Does Anyone Still Love Cities? Ecology Against Modernization

We live in times of the sixth mass extinction when the anthropocentric world no longer seems a reliable form of coexistence for humans, animals, plants, and nonhumans. At the same time, “It is difficult, one would imagine, to present oneself in front of one’s electorate with a program that envisages the possibility of making them disappear in favor of a ‘congress of animals’ who don’t even vote or pay taxes!”

As the editor of the book Borys Filonenko explains: “The new volume of the Small Run Books series problematizes, clarifies, and asks new questions. It begins with a roundtable of anthropologists and ends with a list of questions from the architect Rem Koolhaas. While compiling the book, I thought about a fairly extensive network of recipients with their professional and coexistence practices. Architects, artists, anthropologists, and all those who are interested in new optics and need to discuss it, those who go beyond the anthropological and dare to raise questions about the future in the Anthropocene. I hope that with this publication, we will be able to focus on existing practices in these areas and undermine the discourse of ‘modern people.’ ”

The publication is supported by Ihor Dvoretskyi.