Capital and ressentiment: The totalizing power of social fragmentation

Joseph Vogl’s new book, Capital and Ressentiment (2021/2022), traces an epistemic shift from knowledge to information driven by the convergence of financialization and the platform economy. As a variable that is determined less by semantic content than by difference to existing expectations, information invites indifference to other distinctions, such as those between fact and fiction, claim and proof. The circulation of information takes the form of opinion markets wherein the production of reality itself is at stake. In this extract, taken from the book’s final chapter, “The cunning of ressentiment-driven reason”, Vogl analyses populist ressentiment as both structural affect of and vital resource for information capitalism, laying out the resulting reconfiguration of the social.

A Space to Call Our Own, an investigation into designing for play in urban environments

<p>Play is an act of discovery and stimulation. As children, we play to learn and grow. As adults, we play for freedom and to escape from reality. The action of play is a largely neglected aspect of peoples experience in urban public space. It is the un-functional and impractical use of the environment that fulfils a human instinct and curiosity that can spark conversation and spontaneity in public spaces. The development of the built environment has centred on improving the efficiency of daily life and little attention has been given to the informal synergies that urban public space can enable. Yet this space plays a central role in the formation of our culture and communities. With increasing trends of migration and urbanisation, New Zealand has become a multicultural society, but the quality of our public spaces and a distinct lack of meaningful interaction is causing increased levels of social fragmentation. The universal action of play can be used as a design tool to increase the level of meaningful activity and interaction in these spaces. This thesis aims to understand how the inclusion of play and playful behaviour can create polycentric environments that can contribute to the reversal of social fragmentation between our ethnic communities and improve social cohesion and resilience within Newtown and Berhampore, socially deprived suburbs in Wellington, New Zealand. The method of this research focuses on combining methods of spatial assessment and community engagement to develop a holistic understanding of play across social, cultural and physical dimensions. Observational studies, public surveying and community workshops combined with a comparative study across a series of case studies provided a foundation of knowledge that was then able to be applied to the design of physical playful spaces. The design response across three test sites vary in scale between small tactical additions and overall redesign of space. These responses display how play can facilitate new forms of social interaction and spark spontaneity. The improved sense of community, familiarity and overall playfulness, increase overall resilience and overturn effects of social fragmentation. This thesis demonstrates how landscape architects can engage with the concept of play to reignite passion within a community and support social network growth.</p>

A Space to Call Our Own, an investigation into designing for play in urban environments

<p>Play is an act of discovery and stimulation. As children, we play to learn and grow. As adults, we play for freedom and to escape from reality. The action of play is a largely neglected aspect of peoples experience in urban public space. It is the un-functional and impractical use of the environment that fulfils a human instinct and curiosity that can spark conversation and spontaneity in public spaces. The development of the built environment has centred on improving the efficiency of daily life and little attention has been given to the informal synergies that urban public space can enable. Yet this space plays a central role in the formation of our culture and communities. With increasing trends of migration and urbanisation, New Zealand has become a multicultural society, but the quality of our public spaces and a distinct lack of meaningful interaction is causing increased levels of social fragmentation. The universal action of play can be used as a design tool to increase the level of meaningful activity and interaction in these spaces. This thesis aims to understand how the inclusion of play and playful behaviour can create polycentric environments that can contribute to the reversal of social fragmentation between our ethnic communities and improve social cohesion and resilience within Newtown and Berhampore, socially deprived suburbs in Wellington, New Zealand. The method of this research focuses on combining methods of spatial assessment and community engagement to develop a holistic understanding of play across social, cultural and physical dimensions. Observational studies, public surveying and community workshops combined with a comparative study across a series of case studies provided a foundation of knowledge that was then able to be applied to the design of physical playful spaces. The design response across three test sites vary in scale between small tactical additions and overall redesign of space. These responses display how play can facilitate new forms of social interaction and spark spontaneity. The improved sense of community, familiarity and overall playfulness, increase overall resilience and overturn effects of social fragmentation. This thesis demonstrates how landscape architects can engage with the concept of play to reignite passion within a community and support social network growth.</p>

Re-forming property to address eco-social fragmentation and rift

Two concepts that bridge the nature-human divide may help to diagnose and address some of the present and future problems of eco-social change in a legal context. ‘Fragmentation’ refers to loss and degradation of the habitat of nonhuman life. It is also a useful concept for understanding the fracturing of the material conditions for human life in a modern globalised world. The notion of ‘metabolic rift’, derived from Marx by John Bellamy Foster, refers to a break in the human-nonhuman circulation of natural materials, brought on by industrial agriculture and urbanisation. These related ideas provide a frame for exploring the connections between social and environmental justice and the role played by legal forms such as private property. In keeping with the imperative to re-form legal concepts to account for eco-social existence, the article presents a view of property as human and nonhuman habitat. This approach aims to use law to help recreate the conditions for the constructive inter-dependence of social and environmental goods.

Conclusion

The chapter summarizes the main argument of the book and draws out its broader theoretical implications. An account of the relationship between party, capitalism, and the state should begin by establishing the historical conditions of possibility for articulation. By understanding when articulation is possible and when it is not, we gain insights into how social fragmentation might enable political organization. The social fragmentation produced by economic and political primitive accumulations is—perhaps paradoxically—conducive to party organization. The discussion in the chapter is organized around three sorts of conceptual relationships that can be approached from the vantage point of the theory and evidence presented so far: the relationship between party and the modern capitalist state, the relationship between socio-economic structure and modalities of political activity, and, finally, the contemporary relationship between the party-form and neoliberalism.

A Case Study into the Environmental Context of Walking School Buses and Other Modes of Travel Used for the Journey to School

<p><b>The journey to school involves a number of different modes of travel. Approximatelyhalf of all journeys to school in New Zealand rely on the use of an automobile. Thisheavy dependence on automobiles involves a number of environmental detractions.</b></p> <p>Walking School Buses provide an alternative to cars as a mode of travel for thejourney to school. This mode of travel compares favourably in a number of respectswhen compared to other modes of travel and is generating considerable interest.</p> <p>Based on a case study involving in-depth interviews with ten caregivers this papercompares whether and how Walking School Buses emerged from a different socialand cultural background when compared to other modes of travel. Four keyinfluences, in particular parenting culture, the work commitments that caregivershave, the risks posed by strangers and traffic, and the social fragmentation ofneighbourhoods were found to be significant in shaping the journey to school. Basedon finding a number of similarities between different modes of travel to school it isconcluded that the journey to school is embedded in a wider system of social andcultural ideas that shape Walking School Buses and other modes of travel alike.</p>

A Case Study into the Environmental Context of Walking School Buses and Other Modes of Travel Used for the Journey to School

<p><b>The journey to school involves a number of different modes of travel. Approximatelyhalf of all journeys to school in New Zealand rely on the use of an automobile. Thisheavy dependence on automobiles involves a number of environmental detractions.</b></p> <p>Walking School Buses provide an alternative to cars as a mode of travel for thejourney to school. This mode of travel compares favourably in a number of respectswhen compared to other modes of travel and is generating considerable interest.</p> <p>Based on a case study involving in-depth interviews with ten caregivers this papercompares whether and how Walking School Buses emerged from a different socialand cultural background when compared to other modes of travel. Four keyinfluences, in particular parenting culture, the work commitments that caregivershave, the risks posed by strangers and traffic, and the social fragmentation ofneighbourhoods were found to be significant in shaping the journey to school. Basedon finding a number of similarities between different modes of travel to school it isconcluded that the journey to school is embedded in a wider system of social andcultural ideas that shape Walking School Buses and other modes of travel alike.</p>

Editorial

Discourses of a global pandemic threat have marked 2020 and 2021. In the process, inequalities and increasing social fragmentation in health, technology, education and employment have deepened. Global risks and uncertainties have been part of the agenda for two years. Ironically not the acceleration of mobility, but extreme restrictions by national and international bodies over population movements have been apparent and linked to biosecurity concerns. Thus, biosecurity and spread of viruses have become some key topics for discussing human mobility practices and strategies. Dealing with security issues with risks and uncertainties can be likened to walking through a maze that dynamically changes depending on the level of effort.