#CriticalConcept
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carsoncenter.bsky.social
In this #CriticalConcept, Landhaus fellow Nora Faltmann discusses the term "animals-as-food" and why it could be employed more in the #envhum and #foodstudies.

#rccnews #rcccriticalconcepts #rccsocialmedia #concept #food #academia #animals #animalstudies #consumption #rcc #munich #research
The text on this slide reads, "Animals-as-food: The term draws attention to the in-between, the rupture between the live subjects of animals and the dead matter of meat through the act of slaughter. By Nora Katharina Faltmann, Landhaus Fellow." It reads, "The term “animals-as-food” (Staples and Klein 2017) makes visible the connection between animals as living subjects and their discursive and material treatment as food. Animals-as-food further functions as a reminder that the human consumption of animals is neither universal nor unchangeable but rather socially constructed and subject to societal negotiations and changes. The term also draws attention to the in-between, the rupture between the live subjects of animals and the dead matter of meat through the act of slaughter. By Nora Faltmann. Full reference: Staples, James, and Jacob A. Klein. 2016. “Consumer and Consumed.” Ethnos 82 (2): 193–212."
August 5, 2025 at 12:06 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
Today's #CriticalConcept addresses "Repurposed Poetry" based on the topic of the Luchtime Colloquium "Repurposed Poetics: Rewriting Environmental Change in the Pacific" by Matthew Lear.

#rccprojects #research #poetry #literarystudy #munich #ecologicalchange #envhum
The text on the graphic reads, "Repurposed Poetry: 'The more we ‘journey’ back and forth, the stronger the synapses and associated memories tied to the journeying become.' by Matthew Lear, Landhaus Fellow." Background image credit: Activedia from Free Photos. "'In poetry, repurposed text can prompt us to journey between scales of time and perspective—to bridge texts and contexts—becoming more aware of connections between past and present conditions. The more we ‘journey’ back and forth, the stronger the synapses and associated memories tied to the journeying become. This is especially useful for writing about a shifting environment, changing on slow and sudden, small and vast scales. In constellating these various scales of environmental change, repurposing as a literary technique can help gather up a fuller, more dynamic picture of unfolding ecological transformations.' by Matthew Lear, Landhaus Fellow"
July 29, 2025 at 3:10 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
Here comes a new #CriticalConcept, "Subject-Positioning", by Landhaus Fellow Ben Glasson.

Ben first introduced this concept to the RCC in his Lunchtime Colloquium “Greenwash 2.0: The Poetics of Corporate Environmentalism.” The recording of the LC will be posted on our YouTube channel soon.
The text reads, "Subject-Positioning, 'In a crowded digital sphere, success lies less in asserting truth than in building identity,' by Ben Glasson, Landhaus Fellow" The text reads, "Today’s fragmented communication environment is marked by low institutional trust and identity-based beliefs. In environmental politics, communication has shifted from making claims to shaping how audiences interpret contested terms. As people accept that corporations can be both ethical and self-interested, companies use storytelling and confession to simulate trust and bind themselves to stakeholders. In a crowded digital sphere, success lies less in asserting truth than in building identity. Greenwashing nowadays involves crafting corporate personae that appear inherently green—the focus is less on deception, more on embedding sustainability in a company’s perceived identity."
July 22, 2025 at 4:52 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
Here comes a new #CriticalConcept by Lisa Ruth Rand!

Lisa, currently an RCC Landhaus Fellow, originally discussed this concept in her Lunchtime Colloqium “(Re)Scaling the Planetary.”

#rccnews #rcccriticalconcepts #concept #envhum #space #worlds #academia #munich #research
The text reads, "Extraplanetary Envirotechnical Regime. 'The regions beyond Earth’s atmosphere are home to natural ecosystems with lively histories that mutually shape and are shaped by histories on the planet below.' by Lisa Ruth Rand, Landhaus Fellow. Rachel Carson Center Critical Concepts." The text reads, "'Far from an empty void as popularly imagined, the regions beyond Earth’s atmosphere are home to natural ecosystems with lively histories that mutually shape and are shaped by histories on the planet below. From the very start of the satellite age, physical, material, and discursive exchange across porously defined terrestrial boundaries influenced the construction of a messy extraplanetary envirotechnical regime—one in which sometimes conflicting ideologies and technological practices entangled with natural forces in Earth orbit to create a hybrid system sustained by norms of waste and disposability.' by Lisa Ruth Rand, Landhaus Fellow."
July 1, 2025 at 1:17 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
Today's #CriticalConcept comes from Landhaus Fellow Angela Antle, "Polydisciplinamorous Theorypractice."

The concepts are based on the RCC's Lunchtime Colloquia, which are usually uploaded to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@rcarsoncent...

#writing #mediatheory #posthumanism #feminism #envhum
The text reads "Polydisciplinamorous Theorypractice" "An arts-based methodology to loosen a petroculture's grip" by Angela Antle, Landhaus Fellow, Rachel Carson Center Critical Concepts "Natalie Loveless’ How to Make Art at the End of the World, opened the doors of academia for me. I’ve always been a maker: a writer, media producer, and artist. The “polydisciplinamorous theorypractice” of research-creation fits my interdisciplinary PhD as it is nimble and flexible enough to unite writing, media theory, and post-human feminism in challenging the extractive violence of Newfoundland and Labrador’s petroculture. It provides an arts-based methodology to loosen a petroculture’s grip." by Angela Antle, Landhaus Fellow
June 24, 2025 at 3:36 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
With our new #CriticalConcept, Landhaus Fellow Akash Jash gives a short introduction to 𝘢𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯.

#rcccriticalconcepts #rccnews #dispossession #bengaluru #aesthetics
The text on the graphic reads: "aestheticized dispossession. Aestheticized dispossession captures how contemporary lake rejuvenation projects in Bengaluru often result in the exclusion of marginal communities and the erasure of their everyday practices. Akash Jash, Landhaus Fellow. Rachel Carson Center. Critical Concepts. Image by Irenè Lazarova from Pexels." “Aestheticized dispossession captures how contemporary lake rejuvenation projects in Bengaluru, framed through discourses of beautification and sustainability, often result in the exclusion of marginal communities and the erasure of their everyday practices. It highlights how environmental restoration becomes aligned with elite urban aesthetics and speculative capital that transforms lakes from socio-ecological commons into commodified, curated public spaces. Rather than reversing degradation, these interventions reproduce new forms of dispossession where the visual promise of ecological care conceals deeper inequalities in access, governance, and urban belonging. Akash Jash, Landhaus Fellow.”
June 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
Today's #CriticalConcept is "Near-Extinction Narratives" by PhD researchers Catriona Flesher and Anisha Gamblin (University of Leeds). They presented at the Lunchtime Colloqium "Extinction and Its Discontents."
#rccresearch #narratives #envhum #extinction #nearextinction #literary #writing #lmu #rcc
The text on the graphic reads: "Near-Extinction Narratives: A form of literary writing that reframes extinction as part of a larger, intergenerational, and interspecies trajectory, Catriona Flesher and Anisha Gamblin, PhD researchers at University of Leeds, Rachel Carson Center, Critical Concepts." "Near-extinction narratives describe a form of literary writing that reframes extinction as part of a larger, intergenerational, and interspecies trajectory. By moving away from the concept that extinction is simply the final death of a species, we can begin to expand our ideas of what extinction entails. Near-extinction narratives thus emerge as an aesthetic category and genre that, in the broader contexts of ecological loss and extinction crises, explores a proximal and affective nearness to nonhuman creatures—those that are deemed critically endangered or not. Catriona Flesher and Anisha Gamblin, PhD researchers at University of Leeds."
May 27, 2025 at 1:38 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
Prof. Mike Hulme of University of Cambridge joined the RCC for a Lunchtime Colloqium on “Climate Change Isn’t Everything” a few weeks ago. Based on the talk, here comes his #𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵.

#critical #concepts #climatism #envhum #climatechange #ideology #academia
The Critical Concepts graphic frames Mike Hulme's concept of "climatism." Next to a quote from the second slide is an image of a smoke stack emitting toxic fumes. This slide contains the full concept description: "Climatism is an ideology—a settled and framing belief—which views the dominant explanation of all social, economic, and ecological phenomena being a human-caused change in the climate. The ideology of climatism holds that complex geopolitical, socio-ecological, and ethical problems and challenges can only be solved or adequately dealt if the human causes of climate change are first arrested and minimised." by Mike Hulme.
December 2, 2024 at 12:37 PM
carsoncenter.bsky.social
We are proud to present a new #𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵. This time, Dominik Hünniger, #environmental historian and curator of the German Port Museum, explains the main concept from his previous Lunchtime Colloquium, #CollectionEcologies.

You can also learn more at @collecol.bsky.social
September 10, 2024 at 4:26 PM