Fugere Urbem: The Pandemic and the Urban in a Nordic Context
Facing Covid-19 pandemic, new meanings have been attributed to the cities and their activities. Being unable to carry out the most common day-to-day activities has opened the floor to re-think how cities are being appropriated. In a moment when the world's population is largely concentrated in urban areas (Taylor, 2018), the pandemic has shown the importance of accessible public spaces and nature within the urban environment. The right to the city (Lefebvre, 1968) seems to be even more up to date and, by confronting the current world situation, reconsidering modern standards is required. As in earlier times, a movement of fugere urbem, i.e. a city break away, has appeared, and the foundation of modern urban life is put in check. Considering a Nordic context, more specifically, the city of Stockholm, that has as overall green space per person an amount of 70.06 square meters (Statistics Sweden, 2018), this paper has as its objectives: 1) Reflect on how the Covid-19 pandemic generated a movement to flee the city and how the pandemic affected city usage and appropriation in Stockholm; 2) Draw a connection between the access to the city and nature in Stockholm and the environmental and socio- spatial inequalities (Carruthers, 2008) intensified by Covid-19 worldwide. In order to enable the analysis, this paper has as its argument a discussion around political ecology and an appreciation of open and public spaces and nature in contrast to the city in its most dense and neoliberal form. From an urban phenomenology and a social geography approach, Stockholm appears as the balance between the countryside and the city, the urban and the rural, the chaos and calmness. But who has access to it? The pandemic has shown the privilege of some cities over others and we can only question: are the Nordic cities, especially Stockholm, urban utopias?
Fernanda Oliveira de Almeida Sorbonne Nouvelle University, France
Fernanda Oliveira de Almeida Sorbonne Nouvelle University, France
“Unpleasantness is Surely in Store...” Imagining an Eco-Fascist Reliquary for Pentti Linkola and Ted Kaczynski
Until his death in 2020, Pentti Linkola remained a controversial figure. He stated in Can Life Prevail? A Revolutionary Approach to the Environmental Crisis: “The crippling human cover spread over the living layer of the earth must be forcibly be made lighter: breathing holes must be punctured in this blanket and the ecological footprint of man be brushed away.” (Linkola, 170)
Eco-fascists and advocates of right-wing nature philosophies have long lamented the despoliation of nature, which they associate with a ‘dystopian’ modernity and industrial society. Further, they argue that this has progressively diminished the connections between race and territory. One of their principal concerns is human overpopulation. Radical Finnish eco-philosopher, Pentti Linkola proposed radical changes to avert ecological collapse by restructuring living conditions so that no organism is privileged. He argued that planet Earth can sustain a half-billion humans without any sizable destruction of our habitat, or any loss in species or stability of our ecosystem. Numbers higher than that, would cause environmental chaos. This so-called ‘eco-crime’ of over-population identified by Linkola (Haag, 184), has emerged as an important if contentious ecological strategy.
Eco-fascists and advocates of right-wing nature philosophies have long lamented the despoliation of nature, which they associate with a ‘dystopian’ modernity and industrial society. Further, they argue that this has progressively diminished the connections between race and territory. One of their principal concerns is human overpopulation. Radical Finnish eco-philosopher, Pentti Linkola proposed radical changes to avert ecological collapse by restructuring living conditions so that no organism is privileged. He argued that planet Earth can sustain a half-billion humans without any sizable destruction of our habitat, or any loss in species or stability of our ecosystem. Numbers higher than that, would cause environmental chaos. This so-called ‘eco-crime’ of over-population identified by Linkola (Haag, 184), has emerged as an important if contentious ecological strategy.
Linkola’s extreme non-anthropocentric perspective, though predicated upon rebalance and harmony rather than exploitation, has noticeably diminished in recent years within the broader terrain of Finnish green politics. However, it did have common traits with the ‘deep ecology’ advocated in the ‘ecosophy’ of fellow Nordic thinker, Arne Naess. However, within an innate notion of balance, as it relates to the natural world, Linkola foregrounded an organic coalescence between the environmental movement and ethnonationalism. Ultimately, ethnonationalists like Linkola, sought a return to the ‘normality’ and the ultimate re-flourishing of a ‘balanced’ natural world. Linkola argued that a healthy world in environmental and metaphysical equanimity is a world sought by all radially conscious peoples. He proposed that working towards environmental homeostasis, would reorientate European civilization one step closer to a northern palingenesis. Where eco-fascism, anti-humanism and deep ecology reflect a profound connection to the particularity of place, there are important distinctions to be made between the systems in which they have emerged and evolved. Outside of Europe, Linkola argued that Ted Kaczynski (styled ‘The Unabomber’ by the FBI) was an ‘honourable voice in the wilderness’ (Linkola, 159-160).
In the United States, Kaczynski, remains a significant figure in eco-fascist thought. He argued that Nazism had redeemable aspects as it was ‘partly a revolution against civilisation’. (Kaczynski in Forchtner [ed], 287) Kaczynski’s bombing campaign between 1978 and 1995, intended to incite a revolution against modern industrial society, in the name of returning humanity to a ‘utopian’ primitive state. This ‘reversal’ offered humanity more freedom while simultaneously, protecting the environment. As with Linkola’s anti- humanism stance, Kaczynski’s anti-technology manifesto railed not only against modern industrial society but was staunchly radically pro-green and anti-left.
Kaczynski’s jeremiad against modern technology was written in an isolated cabin in Lincoln, Montana USA. Linkola similarly retreated to a small wooden building at Sääksmäki, Finland where he made a living from fishing. In this paper, I want to consider Linkola and Kaczynski through an art practice that reflects these locations as contested but distinct sites. The artworks will re-imagine the locations and respective cabins in the form of a portable ‘reliquary’ and its contents.
Mark Riley University of Roehampton, UK