and architects when it comes to designing territorial infrastructures, has an effect in this context which is not only sterile, but perverse. The new territory of Madrid is not equipotential, nor can it be subjected to the simplification of infinitely extended orbital ring roads, or abstract territorial grids.

It is because of this that we can affirm that the simple, functional segregation of the early stages of metropolitan formation is replaced by a more An example will help us to understand the true reach of this concept. From a wider spatial and temporal viewpoint, it appears more like the first fragment of a more complex, integrated territorial piece due to the pre-existence and diversity of its surroundings: In other words, each fragment becomes part of the process of increasing the diversity and complexity of the whole, even when the physical units are mono-functional, typologically monotonous or socially homogenous.

The error comes when we confuse diversity and fragmentations with chaos in the information theory sense of the word. However, this method of development is not desirable for a very different reason: This is not a simple question, but seen from this perspective the option of zoning and building-up We could say that the time has come to turn our eyes once more to the centre, making the most of what we have learnt in the peripheries. We should take a closer look at the places where the city resolves its daily survival.

In both cases we are dealing with enclaves which denote functionalist schemata, segregated and built in ghettos, and the product of an operative zoning which consolidates and promotes a certain way of using the city, a way which has been in crisis for years. We have unfortunately lost the opportunity for housing, among other things. Today we can see that this territory has been constructed using centralstyle instruments, and that massive occupation has stopped us from understanding that the differences, with regards to the city centre, demanded very different planning methods and models, a periphery built with pride and with nothing to envy the centre.

As we watch in amazement at what emerging economies do with their territories — those cities with a population of two million which are built out of nothing in China — we become aware that we have been doing much the same thing: In fact we had everything in our favour. The residential masses at our peripheries are in themselves the true infrastructure, if we could only see beyond the M or the M when applying that word. The dictionary defines infrastructure as that which makes a thing able to function, and we have The peripheries have shown us that by placing too much emphasis on the infrastructure of mobility, our problems move further and further outward, while the lack of capillarity contributes to the isolation of the built-up units and the destruction of nature.

We should take a closer look at the obsession for large-scale connectivity which impedes transversal permeability, like in an archipelago: I ask this with suitable reserve, as a theoretical provocation. It is not a theory, but a warning against fascination or prejudice, two attitudes that stop us from any real thought.

If our infrastructures allow us to abandon here and build over there, the decay of the centre and its inner suburbs will never be detained. Unpredictable paradigmatic changes are approaching which we cannot simply work to adapt to. The crisis that we are experiencing is, for the city, nothing less than the death of one era, an alarm bell telling us that things have got to change and the automobile culture ought be the very first to do so or better yet disappear — solid fuels are running out, it is not a fantasy, and certain energy dependences will become death traps — just think of the unquestionable example of the gasoduct in Eastern Europe.

We need typologies in which many different. Once the central part of these cities had been turned over to cultivating the single-crop of large corporations, they could not stand up to the challenges of the automobile and petrol crisis, coming as they did in quick succession. In many forums, people are focusing on the need to establish a balance between housing — Madrid is not as dense as we believe, just take a look at the real data and compare it to the big European capitals — and other uses.

If we want a talented class of people to live in the city centre, they will have to be able to implant their production sites there. A complete study about the true density and the veiled use of the interior part of Madrid city blocks is required. Research needs to be done on the honey-combed blocks — those where it seems that the city has given all it can, and which will not get another chance because it is clear that though vulgar, they are well enough built, inhabited and equipped.

We may even go so far as to say that they provide a solid urban effect. Nature that would have to be three-dimensional as opposed to clinging to the ground; nature that understands built-up masses and human activities to be part of the The difficult times we are experiencing now will, in the mid-term, have a positive reading if we take advantage of this slowing down to turn in another direction, a thought which has been echoed by everyone here at this table in one way or another.

Above all, it revealed another spectacular reality: The power of this mountain and the sight of the landfills, with the three thousand tons of rubbish produced by the city every night, are a perfect x-ray image of the scale and enormity of Madrid. The heart of the city beats below; a few metro or electric bus stops away there is a world of leisure, the Seine, the Bois de Boulogne….

Master Plan for Monteluce, Perugia. Residence, university equipment and infrastructure on the site of the old hospital. RAPT housing complex, parking lots, bus hangars, offices, kindergarten and studies in Paris. A residential complex built over the hangars of the Paris Municipal Transport Company helps to keep them in the city centre which was still peripheral when they were built , instead of banishing them to a new, uncertain periphery. In Madrid, we have seen the bus. Woermann housing complex, offices, shopping area, parking, public library and municipal offices in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

In a strategic point between the four forces that delimit the city — the historical centre, the inner suburbs, the port and the beach — we see the chance to build a complex of certain density, to free up the only public urban space.

A job still pending is that of reviewing the density in Madrid city blocks. There seems to be no future for these blocks. We need to study their potential for substitution and For several years he has provided specialist consultancy for some of the most notable contemporary architects on large projects in Italy and abroad.

News of the outcome of this war reached the centres of power at the time — the courts of Paris and Madrid — towards the end of October. By the year , 1. The south of the planet is growing rapidly, more so than the north, as this incredible graph shows. Note how the urban population grows very quickly, as you can see in this slide.

The graph may not be an exact representation of reality. One good reason to focus our attention on our cities. When I was a student many years ago, I was very impressed by the theory of geography that stated: But another idea was even more intriguing: On the 11th September most of us were able to follow in real time the dramatic destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City.

If we take a plane today, we can travel from Venice to Beijing in about fourteen hours, and in the near future, using sub-orbital aircraft, the trip is expected to take just three or four hours. So it is safe to say that the time required for long journeys today is hundreds of time shorter that in the past. A second good reason to focus our attention on our cities, large or small. The Rome of Pope Sisto V, towards the end of the 16th century, represents the power of the Catholic church. In fact, the idea was that the famous Roman basilicas were visible from a great distance.

The time is the same, the distances covered are of different magnitude. Questions that came to my mind were: There would not be time to show them all to you at this conference, so I have selected just a few. Its geometry and orientation are perfect. Incidentally, the original name of the city is Madinat as — Salam, which means City of Peace, something which is tragically non-existent at present. Sforzinda, drawn up in the 15th century by Filarete, represents the astrological perfection of a defensive city.

The lineal city, proposed towards the end of the 19th century by Arturo Soria y Mata, is the planned hallmark of concentric cities. The common denominator in traditional maps is immobility. My theory is that the structure of modern cities can be modified and depends on the times of day and the transport that people use. But what would be a reasonable calculation of the average amount of time that a person spends on the main urban functions?

If we take a look at. To test these ideas, I studied twelve megacities around the world, as you can see on this map, and analysed four main urban functions: The accessibility of these functions was quantified for two methods of transport: The first case I would like to share with you is that of Milan, my home city. This map shows the area that can be covered in 45 minutes or less by car in the midweek morning rush hour within the centre of Milan, where we find many tertiary and quaternary sector workers, in other words financiers, bankers, insurance brokers etcetera.

If we look at the same situation but with public transport, it is easy to see that accessibility is increased: The population inhabiting the area of accessibility reaches 4. Los Angeles From above to below and from left to right: But if we use public transport infrequent urban and non-existent regional routes , the situation changes drastically. Only , people live in the 45 minute area of accessibility. Milan is always the same, but its functional form mutates. Four examples of megalopolis, two vice-ridden and two virtuous, allow us to widen the limits of this theory.

The mutating city Now I would like to show you how in theory, it would be possible to limit the disperse growth of a city. Twenty years after the Second World War this was the situation of the human settlements in the metropolitan area of Milan. The study I carried out had three steps:. It can be assumed that in metropolitan areas, it is still possible to work towards recovering lost balance, containing urban sprawl, and reducing traffic congestion with its notorious consequences.

This could be done in short order, with manageable sums of investment; what is needed is the will. Can the Institutional Actors find a brave way to govern this matter? Inside the sprawled areas the car could play a strategic role. From the Urban scale to the Micro scale What can we do in planning on a micro scale? Three examples that may help us understand how useful these analyses are:. This is a dynamic simulation that shows future traffic conditions in the area, and the pollution generated by current and future conditions. His research interests go toward the value and role of cultural heritage as a tool for a more sustainable development and, recently, about the urban regeneration based on culture and creativity.

He is an advisor of the Municipality of Palermo for urban planning. He is also the scientist responsible for the urban regeneration of Palermo Waterfront for the Port Authority. The results are published in books and presented at some congresses, including: The cities will have to invest in the experience economy, strengthening their identity.

The creative city, therefore, is an active tension, that requires looking forward, and calls us to action. Does a form of town planning exist which might help cities become more creative? This is the task we have set ourselves. The creative city is a city capable of mobilising its diverse component parts in the pursuit of a plan for the future. The talent of a city must also generate value; it must be submerged in the virtuous circle of the culture economy, the geography of experience, the design of quality. Technology, Talent and Tolerance are powerful elements of competitiveness and indicators of urban attractiveness.

But there is a fourth T: We cannot, therefore, merely calculate the presence and worth of the three Ts, but must combine them with the fourth: Culture, therefore, plays a part in the field of resources, enabling the city to become more creative. Cooperation implies an ability to assemble a series of components, focusing action on common goals and outcomes.

Cooperation, therefore, redefines the urban community, assigning it new roles and clearer objectives. The mission is unequivocal: This begs the question: The main characteristics of such renewal can be set out under seven indices: One only has to think of the extraordinary reserves of both quality and opportunity for transformation possessed by urban districts surrounded by superb natural settings. The economic sustainability index, which calls for a pre-existing, solid economic base — either internal or to be set up in financial partnerships — to activate and maintain urban regeneration trial projects within a context of policies and regulations aimed at facilitating their completion.

Think of the enormous contribution made by cultural associations or micro-enterprises which forge the very nerve centre of the new socio-economic framework of town planning: The seven indices of the creative city illustrate that we are facing highly dynamic situations: Setting up creative cities demands: A commitment to planning which conceives all change within a framework of holistic principles, A creative vision of this sort must be capable of regulating and managing urban development processes in such a way as to influence and steer trends and guide aims and objectives.

The most long-standing experience gained in creative cities reveals two main family groups into which creative clusters might be divided. Just consider the proliferation of centres devoted to the production and exhibition of figurative arts which are springing up in numerous cities. Policies which are supportive of creative cities —or the formation of creative clusters— must succeed in pursuing two main objectives at one and the same time.

Indeed, this factor is increasingly relevant in connection with localisation policies, particularly with regard to the culture, events and leisure sector. The second objective concerns the need to stimulate the positive effects of a cluster, since public interest and investments are only justifiable if the cluster has a positive effect on further development within the area.

Creative economies are capable of generating considerable incomes for urban economies, which can then be used to fund the cost of public services and infrastructure in a virtuous circle of creative economy and urban welfare.

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Interaction between parties involved in the creative district can be given a further boost through the realisation of large-scale urban transformation projects: Una nuova geografia di Milano, Milano, Egea. Upon her return to Berlin, her focus shifted to custodianship. Since , Urban Drift has organised exhibitions, conferences, symposia and workshops that deal with architectural issues in the context of economic and social progress. Francesca Ferguson Wednesday, 8th of October I am not a specialist and I found the previous presentations really impressive.

One thing for those who are still studying architecture: And I think Urban Age in particular has really achieved that. It is something we are always shocked by. How architectural practices hand information in to us that is amazing in terms of its intellectual content but so badly visualised. The message of Urban Age really gets across. I was surprised today to find out that Urban Age is an initiative which is completely privately financed by Deutsche Bank.

In the optimism of looking at urban futures, no one today has really been touching upon this massive banking crisis that we face right now. I am going to touch upon some of the issues based on my past work in Berlin and my interest in economies where low budgets, scarce budgets, are an issue. But we have to ask ourselves if initiatives like Urban Age are supported by private banks rather than governments, what is the future of these investigations and co-ordinations that have to happen between cities and between countries, optimising infrastructure, optimiszing the way we perceive urban reality?

I think we are looking at slightly more difficult times ahead. As has been emphasised a number of times, and with powerful statistics, we are living in a consummately urban age. And the combined effects of such changes mean that we are just on the way to understanding the social, economic and environmental consequences for the manifestation of this urban era, to grasp this, let alone actually manage it. So I wanted to ask a few questions about architecture and urban planning, and particularly about our perceptions and visualisations of contemporary cities.

And I start off with an image from Berlin. Berlin is one of the cities that you could really call a cultural capital and it is one that has been branding itself as a capital for creative industries. At the same time, what I discovered in the few years that I was working in Berlin with Urban Drift, before I moved to a safe heaven, financially speaking, of the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, was that there is quite a different kind of urbanism and quite different kinds of urban strategies and interventions that have developed on the basis of an economy that was, in a way — and still is, in a way, in terms of cultural production — an economy of scarcity, of lack.

Probably a number of you have seen and visited it before it was demolished this year. It stood for some time completely voided, with its interior stripped of asbestos and reduced to a skeletal forest of steel supports. The Volkspalast for a time became the focus for strategies reminiscent of Archigram and Cedric Price, a kind of tactical icon.

Francesca Ferguson the home, or temporary home, of a number of initiatives by contemporary architects, artists and designers to turn it into a site for spectacular short-term opera concerts, clubs and light shows. It was a kind of transitory focal point for the urban imaginary. And the ruin itself became a site for urban events and the projection of desires. It was a space that was suspended between a stagnant present, and what may or may not be a kind of slightly more neo-conservative future for this central part of Berlin. What is going to be built on the whole site now is a centre for contemporary art.

Looking at this idea of the derelict and the ruin, Cedric Price was perhaps one of the first architects to think of them as a repertoire of modern architecture. Architecture and urban design that engages with ruin and redundancy has perhaps been under represented within overall design discourse. And within all the architectural optimism about reinvigorating and reactivating cities it would be foolish to ignore the fact that it is not always possible, it is not always affordable, to create a kind of tabula rasa, to demolish large scale and numbers of buildings to build new ones, from scratch.

We have to deal with what is still existent. Cedric Price thought profoundly about the past. He transformed a previous programme, an industrial programme, by taking the derelict and using it as the basis for his new work. So this is not necessarily the derelict, but the left over, the in-between. This is something that has been a central part of urban and architectural practice evolving through these years in Berlin, and still evolving. In the absence of significant new investments, aside from the fact that there was significant real estate developed, much of which has remained empty, and will remain empty for some time, peripheral residual spaces are being occupied and reconfigured right at the heart of the city.

It is still a place where there is a lack of real investment, long-term investment. The Berlin government adopted the semi-legal policy of temporary use themselves, in order to cut their losses on empty state-owned properties. This is effectively the management of the economy of scarcity, in German Mangelwirtschaft, on the part of the local government, and it is producing an urban renewal from below. There is a significant shift taking place amongst an emerging generation of architects and designers who know that with the lasting slump in the building trade, they have to extend the boundaries of the profession and make a vir-.

Commercial brands like Nike were very quick to co-opt the nearest situation as practices of the urban event. Nike reactivated disused sites between buildings for the instalment of short-term baseball and basketball courts. They hosted football matches in the half built new subway routes under the Reichstag, and they mimicked the kind of nomadic club concept of Berlin. Atelier le Balto, known for their intervention in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, have developed a whole series of temporary gardens behind the Hamburger Bahnhof, near lesser used areas around various parts of the university and research institutes.

These temporary gardens were, by the way, financed by the cultural fund in Berlin so it was seen as something artistic, rather than landscape architecture, but it developed a whole attitude and a whole potential for transforming parts of the city with absolutely minimal resources. Within this indeterminate zone, there are no recipes. The occupation of space is no longer dealing with closed structures.

These are overlapping and conflicted zones, full of contradictions, and non-places open to architecture on a small scale and beyond clearly coded social forma-. It is interesting to look at architectural practice that is reusing existing structure, existing buildings. For example, the Barcelona based architects Flores y Prats, who developed Nave Yute textile warehouse in Barcelona, in a fairly industrial nondescript edge part of the city. They were not allowed to touch the sides of the building, which were protected by fire regulations, but they managed to triple the storage capacity of the textile warehouse by going upwards and raising the existing building and reorganising the interior spaces and circulation.

They did this, again, with a very small budget and interesting use of corrugated iron, which they wrapped like a skirt around sections of the building, to make visible the extension of the existing structure and its transformation. In Zurich we featured the architect EM2N, who made it possible for a major intersection, the Hardbruecke, to be utterly transformed by a very simple means: It involved just manipulating the official logo for the Swiss train company to form a kind of focal point of entry at various points of this massive, and pretty ugly, intersection of infrastructure.

Isa Sturm and Urs Wolf, based in Zurich, transformed, though you can hardly tell, this is just a segment, a former locomotive repair station in San Galen. They went to enormous lengths to negotiate with the future users to make sure Francesca Ferguson they could insulate and renovate the building, changing as little as possible. A provisional aesthetic, only touching upon an existing structure, could be one of the many architectural and planning strategies that really rescue buildings of tabula rasa and demolition.

For those who do not know, the Situationists were a very small group of Parisian artists, mainly artists, a couple of architects, whose influence on artistic practice has been enormous, and whose influence on architectural practice has also filtered through. They were very much concerned with this idea of derive, as in drifting through the city and rediscovering urban territories through an extreme practice of losing yourself in the city, using disorientation to produce alternative and subjective mappings. I think it is important to look at the way people use the city space, and how it can be reactivated by implantation of sports where use is totally lacking.

Parcours which, if you like, is an extreme kind of Situationist derive: It has been featured in a lot of action films and advertisements in the last few years, and we were looking also at very simple examples of modular urban furniture and design that can also subvert the notion that in public spaces you should not linger, lie around, make yourself useless, fall asleep or have picnics.

And this was the kind of furniture developed by the Austrian architects PPAG which has transformed a rather dry museum island, Museumsquartier, in Vienna. The present generation of itinerant architecture — short term, adaptable, even viral — which resolutely resists the generic solution, Francesca Ferguson has the potential to establish a foothold in quite a different economic reality.

There is a greater emphasis perhaps on self-sufficiency, low-cost materiality and the idea of carving out your own human scale utopian project. If we look at these small scale not only interventions but also design alternatives, they really ask the question: The designers El Ultimo Grito, who some of you may know, use the aesthetic of graffitistyle stickers to generate a space that they say can respond to your needs or dreams, and can redefine rejected obsolete objects, because they cover these objects with these stickers.

They use exactly what is readily available in your environment, so it is another form of reclaiming space. This was an installation they made in the Zeche Zollverein for Talking Cities, which funnily enough became one of the favourite interview spots for the journalists. So they are trying to resist this kind of IKEA culture of which we are victims, where the first thing we do if we need something for our home, or for our children, is to go to IKEA. Interbreeding Fields, that was a discovery at the Vienna Biennale some years ago. They completely transformed the residual space of a former palazzo, right near San Marco.

They are a group from Taiwan that always use the same system of beams, which they then miraculously always construct without a single plan, transforming outer and inner spaces completely, and give you totally different perspectives and heights. We create multi-layers and theatrical spaces in which to explore the. Volkspalast, Berlin Mitte 2. Instant Urbanism exhibition, SAM 5, 6. As Found exhibition, SAM 7. Francesca Ferguson interactivities of watching and being watched, to alter the urban territory towards becoming a more sensational one.

Atelier Bow Wow has spent many years investigating the weirdest and most extreme forms of hybridity in the city of Tokyo. They lovingly measure exactly these minimal spaces, how they are used, and how they are designed. Surely we can start to think about how to take advantage of them rather than trying to run away. Shamelessness can become useful. Urban elements, Museums Quartier, Viena 3. As Found exhibition, SAM 4. As Found exhibition, SAM 6, 7. Right now at the Swiss Architecture Museum we are looking at a more extreme form, perhaps a more chaotic and dangerous form of informal architecture in the deregulated, post-conflict, chaotic and unplanned cities of the Western Balkan states.

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss is one of the proponents of a more positive look at Balkanisation, extracting the positive and the interesting typologies that emerge from Balkanised architecture, he says: Hilarious new villas of random styles, the parade of dream-come-true houses, cities in fragments, creative borders, the proliferation of fences and innovations. We love these examples because they are ugly-beautiful, self-made optimistic and full of energy. We also respect them because they are against the corrupted system.

Restorative and adaptive planning strategies become increasingly relevant when you are looking at the mono-functional urban planning visions of the 60s and 70s and where they have outlived themselves. This is the Corviale and this is an old photograph from the early 70s. This is another issue of reinscribing the city, or rediscovering aspects of the perimeters of the city that is becoming increasingly important. Contemporary architects often have little choice but to draw new potential from defunct programmes. So the Corviale is kilometres of social housing on the perimeter of Rome.

A vast number of such existing modernist buildings need to be fundamentally reassessed and often saved from extinction. Each micro-adaptation of the large scale becomes, in the re-evaluation of modernism, a political statement. The architects and designers mobilised by the group Stalker and Osservatorio Nomade are increasingly extolling the virtues of large-scale infrastructures that support individuated spatial uses, polarities that counterpoise the mono-functional. They exhibit a wry modesty in engaging with the leftovers.

As I mentioned at the outset and as we have been talking about all day, the agglomeration, the suburbanisation of the contemporary city has, and should become a main point of departure for current practice. I will just skip this because we have been talking a lot about, and seeing also what these peripheral landscapes and corporate fortresses of the telecommunications industry and shopping malls actually involve. Perhaps we need to transform the visual language used to describe these urban landscapes and this edge condition.

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You may remember the film Hate La Haine that was shown in the early 90s in Paris. It was filmed Francesca Ferguson completely in black and white. Think of the derogatory implications of the language that denotes outskirts or periphery. In France the banlieue dates back to the 11th century to denote an area beyond the legal jurisdiction of the city where the poor lived. Now there is discussion from, for example Roland Castro, who was the French presidential candidate a year, or so, ago.

Why not actually absorb the banlieues, make Paris grow from a 10 km by 10 km capital, to a 30 km by 30 km capital. The idea of Greater Paris absorbing 10 million new Parisians who would really feel as Parisians and not as outcasts. And when you look at the realities of cities, of perimeter cities like Kottbus, you can see the mixture of prefab housing from the socialist era, modernist style villas, modern villas, plus the classic line of sloped-roof house of a small German town. Cities are in fact a collage. We were taking the realities of this collage mixed-plan peripheries and using that to create something of a scale that makes it real, or makes it come closer to our perception, brings it closer to the centre if you like.

This shows a bit of the panorama which is a Chinese garden that was built for the pre-fab area of Marzahn on the edge of Berlin, and several new projects that were built to reinvigorate the pre-fab housing estates of Eastern Germany. I just wanted to show one way of maybe making visible the peripheral zones of the urban landscape. This was a contribution for the German pavilion of the Architecture Biennale which we called Deutschlandscape. We used the most traditional means of the panorama, which is normally used to show a kind of metropolitan order, pride and the great architectural achievements in the historical centre of the cities.

We turned that around and used the photographic panorama, and of course extensive use of Photoshop, to create a 90 metre long panorama that basically snaked its way through the German pavilion, and implanted new architecture that had been designed for provincial, peripheral parts of Germany into it. It was also a way of counteracting this use of photography in architecture, which is often emphasising the singular, iconic building, and often avoiding to show what in fact surrounds that building.

This is just looking at photography in general and how photographers like Dan Holdsworth use the whole kind of science-fiction strangeness and really emphasise that in their photography, and these are kind of the shopping mall zones on the edges of American and British towns. Bas Princen, just to touch upon that. Photographers and artists often have a really strong sensitivity for our new landscapes, and if we are saying that the city is eating up the countryside, perhaps we should be looking at what is our notion of countryside and should one be thinking of landscapes or landscaping that in fact really suits a more contemporary perception of our urban landscape and our urban countryside, rather than —as often happens for example in Switzerland— always thinking that planting cherry dreams and apple trees in the city will solve the problem of urbanisation.

So to kind of create this dream of Arcadia, this dream of the idyllic Alpine landscape, and implant that in the city, Bas Princen points out to us that there are very specific ways of using derelict parts at the edge of cities for motocross meetings and car races, at the edge of some sort. A younger generation of architects makes a point of showing what their new buildings had to deal with, in other words, what is ex Francesca Ferguson of warehouse, or even a shopping mall.

And his artificial Arcadia really is much more of a contemporary view than a lot of architects and planners who spend their time repressing the realities of new urban landscapes. One final point about an extremely successful design in terms of urban landscape, this is a new part of Zurich, Oerlikon, where there are supposed to be new jobs created, a vast amount of housing built. It has received a lot of criticism for the sheer lack of landscaping that goes on, or rather the rigorous design which does not really create a sense of real urban life. Perhaps it is too early to tell, in any case the buildings and the housing projects are quite stringent and monumental.

Where are the parks? Where is the landscaping? OK, the trees take time to grow, that is true, but you have vast roundabouts and that is pretty much it. So I think it is a really major goal of architects and particular landscape architects to really make their case for a new visual language that can then create gathering points, meeting points and collective social spaces in these housing areas. Where I am sure the standard of the flats are excellent. Gaby Kiefer, who I would say is one of the best landscape architects around, is from Berlin. She has designed Opfikon park in a new area similar to the size of Oerlikon, also on the edge of Zurich, which is a real mixture of uses.

There is a TV station, a sewage plant, training grounds, meadows and fields, plus serious amounts of new housing. She designed an artificial lake which at first glance is a very strict and monumental design, but she also fuses an urban language, landscaping and landscape architecture so you have a whole skateboarding mountain, the lake with the reeds that have been planted, bridges that look like railway ones, connecting the new houses to the meadow, and the trees, that are typical of the small piazza you may get in Spain.

There is a whole mixture of visual language, with fragmented materials and references, fused together in a new kind of design for an urban landscape, place for play and leisure. And this, for me, is one of the few landscape designs. We looked at the new parts on the edges of Madrid and the housing areas, and we were asking ourselves where on earth are the so I think it is a good moment to get some debate going.

And of course for the audience which up until now has been listening. I do not know if any of the speakers would like to ask a cross-question to the audience — any questions there? Well I think that there are a few issues we can touch on. Wolfe, What Is Posthumanism? University of Minnesota Press, The amazing success of the notion of Anthropocene is another clue to the hegemon- ic status of such subjectivity.

This seems to reproduce at its highest classic western objectivism. To escape pending threats, therefore, the Anthropocene is to be intensiied and accelerated. Human societies should increasingly decouple themselves from natural biophysical systems. We can and should do without nature: Such an outsized role for technology, as effectively a replacement for nature, implies a total blurring of the human and the nonhuman. The historical record of human transformation of nature is reframed as a testimony that nature is just what we want it to be.

Technology replaces nature because it is ultimately indistinguishable from it. Better, technology produces nature as an internal differentiation of society or capital? Neglect for the historical conditions in which new accounts and approaches to materiality are deploying does not help to focus and address this point. As a result, the case for new, ontological or embodied, struggles seems undermined already at a theo- retical level.

The problem eventually lies in human agency and its relationship with the biophys- ical world. If humanism and dualist ontologies entailed a dominative attitude and if nondualist, modest and caring, post-humanisms are hardly distinguishable from hu- bristic hyper-humanisms, what should one do?

At the very least, I believe, the question of humanism is to be re-examined — once more. There are, of course, many ways to do that. In the remaining space I would like to suggest a possible direction, represented by a scholar who, no doubt, many consider an unlikely, if not untrustworthy, inspiration: Even if it would be based on entirely blameworthy premises, I believe one should not consider such philos- ophy automatically irrelevant or misleading. In the western tradition, meta- physics begins with the deinition of man as the zoon logon echon, that is, an animal provided with an additional character.

So the essence of man is located in physis, nature. The problem, then, is to make sense of this addition: According to readings, logos corresponds to reason, personhood, soul or else. For Heidegger, logos means irst of all language. Yet, language is neither the expression of an organism, nor is it a property of humans. Rather, as Heidegger says in the Freiburg Lectures, to the extent that language belongs to physis, nature, or being, that is to the constitutive principle of all en- tities, it is this principle that manifests itself through human language.

Animals and plants instead are excluded from this experience, having access only to particular entities, speciic mate- rializations of being. The indication of such exclusion is their lack of language; or, vice versa, human language is the ield where the experience of concealment and disclosure occurs. As far as I can see, critics of Heidegger hardly escape the trap.

Heidegger, Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: Among the most famous are those of Jacques Derrida. Sallis ed , Deconstruction and Philosophy.

For these objections, see for example P. Sloterdijk, Die Domestikation des Seins. The result is a reiterated dominative relationship in a disguised hence potentially more dangerous form. Not by chance he does not seek to establish a hierarchy between humanity and the rest of the world. The difference between humans and animals does Calarco, Zoographies, Colombia University Press, p. More in general, it is symptomatic how new materialists talk of matter as text and writing or account for the behaviour of things in terms of concern, affect, desire, elusiveness, in this way anthropomorphizing nature at the very moment in which they seek to eradicate the predominance of the human.

For this objection see J. The increasingly vociferous claim is that we are just about clarifying a host of fundamental things: What we need just a further bit of research and money , to get full confirmation of what we basically know already, on the grounds of which we therefore can and have to act now.

As he clearly states in Section 46 of Fundamental Concepts, being poor in world does not mean having less but doing without. The comparison between man and animal does not permit any evaluation in terms of perfection or imperfection, of higher or lower essence. The same applies to dif- ferences within the animal kingdom. Paul, in the Letter to the Romans, talk see Section This constitutes the background against which the essence of being-man stands out, indicating difference together with tight closeness see Section In short, for Heidegger, the relationship between human and animal cannot be de- picted in terms of hierarchy, but rather of incommensurability.

The animal — and by ex- tension the whole nonhuman world — remains for us eventually mysterious, enigmatic. Likewise enigmatic remains the human. Saying that the essence of man is its being-in-the-world as opened to the dynamics of clearing and obscurity does not lead to deciding anything about God, about the pos- sibility or impossibility of divinity. The point is not theism or atheism. The point is the respect of the boundaries that have been set for thinking as such.

Its import, however, can be fully appreciated only by taking a genealogical perspective and consid- In this light problems emerge regarding the emancipatory implications of non- dualist ontologies. Failing to recognize that the latter may underpin more restrained and respectful encounters with materiality but also intensiied dominative thrusts seems no negligible shortcoming.

This conclusion, however, does not necessarily entail going back to old dualisms, but rather avoiding to draw from the acknowledgment that there is no separation be- tween world and human sense-making of the world the assumption that there is no remainder between things and words, matter and cognition, the agent and its self- establishment or overcoming; that knowledge and life join together in a frictionless dance of encounters and transformations.

Furthermore, this division does not imply, as it has often been concluded, any hierarchy, nor justiies domination but, on the contrary, brings near the world and its inhabitants as companions in a never-ending task of disclosure. Both regard subject and object, thought and world, as enmeshed from the outset. A rejection of human exceptionalism characterizes, instead, the literature on the com- mons. See for example O. Marzocca, Il mondo comune, Manifestolibri, Roma, Regarding Adorno this emerges in a number of places.

See for example T. Ziarek eds , Adorno and Heidegger. The integration of post-humanist outlooks in runaway neoliberal capitalism is more than a theoretical possibility: In this situ- ation, Heidegger, Adorno and other masters for example Benjamin offer the contours of a much-needed critical humanism: Such con- dition, on the contrary, urges restraint and respect for the world — beginning with our own bodily and psychical constitution — according to a humbler, historically and bio- logically embedded, account of humanity. Cortella, Una dialettica nella finitezza.

Adorno e il programma di una dialettica negativa, Meltemi, Roma, , p. His research interests include social and political theory, biopolitics, social studies of genetic and reproductive technologies. The article situates contemporary material feminisms in relation to older tra- ditions of feminist engagements with materialism.

It discusses four distinctive fea- tures that I take to be important theoretical improvements and promising political prospects of material feminisms: The article provides a provisional mapping or preliminary cartography of this theoretical and empirical re-orientation, while pointing to some theoretical problems and possible drawbacks in current feminist debates and scholarship.

Keywords New materialism, feminism, posthumanism, feminist theory, matter. It has been taken up in science and technology studies,3 but also in political theory,4 philosophy,5 geography,6 archeology,7 comparative literature8 and many other disciplines. It aims at a new understanding of ontology, epistemology, ethics and politics, to be achieved by overcoming anthropocentrism and humanism, the split between nature and culture, linguistic or discursive idealism, social constructivism, positivism, and naturalism. Central to this movement is the extension of the concept of agency and power to non-human nature, thereby also calling into question convention- al understandings of life.

One of the most important strands of the new materialisms is found in feminist theory. This strand encompasses a bunch of different and sometimes, but not always, converging trends in contemporary feminist thought. As this is a very dynamic and complex ield of research and expertise, it is dificult to chart the terrain, to specify its frontiers and foundations and to establish what is distinctively new about it. I would like to thank Franziska von Verschuer, who helped me with the work on the manuscript, and Gerard Holden, who copyedited the text. Frost, New Materia- lisms: Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Meillassoux, Nach der Endlichkeit.

Srnicek eds , The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism, Melbourne, Whatmore eds , Political Matter: Tischleder, The Literary Life of Things. There is a long- standing tradition in feminism of exploring the situatedness of knowledge, stressing the close connections between epistemological questions and political issues and focusing on physicalities, on the body They have stressed that these dualisms are produced in material practices rather than being their originary and organizing principle.

If this is the case, however, if material feminisms pick up and build on an older tradition of feminist thought, one might ask what is speciic about it. What is new about the new materialisms? This article will provide an answer to this question by arguing that what comes un- der the label of material feminisms does indeed introduce something new into fem- inist theory. Hekman eds , Material Feminisms, pp. For a classic intervention, see D. Her settlement applies not just to feminism but to all aspects of critical thought. It can provide a solid foundation for the new paradigm that we are seeking.

Hekman eds , Material Feminisms, p. I think that this theoretical shift consists in four distinctive features, and it promises to help us reconsider and revise a problematic assumption that has guided and informed feminist theory for a long time. The article is structured as follows. I will irst briely situate contemporary material feminisms in relation to older traditions of feminist engagements with materialism. Secondly, I will advance the thesis that the new interest in matter, ontology and nature provides an answer to a speciic paradox of feminist theory.

While feminists in recent decades have produced important work on the body in its social, historical and cultural dimensions, they have at the same time been hesitant or even reluctant to engage di- rectly with biological data and the corporal materiality of the body. Material feminisms seek to address this problem and to argue for a comprehensive appreciation of matter and biology. Thirdly, and this will be the main part of the article, I will discuss in some detail four distinctive features that I take to be important theoretical improvements and promising political prospects of material feminisms: In discussing these features, I will also point to theoretical problems and possible drawbacks that I observe in current feminist debates and scholarship.

Situating Material Feminisms In order to get a better idea of what is speciic and different in contemporary mate- rial feminisms, we can compare them with older traditions of synthesizing materialist thought and feminist theory. A quick look at the tables of contents makes it obvious that something substantial has deinitely changed in how scholars relate materialism and feminism. While the former book focuses on the living and working conditions of women in cap- italist societies, trying to analyze them within the analytic triangle of race, class and sex, the latter engages with the materiality of bodies and natural environments.

The second displacement concerns a critical stance towards poststructuralist feminism, espe- cially the work of Judith Butler. One important critique of Butler has been formulated by Karen Barad, who is probably the most prominent representative of material feminisms. Both are accused of privileging language, mean- ing and the social and of being ignorant of matter and the agentive forces of non-hu- man entities.

But still the question remains: Why have new materialist ideas particularly lour- ished in feminist theory? I argue that the reason for this is to be found in a particular theoretical matrix that has informed feminist thought and politics in recent decades. Posthumanist feminists generally espouse neither that women are naturally better custodians of nature, nor that they are closer to nature, nor that nature is a benevolent.

Grosz, Volatile Bodies, p. Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, pp. Within this concep- tual frame, sex was understood as a biological fact while gender was conceived of as socially constructed. There were some quite problematic implications. As Miriam Fraser put it: Feminists assigned the study of sex to the domain of the biomedical sciences, and deined the study of gender to the exclusive domain of the social sciences. So, we have a very solid chain of signiications here that informed the feminist imagination for quite a long Hekman, Material Feminisms, p.

Oudshoorn, Beyond the Natural Body: Bendelow eds , De- bating Biology. Sociological reflections on health, medicine and society, Routledge, London-New York, , pp. Rigidity and universalism on the one side, lexibility and variability on the other. Elizabeth Wilson has pointed out that while feminists have produced important work on the body, they have at the same time relied on a very restricted understanding of the biological body. Feminist research has focused on the gendered metaphors, representations and narratives that inform biological science, but there has been an aversion to engaging directly with the corporal or somatic dimensions of the body.

Feminist theory and politics is still largely based on an antibiologism which made possible the achievements and successes of the past, while at the same time leading to some important blind spots and serious reductionisms. As Wilson puts it: To counter this longstanding and well-entrenched imaginary, Kirby stresses the mobile, changing and dynamic nature of nature, arguing that feminist theory needs to question the un- derstanding of nature as a passive and inert substance.

Wilson, Gut Feminism, p. See Kirby in V. This theo- retical shift provides some important theoretical advantages and political prospects for the future, but it also entails serious problems and possible shortcomings. Prospects and Problems of Material Feminisms Critique of or engagement with science?

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In their edited volume New Materialisms: Ontology, agency, and politics, Diana Coole and Samantha Frost delineate several distinctive themes or topics in new materialist scholarship. Similarly, Myra Hird has insisted that mate- rial feminisms no longer focus on a critique of science, exposing its truth claims, struc- tural biases and ideological forms but rather engage with science by promoting forms of cooperation and productive dialogues with scientists I think that this transdisciplinary methodological move might indeed broaden und enlarge feminist imaginations by actively incorporating the so far mostly excluded ma- teriality of physical bodies and environments.

It makes it possible to extend the lines of inquiry, and opens up new empirical ields for feminist research. Possible research questions include investigating how forms of socio-economic inequality materialize in certain biological features, how social and personal experiences affecting well-being and health are transferred cross-generationally by epigenetic mechanisms, how non-hu- man nature exhibits forms of agency and sociality, and many more.

Thus, material feminisms productively question established disciplinary borderlines and knowledges. Frost, New Materialisms, , pp. However, this opening is also coupled with a certain uneasiness. In the following I will focus on two concerns. Barad and other material feminists claim that critique has to be replaced by afirmation and creation I think that this only expresses a very limited understanding of critique, which needs to be replaced by a more complex concept.

So, it is still necessary to critically lesh out the situatedness of scientiic knowledge. And it is still essential to expose the gendered stereotypes and essentialist assumptions that often go along with the production of scientiic facts. And it is also indispensable to take into account the power asymmetries within the sciences, and between the natural sciences on the one hand and the social sciences and humanities on the other. There is a growing credulousness in the humanities about data put in front of us by scientiic investigation.

Instead of critically analyzing scientiic truth claims, they are taken for granted or even provide the basis for feminist theory without any For a more extensive discussion of this turn from critique to affirmation in new material scholarship see T. Wilson, Gut Feminism, pp. Barad draws on quantum mechanics, es- pecially the work of Niels Bohr, to propose a new alignment of ontology, epistemology and ethics.

It is built on the idea of a straightforward transfer of insights from science that are seen to provide a solid foundation for science studies and feminist theory: Material agency or revitalized reiication? The second important aspect of material feminisms concerns the domain of ontolo- gy. So, agents are rather Society and Space, 33, , pp. Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway. Pinch points to the work of Bohm as a different account of quantum mechanics and one that is critical of Bohr, Ibid. As Coole succinctly puts it: It is clear, then, that new materialism recognises agency as being distributed across a far greater range of entities and processes than had formerly been imagined.

From a new materialist perspective, terms like agency, self- consciousness, relection, rationality, cognition, subjectivity are reiied abstractions that elide manifold, piecemeal processes through which their constituent capacities evolve or fail. Bennett disturbs conventional understandings of agency as she acknowledges the force of non-human entities: The theoretical merit of this perspective is that it makes it possible to rethink and refute the idea of matter as dead or passive stuff, matter as a resource or raw material of human action.

While I think that this is an important and indeed necessary move, again Bennett, Vibrant Matter, p. Again let me note two problems. First, in new materialist ac- counts and in material feminisms agency is sometimes conceived of as an attribute or a property of things.

It might not be suficient to only extend the category of the actor beyond humans to include formerly excluded entities by afirming the agentive capacities of things. As Annemarie Mol and her co-au- thors point out, this theoretical move does not seem to be radical enough, as it still buys into the liberal concept of agency that conceives of agency as a property of individual entities.

Material feminisms enact a weak and luid concept of humanity that is highly dependent on and embedded in non-human nature. Instead of celebrating Nevertheless, in the book and in her work in general, she still endorses this isolationist and individualist concept of agency. This posthumanist stance is irmly rooted within the feminist tradition as it critically engages with the Enlightenment project, which informed a speciic model of cultural universalism and political emancipation.

Prolonging the critique of Universal Man, it seeks to decenter human exceptionalism, rationality and agency. From a feminist point of view, then, posthu- manism might best be conceptualized as an expansive, inclusive and non-hierarchical way of thinking about the situation of the human in a more-than-human world. First, the theoretical shift to posthu- manism and the analytic egalitarianism attached to it sometimes tend to obscure the de facto privileged role and the planetary power of humans to affect other bodies.

As Coole puts it: The second problem is that the critique of anthropocentrism is often a very ab- stract and general charge, and is not linked to the problem of eurocentrism or to post- The important point in agential realism is to accept responsibility for the speciic material intra-actions and to permanently review and rework the boundaries that they enact. Ethical concerns are not something additional or subsequential that comes after the facts are established, evaluating them, relecting and reconsidering them. According to Barad, the matter of ethics is not about the consequences of mattering, it is about what comes to matter.

It is not a mediated activity but a material engagement. In agential realism no neat line distinguishes facts and values, rather facts are always already value-laden, they embody normative preferences that give rise to some material conigurations rather than others. We are accountable for and to not only speciic patterns of marks on bodies […] but also the exclusions that we participate in enacting. Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, p. The general and boundless extension of ethics to all intra-actions seems ar- bitrary and empty. What gets lost in this comprehensive conception is a sense of the speciicity of the differential normative values articulated in the materializations.

While the notion of responsibility is highly normatively loaded, it remains diffuse and unclear how intra-actions differ in their ethical value.

But how does this responsibility translate into political options, and how is responsibility itself a differen- tial resource given existing asymmetries, exclusions and forms of oppression? To put it differently, so far agential realism lacks an under- standing that the ethical openness of worldly re-conigurations is also always already a political, meaning a contested project.

This argument is developed more extensively in K. In fact, material feminisms rep- resent some of the most interesting and innovative developments in current feminist theory. Apart from the points I have mentioned in this article, there are many more theo- retical and political prospects in material feminisms. Let me note only a few of them. First, material feminisms promise to go beyond the worn-out alternative of social con- structivism and scientiic realism. Secondly, they invite us to disentangle the notions of matter, ontology, nature and biology as necessarily associated with determinism, essen- tialism and reductionism Thirdly, they challenge feminist imaginations and critical vocabularies by questioning the idea of nature as solid, stable and static.

By conceiving of nature as dynamic, lexible and changing, material feminisms invite us to rethink the tools of critique. This does not mean that we should stop attacking and denouncing es- sentialisms, but we should do so by revising and reviving our critical apparatuses and imaginaries. If the new materialisms are not to become old idealisms, they will have to confront these concerns and challenges. And they will do so not by giving up critique and replacing it by afirmation, but by afirming the vitality and vibrancy of critique.

She began her career researching on Italian Fascism and the Avantgarde and later on dealt with other political and historio- graphical themes, like biopolitics, geopolitics, populism, history of histo- riography. This book, which has been dealt with primarily as a political, sociological work, is imbued by schemes and categories coming from the geographical and geopolitical. Here I will argue that the Clash of civilizations thesis is based on a conscious blindness with regard to the nature of contemporary societies and by a strong internal contradiction between its descrip- tion of the world market and its interpretation of culture.

Keywords Geopolitics, civilizations, imperialism, hegemony, multicultural society. Huntington El choque de civilizaciones. What is meant under geography by these publications is not the physical science that primary students learn in their classes, but geopolitics, i.

Geopolitics re-emerges nowadays as a discourse, an issue and a strategy at three levels: In the political praxis, for example, a vast literature showed the use of geopolitical categories by the EU institutions and by new members: Places began to be 1. The literature on geopolitics is very rich. I will just give here some hints: Re-visioning world-politics, Routledge, London, ; J.

Corbridge, Mastering space, Routledge, London, ; P. Jean, Geopolitica, Laterza, Roma, , R. Johnston, Geography and geographers. Social Transformations and Human Governance, , 23, 3, pp. Huntington, elaborated from a lecture given in Even if the book has been dealt with primarily as a political, sociological work, it is imbued by schemes and categories coming from the geographical and geopolitical. The classiication and divi- sion of the world into different civilizations that is at its core refers to clear geopolitical schemes that simplify the complex relations between economical and political actors.

Every bloc is led by a hegemonic power, that holds the political and cultural leadership and can make de- cisions with regard to possible conlicts with other blocs. Neuorientierungen der Kulturwissenschaften, Rowohlt, Ham- burg, ; J. See for example J. Every bloc ights in order to get power or hegemony over the other competitors.

The main tension is, however, between the West and the rest: Here I will argue that the Clash of civilizations thesis is based on a conscious blindness with regard to the nature of contemporary societies and by a strong internal contradiction between its description of the world market and its interpretation of culture. My aim is therefore: It is noteworthy that these were also the main characteristics of the geopolitical discipline, as it was promoted by MacInder in England and Haushofer in Germany: Its aim was to offer raw material — technical information, visions and pre-visions, etc.

For a critique on Huntington see A. Chiantera-Stutte, Il pensiero geopolitico. Spazio, potere e imperialismo tra Otto e Novecento, Carocci, Roma, Therefore he irstly identiies the main actors of the world politics — civilizations-, secondly explains the causes of their behavior — power and protection of traditions — and inally gives the reader the tools in order to localize and identify the main game players. Cartography, like cognition itself, is a necessary simpliication that allows us to see where we are, and where we may be going….

Living in a situation of uncertainty is far worse than having prejudices: Simpliied paradigms or maps are indispensable for human thought and action.

On the one hand, we may explicitly formulate theories or models and consciously use them to guide our behavior. See for this point F. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, p. If we assume this, however, we delude ourselves, for in the back of our mind are hidden assumptions, biases, and prejudices that determine how we perceive reality… We need explicit or implicit models so as to be able to: In so doing he gives the reader not only a simple cartography of the world and of the diffusion of global power: And this is a new model, capable of explaining much more the international political reality.

What is new in Huntington? The end of the Cold War led to a situation of uncertainty not only for the political parties, who held on the ideological main division between communism and capitalism, and not only in the international arena, where the two main blocs were trapped in the main ideological dichotomy. They found the way out of an institutional crisis, by legitimating their work, inding new models and schemes of political action, and therefore new sources of international tension.

In this context the main American intellectuals who dealt with international relation theories, constructed In fact, even if Fukuyama seems to claim the uni- versality of post-ideological community, freed from every ideal burden, and the end of history, the process that would eventually lead to a worldly liberalism has a precise geo- graphical source and a clear direction. It emanates from the West and expands globally. As we will see, this aim, i. Contrary to the abstract and a-geographical world depicted by Fukuyama, Luttwak clearly distinguishes geopolitics and geoeconomics and decrees the obsolescence of the irst: The quotation is from J.

They should focus on the economic domination and adopt economic means of coercion. Geopolitics and geoeconomics are therefore juxtaposed: Huntington aims at leading a revolution in this literature, i. Geo- economics, namely the belief that states behave as actors in the market, is apparently put aside as well as the naive belief in a world united in an universal Western liberal capitalistic community. In so doing Huntington concerts to a line of thinking which is in opposition to his irst writings. Nevertheless, at a deeper look no one of the three American intellectuals that have been discussed — including Huntington — have ever cast doubt on the economic hege- mony of America over the world: Only cultures are different — but economy is the only modern capitalistic one.

He presupposes that modernization and Islam — for example — do not clash at all and that all societies are going to evolve and abandon their economic primordial techniques in order to modernize. On the comparison between the first and the last Huntigton see H. We are confronted to two parallel worlds: How can these two visions co-exist? The ques- tion here is probably if according to this vision civilizations are more determinant than economy in order to explain history. Which force is leading? It is interesting to notice what Huntington takes for granted, which is economy.

The reference to the capitalistic market as the obvious reality is not new: At least from Wilson onwards, the USA left the typical geopolitical form of impe- rialism and focused on getting the economic hegemony. It could rather be organized through the market […] he did perceive that the most central achievement in Paris did not concern any particular territory, but rather the creation of a political system that would absorb territorial conlicts while al- lowing economic business to proceed as usual. Democracy was, therefore, the best political frame in order to guarantee a global liberal economy, because it could assure the peace between small states which could not afford to struggle against the main eco- nomic hegemonic power.

As Hartz sees it, the contradiction between USA defense of its particular institutions and traditions and its global role as the heart of global affairs could become the main driving force of American hegemony, while American liberalism — and the request for an Open Door Policy — was read as the only natural and universal way of leading economy and politics. See on America exceptionalism D. Smith, The Endgame of Globalization, p. In other words, if America has an economic leadership and control all over the world, its power lies in the priority given to liberal economy and on the low of capital and goods, that have to be freed from any political power and territorial control, which could eventually oppose the status quo.

Otherwise power is not really deterritorialized: Therefore geopolitics — the traditional power over a territory — and geoeconomics — economic hegemony on lows of capitals — do not really contradict themselves in the American power politics, but play with each other in order to reinforce a global balance controlled by the main inancial and capitalist power. See for a biography of Bowman N.

On the relation between geopolitics and geoeconomics see also: He reasserts the main global role of American power, by showing the existing hegemony of capitalism and economic liberalism. The main difference with the tra- ditional American idea of hegemony has rather to do with his refusal of the export of democracy: All in all, his main innovation is the obsolescence of democracy as a universal model, neces- sary for the liberal economy. Capitalism can work without democracy. Civilizations at home The contradiction between the economic worldly power of capitalism, that is spread all over the main cultures and nations, and the fragmentation between different civili- zations, must be read in a different perspective, showing the possible relations not be- tween states and groups of states in the future, but rather the interactions of ethnicities and cultures inside societies.

Actually, if we translate the clash of civilizations into the domestic politics, as Emad Ed-Din does35, its meaning changes: The map of a world divided into civilizations means that in every civilization there must be a homo- geneous, or at least a dominant civilization. What Huntington implicitly denies is the existence of multicultural societies:

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