Allied Grounds · BG°2023 Project – The means of production have become the means of climate production, so how can we – all kinds of exploited workers around the world – seize these very means and address both the eco-social and decolonial question of the climate crisis?

Theme

“After Extractivism” – the BG 2022 project – initiated a dialogue between political economy and political ecology that was guided by the question of how we can build our future on the legacies and claims of those who have been struggling most with the existential impacts and threats of toxically interlocking and mutually fueling economic and ecological crises caused by imperialism and capitalism.

Approaching the political economy/political ecology dialogue from a new, fresh angle, “Allied Grounds” – the BG 2023 project – intends to revisit and further explore so-called “sacrifice zones” and “transition countries,” zoom in on struggles for labor and environmental justice, re-energize visions and efforts to emancipate “cheap labor” and “cheap nature” from capitalism’s grip, and, ultimately, probe the organizational practices and potentialities of these very struggles.

Exploration

Central to the explorative nature of the “Allied Grounds” project is a text series with three sections: I. Internationalism, II. Commons, and III. (Re-)Organization. Each section addresses a specific set of questions, but all three are linked by a common concern: To explore and construct connections between environmental and labor struggles.

The overarching question of the project is: Since the means of production have become the means of climate production, how can we – all kinds of exploited workers around the world – seize these very means and address both the eco-social and decolonial question of the climate crisis?

Read more about the concept in the introductory outline “Common Labor Struggles? The Eco-Social and Decolonial Question of Climate Crisis.”

For more ideas, see the first posts in the “Allied Grounds” text series.

Milestones

Engaging researchers, activists, and cultural workers in a variety of forms and encounters, we will be co-producing knowledge resources in different media formats.

Call for papers
In the course of 2023 around 50 essays, reports, and interviews will be published – in German in the BG, in English (and other languages) in cooperation with the BG’s international media partners. If you would like to contribute to the “Allied Grounds” text series, mail us at info(at)berlinergazette(.)de

Conference
The BG conference “Allied Grounds” will take place on Oct. 5, 6, and 7, 2023 at the Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte (House of Democracy and Human Rights). Save the date! We will post more info here soon.

Multimedia website
By the end of 2023 the findings of the project will be presented on a multimedia website, as we did for “After Extractivism.”

Berliner Gazette (BG) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan team of journalists, researchers, artists, and coders, analyzing and experimenting with emerging cultural and political practices. Since 1999 we have been publishing berlinergazette.de under a Creative Commons License with more than 1,000 contributors. In dialogue with our international network we create annual projects, exploring the issues at hand not only in the form of text series but also conferences and books. Our latest projects include After Extractivism (2022), Black Box East (2021), Silent Works (2020), More World (2019), Ambient Revolts (2018), Signals (2017), A Field Guide to the Snowden Files (2017), Friendly Fire (2017), Tacit Futures (2016), UN|COMMONS (2015), BQV (2012), and McDeutsch (2006).

Organizer

The curators of the “Allied Grounds” project are Magdalena Taube and Krystian Woznicki. Magdalena is editor-in-chief of the internet newspaper Berliner Gazette and professor of Digital Media and Journalism at the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. She is the author of “Disruption des Journalismus” (2018) published by Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam and co-editor of numerous readers, including “Invisible Hand(s)” (2020) published by Multimedijalni institut, Zagreb. Krystian is a critic, photographer, and the co-founder of Berliner Gazette. Exploring the common(s) at the intersection of globalization and digitalization, he has created books that blend writing and photography, including “After the Planes” (2017), “Fugitive Belonging” (2018), and “Undeclared Movements” (2020).

Curators

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Newsletters

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Allied Grounds · BG°2023 Project

The means of production have become the means of climate production, so how can we – all kinds of exploited workers around the world – seize these very means and address both the eco-social and decolonial question of the climate crisis?

Intro