Common Worldbuilding
According to Arendt’s The Human Condition, ‘the space of appearance’ is an immaterial in-between involving at least two singularities. Nevertheless, Arendt does not fail to emphasise the artificial element that characterizes the broader concept of ‘public space’, which tends to overlap with the space of appearance. Politics, in essence, has the duty to address the fundamental creation and preservation of a common world capable of making life liveable. In our contemporary context, the original space of appearance is increasingly overlaid with infrastructural and architectural elements and, even in its virtual dimensions, with its uncontrollable and accelerated features of technological development.
Despite the claims of a dominant and highly advanced neoliberal discourse, no process involved in these dynamics is neutral and purely practical-administrative. The gradual and insistent privatization of public space has transformed it from a realm of political action into a space of mere and uninterrupted consumption. The ‘global right’, or in Arendt’s words, the ‘conservative revolutions’ of the 20th century, also represent historical legacies of transatlantic imperial power and human exploitation, which continue to ensure the ‘public death of freedom’ and ‘techniques of domination’ that ensure such modalities of consumption. In short, what Arendt described with concern in the late 1950s is increasingly true today: our society is transforming into one where the paradigm of the human as worker-consumer (the animal laborans) has completely replaced the human in its political dimension (the zoon politikon).
At the consortium, we are committed to engaging with social and cultural movements attempting to reverse this trend. Black Lives Matter and their call to reframe public space in an anti-racist manner is one of myriad critical examples. Such movements point to the need to resurrect the Arendtian ‘love for the world’ in light of new and increasingly urgent social demands for sharing and protecting life (Butler, 2018), ensuring that the extraordinary abilities of homo faber are once again put in the service of the zoon politikon and the promise of politics.
Essential bibliography:
AA. VV., Table Settings. Reflections on architecture with Hannah Arendt, «OASE. Journal for Architetture», Special Issue, 106, 2020.
Arendt Hannah, The Human Condition (1958), The University of Chicago Press, 2018, see in particular paragraphs The Thing-Character of the World (pp. 93-96), The Greek Solution (pp. 192-199).
Azada-Palacios Rowena Anthea, Hannah Arendt: The Challenge of World-Building, «Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture», 9 (1), pp. 1-17.
Butler Judith, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, Harvard University Press, 2018.
Teerds Hans, ‘The space between’: an architectural examination of Hannah Arendt’s notions of ‘public space’ and ‘world’, «The Journal of Architecture», 27, 5-6, pp. 757-777.
Common Worldbuilding
According to Arendt’s The Human Condition, ‘the space of appearance’ is an immaterial in-between involving at least two singularities. Nevertheless, Arendt does not fail to emphasise the artificial element that characterizes the broader concept of ‘public space’, which tends to overlap with the space of appearance. Politics, in essence, has the duty to address the fundamental creation and preservation of a common world capable of making life liveable. In our contemporary context, the original space of appearance is increasingly overlaid with infrastructural and architectural elements and, even in its virtual dimensions, with its uncontrollable and accelerated features of technological development.
Despite the claims of a dominant and highly advanced neoliberal discourse, no process involved in these dynamics is neutral and purely practical-administrative. The gradual and insistent privatization of public space has transformed it from a realm of political action into a space of mere and uninterrupted consumption. The ‘global right’, or in Arendt’s words, the ‘conservative revolutions’ of the 20th century, also represent historical legacies of transatlantic imperial power and human exploitation, which continue to ensure the ‘public death of freedom’ and ‘techniques of domination’ that ensure such modalities of consumption. In short, what Arendt described with concern in the late 1950s is increasingly true today: our society is transforming into one where the paradigm of the human as worker-consumer (the animal laborans) has completely replaced the human in its political dimension (the zoon politikon).
At the consortium, we are committed to engaging with social and cultural movements attempting to reverse this trend. Black Lives Matter and their call to reframe public space in an anti-racist manner is one of myriad critical examples. Such movements point to the need to resurrect the Arendtian ‘love for the world’ in light of new and increasingly urgent social demands for sharing and protecting life (Butler, 2018), ensuring that the extraordinary abilities of homo faber are once again put in the service of the zoon politikon and the promise of politics.
Essential bibliography:
AA. VV., Table Settings. Reflections on architecture with Hannah Arendt, «OASE. Journal for Architetture», Special Issue, 106, 2020.
Arendt Hannah, The Human Condition (1958), The University of Chicago Press, 2018, see in particular paragraphs The Thing-Character of the World (pp. 93-96), The Greek Solution (pp. 192-199).
Azada-Palacios Rowena Anthea, Hannah Arendt: The Challenge of World-Building, «Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture», 9 (1), pp. 1-17.
Butler Judith, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, Harvard University Press, 2018.
Teerds Hans, ‘The space between’: an architectural examination of Hannah Arendt’s notions of ‘public space’ and ‘world’, «The Journal of Architecture», 27, 5-6, pp. 757-777.
Common Worldbuilding
According to Arendt’s The Human Condition, ‘the space of appearance’ is an immaterial in-between involving at least two singularities. Nevertheless, Arendt does not fail to emphasise the artificial element that characterizes the broader concept of ‘public space’, which tends to overlap with the space of appearance. Politics, in essence, has the duty to address the fundamental creation and preservation of a common world capable of making life liveable. In our contemporary context, the original space of appearance is increasingly overlaid with infrastructural and architectural elements and, even in its virtual dimensions, with its uncontrollable and accelerated features of technological development.
Despite the claims of a dominant and highly advanced neoliberal discourse, no process involved in these dynamics is neutral and purely practical-administrative. The gradual and insistent privatization of public space has transformed it from a realm of political action into a space of mere and uninterrupted consumption. The ‘global right’, or in Arendt’s words, the ‘conservative revolutions’ of the 20th century, also represent historical legacies of transatlantic imperial power and human exploitation, which continue to ensure the ‘public death of freedom’ and ‘techniques of domination’ that ensure such modalities of consumption. In short, what Arendt described with concern in the late 1950s is increasingly true today: our society is transforming into one where the paradigm of the human as worker-consumer (the animal laborans) has completely replaced the human in its political dimension (the zoon politikon).
At the consortium, we are committed to engaging with social and cultural movements attempting to reverse this trend. Black Lives Matter and their call to reframe public space in an anti-racist manner is one of myriad critical examples. Such movements point to the need to resurrect the Arendtian ‘love for the world’ in light of new and increasingly urgent social demands for sharing and protecting life (Butler, 2018), ensuring that the extraordinary abilities of homo faber are once again put in the service of the zoon politikon and the promise of politics.
Essential bibliography:
AA. VV., Table Settings. Reflections on architecture with Hannah Arendt, «OASE. Journal for Architetture», Special Issue, 106, 2020.
Arendt Hannah, The Human Condition (1958), The University of Chicago Press, 2018, see in particular paragraphs The Thing-Character of the World (pp. 93-96), The Greek Solution (pp. 192-199).
Azada-Palacios Rowena Anthea, Hannah Arendt: The Challenge of World-Building, «Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture», 9 (1), pp. 1-17.
Butler Judith, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, Harvard University Press, 2018.
Teerds Hans, ‘The space between’: an architectural examination of Hannah Arendt’s notions of ‘public space’ and ‘world’, «The Journal of Architecture», 27, 5-6, pp. 757-777.