Towards the great transformation: (2) Nature, Marx's 'Old Mole', and 'Robinson'

摘要

What kinds of investigation could serve as an approach to social transformation that questions the project of planetary urbanisation and its representation as 'the urban revolution'? Do they suggest that it will require a rediscovery of sentient nature informed by and informing a new materialism, and a related reconstruction of communalism, even a rediscovery of 'the city' (and 'the country', which is perhaps the rural and agrarian dimension of 'civilisation')? It is within the agenda set by these two questions that the future of urban and socio-spatial studies and their utility is considered in this series. This second episode gives further attention to the notion and relevance of sentient nature, to the basis for a new materialism and the related reconstruction of communalism, with particular reference to Marx's 'old mole', and a focus on Patrick Keiller's novel and illuminating approach, implicit and explicit, to these topics in his recent work ('Robinson in Ruins' and 'The Robinson Institute').