Explore technology, society and the future, or energy as a commons, at the Cosmolocalism summer schools
Cosmolocalism is one of our Operating Principles at the Alternative Global, so we are delighted to alert you to a summer school in Kalentzi, Greece, from one of cosmolocalism’s great research sources - the Cosmolocalism.eu project.
Below are details of the summer courses - the first in July, the second in August 2022. Details for applying are at the end of each summary (there is no fee).
Technology, society and the future
The course runs on 20/07, 21/07, 22/07, 23/07 in 2022. It will start at 09:30 am on 20/07
News from Nowhere is a utopian novel written in 1890 by William Morris. Morris imagined a world in which human happiness and economic activity coincided. He reminds us that there needs to be a point to labour beyond making ends meet. Capitalism, he explains, locks the capitalist into a horrible life, which leads nowhere but the grave. Morris’s utopian society has no government nor a monetary system. Craftwork has made “wage slavery” obsolete, and parliamentary democracy has given way to new forms of cooperation. The means of production are democratically controlled, and people find pleasure in sharing their interests, goals and resources. Is now the utopian vision of Morris within reach?
Scope and aim
The summer school will use Morris’s News from Nowhere as a starting point of a spellbinding tour on what technology is and the alternative trajectories of techno-social development. We will discuss techno-determinism in its various forms, using classical technology critiques to understand, and see the power of, techno-development. We will then address ICT as a form of technology, debate the specific fields of media, gaming, and fashion, and look at digital governance and the smart city as well. Finally, we will explore how to create a sustainable economy through the commons, discussing the phenomenon of “cosmolocalism”.
Application
Send your CV along with a one-page-long motivation letter to nikiforos.tsiouris AT taltech.ee. Deadline: 10 May 2022. More here.
Energy as a commons
The course runs on 30/08, 31/08, 01/09, 02/09 in 2022. It will start at 09:30 am on 30/08.
The last decade has marked a significant increase in the global conscience of the need for radical changes in our “way of life.” The issue of rethinking our energy systems –traditionally centralised and fossil-fuel-based to support mass consumption– has been prominent and contentious. Due to its complexity, proposed solutions often address the symptoms of the current socioeconomic configuration rather than tackling its core assumptions. This summer school aims to explore a radically novel energy system that could reconceptualise the material and digital infrastructure and the political economy that permeates it.
Scope and aim
There is an urgent need to transition to an energy system that not only produces energy in an environmentally sustainable way, but also socially. The summer school will discuss solutions that challenge the very foundation of modern organisational and technological systems for truly impactful energy research. It will explore the potential of energy as a commons in terms of social and environmental sustainability. That is, energy as a communally produced and managed resource satisfying users’ needs rather than a commodity to maximise profits by producing and selling as much as possible.
The summer school will provide the foundations for a novel research within the fields of science and technology studies, political ecology and economy, organisation studies, and engineering. Facilitators and students will co-create a learning environment to collaboratively investigate alternative technological and organisational trajectories under a commons-based political economy umbrella.
Application
Send your CV along with a one-page-long motivation letter to nikiforos.tsiouris AT taltech.ee. Deadline: 15 June 2022. Positions are limited (15 students). More here.