Two of the world’s best known Iranian artists, Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novel Persepolis and director of the Oscar-winning animated feature based on it, and leading filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, have been presenting apparent “proof” at the European Parliament that Mousavi actually won the elections. This comes in the form of an internal memo […]
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
filmmakers & the Iranian opposition
Posted in Cinema, Politics, tagged art, cultural ecology, film, Iran on June 20, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Will the 21st century be Foucauldian-Pollanian?
Posted in Eco-culture, Politics, tagged biopolitics, Foucault, Pollan on June 11, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Shaka Freeman’s photo posts asking the question “Michael Pollan or Michel Foucault?” are hilarious, because the two Mickeys really do look alike and are sometimes difficult to tell apart. For the sake of a bit of entertaining triangulation, I’ve added Foucauldian ecologist and Greenpeace Canada activist Eric Darier to the mix. But the site also […]
ASLE’s rabbits & cougars, or whither ecocriticism?
Posted in Eco-culture, Philosophy, Politics, tagged ecocriticism, ecopolitics, ecotheory on June 5, 2009 | 8 Comments »
There are rabbits all over the lawns of the University of Victoria campus. Like little furry grass-eating balls, they scurry forward a little from time to time but otherwise placidly chomp away at the lawns, oblivious to humans or anything else. Sometimes they just sit there, or lay themselves out and stare forward, cutely extending […]
open-source socialism & the politics of self-organizing systems
Posted in Media ecology, Philosophy, Politics, Process-relational thought, tagged autopoiesis, biology, ecology, ecotheory, enactive cognition, political ecology, self-organization, Whitehead on May 27, 2009 | 4 Comments »
(On Kevin Kelly’s “The New Socialism,” Paul Ward’s Medea Hypothesis, Steven Shaviro’s “Against Self-Organization,” and more.) Self-organizing adaptive systems and other networks are more than just the flavor of the philosophical month; they are a model increasingly used to make sense of the natural and cultural worlds. Generally it’s assumed that such distributed self-organization is […]
Brulle’s response to Lakoff
Posted in Eco-culture, Politics, tagged ecopolitics, Lakoff on May 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Robert Brulle has kindly shared his reply to George Lakoff’s article “Why Environmental Understanding, or ‘Framing,’ Matters.” See below for further discussion of the article. I found Dr. Lakoff’s comments quite interesting and revealing of the limitations of cognitive science in the analysis of social change processes. From a sociological perspective, attitudes and beliefs are […]
Lakoff’s environmental frames vs. Connolly’s resonance machines
Posted in Eco-culture, Politics, tagged affect, Connolly, ecomedia, economy, ecopolitics, ecotheory, framing, Lakoff, neuropolitics on May 20, 2009 | 6 Comments »
In Why Environmental Understanding, or “Framing,” Matters, published today on the Huffington Post (and on AlterNet), liberal framing guru George Lakoff provides a useful critique of a forthcoming EcoAmerica report on the framing of environmental and climate change issues. While his conclusions are perceptive and make the article a valuable read — I’ll get to […]
Story of scary Stuff
Posted in Eco-culture, Politics, Visual culture, tagged ecomedia, ecopolitics, environmental studies, Malthus, Marx, political ecology on May 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Environmental pied piper Annie Leonard’s 20-minute teaching video The Story of Stuff got five minutes of frantic Fox News treatment a few days ago — which means it’s making an impact out there in the wilds of America. New York Times Education writer Leslie Kaufman, writing about it on Sunday, noted that six million people […]
Obama as the “green FDR” in the age of Swine Flu
Posted in Eco-culture, Politics, tagged ecomedia, ecopolitics on April 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »
WorldChanging shares Joe Romm’s “The Green FDR: Obama’s First 100 Days Make – and May Remake – History,” which compiles a nice account from Climate Progress of the good things the Obama administration has done on the environmental front. According to Romm, “three game-changing accomplishments stand out:” “1. Green Stimulus: Progressives, Obama keep promise to […]