Agenda

06 Mar 2023 16:00

Prometheus in China: a conversation around the latest issue of "Made in China Journal"

Ca' Bottacin, Dorsoduro 3911 Venice - Aula B

Prometheus in China: around the latest issue of Made in China Journal -

Andrea Pia, Ivan Franceschini, Giulia Dal Maso and Daniele Brombal in conversation 

In 2020, Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping pledged to ‘transition to a green and low-carbon mode of development’ and to ‘peak the country’s CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.’ Xi’s pledge offered a tangible example of what has come to be known as ecological civilisation (生态文明), the idea of engineered harmony between humans and nature that was recently incorporated into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. But what kind of engineering is required for sustainable transitions at this scale and pace? Through which political concepts and technical practices could such a harmonious rebalancing of China’s resource-devouring development be envisioned and achieved?

In this conversation, Ivan Franceschini, Giulia Dal Maso, Daniele Brombal and Andrea Pia address these questions by borrowing political theorist John Drizek’s re-reading of the Greek myth of Prometheus. Inspired by the story of a demi-god who stole the technology of fire control for the sole sake of human advancement, Prometheanism describes a techno-optimist orientation which reduces the Earth to a mere economic resource and considers environmental breakdown surmountable through continuous political and technological innovation. In dialogue with this framework, the speakers reflect on China’s fraught transition toward a sustainable market utopia.

 

Andrea Pia, currently a visting scholar at NICHE, teaches at the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science

Giulia Maso is Marie Curie Fellow and P.I of the project CHINGREEN On the financialization of green: Chinese operations along the Belt and Road Initiative

Ivan Franceschini teaches at the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca' Foscari University

Daniele Brombal Professor at the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca' Foscari University

Language

The event will be held in English

Organized by

NICHE, DSAAM

Link

https://madeinchinajournal.com/

Downloads

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