Malfeasance : appropriation through pollution / Michel Serres ; translated by Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dibon.

By:

Serres, Michel [author.]

Contributor(s):

Feenberg-Dibon, Anne-Marie, 1943- [translator.]

Material type: Text

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0804773025
9780804773027
0804773033
9780804773034

Uniform titles:

Mal propre. English

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

304.28 23

LOC classification:

TD177 .S4713 2011

Contents:

Urine, manure, blood, sperm : the lived foundations of property right -- Garbage, images, sounds : matter and signs.

Summary: In this highly original and provocative book, Michel Serres reflects on the relation between nature and culture and analyzes the origins of the world's contemporary environmental problems. He does so through the surprising proposition that our cleanliness is our dirt. While all living beings pollute to lay claim to their habitat, humans have multiplied pollution's effects catastrophically since the Industrial Revolution through the economic system's mode of appropriation and its emphasis on mindless growth. He warns that while we can measure what he calls "hard pollution"--the poisoning of the Earth--we ignore at our peril the disastrous impact of the "soft pollution" created by sound and images on our psyches. Sounding the alarm that the planet is heading for disaster, Serres proposes that humanity should stop trying to "own" the world and become "renters." Building on his earlier work, especially that on hominization, he urges us to establish a "natural contract" with nature. -- Book Description.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	City Campus City Campus Main Collection	304.28 SER (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		A527025B

"Original edition: Le mal propre : polluer pour s'approprier? Éditions Le Pommier--Paris, 2008.".

Urine, manure, blood, sperm : the lived foundations of property right -- Garbage, images, sounds : matter and signs.

In this highly original and provocative book, Michel Serres reflects on the relation between nature and culture and analyzes the origins of the world's contemporary environmental problems. He does so through the surprising proposition that our cleanliness is our dirt. While all living beings pollute to lay claim to their habitat, humans have multiplied pollution's effects catastrophically since the Industrial Revolution through the economic system's mode of appropriation and its emphasis on mindless growth. He warns that while we can measure what he calls "hard pollution"--the poisoning of the Earth--we ignore at our peril the disastrous impact of the "soft pollution" created by sound and images on our psyches. Sounding the alarm that the planet is heading for disaster, Serres proposes that humanity should stop trying to "own" the world and become "renters." Building on his earlier work, especially that on hominization, he urges us to establish a "natural contract" with nature. -- Book Description.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.

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