The Center for Environmental Studies welcomed professor Kim Fortun of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for a lecture on “Late Industrialism: Characterizing a Historical Moment and its Political-Scientific Challenges” on April 4. Dr. Fortun discussed the need to understand industrialism as a culture with its own set of norms and assumptions that can mask the reality of the world that it creates. Highlighting themes such as the privileging of an “in-body” model of health, the prioritization of “production over trespass,” a lack of “peripheral vision” and systemic awareness, and the inability to think comparatively, Dr. Fortun reviewed a litany of dangers of late industrialism from Bhopal to the BP oil spill. Despite the overwhelming threats presented by this reality, she discussed the possibility that alternative cultural forms arising in the context of late industrialism can offer new ways forward. The Yes Men, an activist group that use corporate impersonation and satire to promote their messages of social and environmental justice, and new forms of digital information and mapping are two examples of how the products of late industrialism—corporations and computers, in these cases—can be used to promote alternatives to industrial threats. Dr. Fortun also suggested using ethnography to understand the difference between dominant cultural explanation and uncovered realities, and promoting interdisciplinary education for systems thinking.
