Forum for Marx Research Oldenburg
Forum for Marx Research Oldenburg
"The contradiction between capital and nature"
Conference 10 - 11 June 2022
BIS Hall of the University of Oldenburg
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The speakers:
| Dr Judith Dellheim, Berlin | Prof Dr Klaus Dörre, Jena | PD Dr Thomas Gehrig, Frankfurt |
| Hans Rackwitz, Jena | Dr Nadja Rakowitz, Maintal | Prof Dr Peter Röben, Oldenburg |
| Dr Annette Schlemm, Jena | Dr Christian Stache, Hamburg | Prof. Dr Ulrich Ruschig, Oldenburg |
Click on names to see the synopsis of the respective lecture
Explanation of Feedlots by Mishka Henner
"Coronado Feeders, Dalhart, Texas" (2012) from the "Feedlots" series is a screenshot of a Google Earth image edited by the artist and photographer Mishka Henner. The viewer is looking at a US meat industry fattening plant from high above and not, as usual, from the ground. The bird's-eye view provides an unusual perspective and reveals astonishing things. There are no workers to be seen, and the animals are at best countless, tiny, barely identifiable dots. From a great distance, it becomes recognisable what remains hidden at close range, when the eye is captivated by a single, however shuddering process: 'the whole', the system of capitalist access to the lives of animals. This system has a method. The life process of 60,000 cattle is optimised to get the maximum out of this meat production process. This purpose sets the scene for a systematic approach, according to which the animals are fattened, pumped full of hormones and, when the costs of their (then too long) survival are no longer profitable, killed and transported away. The bird's eye view, under which the individual creatures almost disappear, means that their concrete agonies, necessarily arising from this anything but species-appropriate husbandry, seem to fade away. Such an abstracting approach fits precisely with the mode of calculation of a production relationship in which the utilisation of value, which is abstracted from use values, dominates precisely these use values. Yet this perspective, as if this contradiction, which underlies the mode of production and can only be grasped abstractly, could be visualised in a sensual and visual way, surprisingly reveals something concrete: a gigantic, blood-red lake. The viewer is shocked to realise that this lake contains the faeces of these 60,000 cattle, rendered harmless through the massive use of chemicals, coloured and bound and thus disposed of in the manner prescribed by environmental legislation. The lake of faeces looks as if it were a bloody steak, the sales product of such meat production, or a sliced organ with veins running through it like a heart or a brain. What the abstraction of value and the state authorities overseeing such facilities - in some US states it is forbidden to photograph factory farms - try to make invisible, flashes up in the image that suddenly appears: The huge fattening facilities, in which meat is bred for cheap fast food for the purpose of making the best possible use of the capital employed, are sites that transform the lives of the living beings used and subjugated for this purpose into a planned, organised horror (see Melodie&Rhythmus 1/2020, pp. 54-59).
Call for Papers
Planned conference (10 and 11 June 2022) at the University of Oldenburg
The contradiction between capital and nature
The topic - the continued development of capitalism threatens the natural foundations of life - is highly topical. As important as the natural sciences are for the diagnosis of this destruction, a social theory that uncovers the structural reasons for the destruction is just as important. The conference aims to contribute to the clarification of these reasons. Only if we succeed in clarifying the social causes of the dramatic phenomena can we take the urgently needed sensible action. The organisers hope that the conference will provide a political impetus for the opposition movement against the destruction of nature under capitalism
A concept for the conference is available. You can find points of reference for your presentations in the topics formulated there. These presentations should not exceed 40 minutes. Please submit your proposals for presentations by 10 January 2022. Your exposés should not exceed two pages. We plan to publish the conference contributions.
The conference is organised by the Forum for Marx Research Oldenburg.
Contact: Prof. Dr Hans-Georg Bensch (),
Prof. Dr Ulrich Ruschig ()
HERE you can find the above mentioned Call for Papers as PDF.
HERE you can find the conference programme as PDF.
