Planetary Relations: Relational ecological practices and vulnerability

This talk discusses relational practices in art and architecture which address vulnerability in our social, environmental and climate-changed inhabitations. Drawing from feminist, decolonial and intersectional practices, I explore 20thc. and contemporary understandings of individual and collective ‘planetary relations’.

About the speaker

Peg Rawes is Professor in Architecture and Philosophy, and Director of Research in the Bartlett School of Architecture.

She an interdisciplinary architectural historian whose teaching and research focus on ‘relational architectural ecologies’ (2013). Her publications examine architecture in connection to the arts, humanities, social sciences, human and environmental rights, and medical and health practices, for example, in: Relational Architectural Ecologies: Architecture, Nature and Subjectivity (ed., 2013), Poetic Biopolitics: Practices of Relation in Architecture and the Arts (co-ed 2016). She is also author of, Space Geometry and Aesthetics: Through Kant and Towards Deleuze (2008), and Irigaray for Architects (2007, Korean edition 2010, Chinese edition 2019).

Image credit: Atmospheric Data Collective: Carbon Topologies (2022), and Author photos.

Planetary relationality is gaining a prominent place in Social Science discussions. The traditionally anthropocentric framing of global politics is challenged by a shift toward planetary politics, which sees politics as a much broader field encompassing the totality of relations among humans, animals, landscapes, environment, AI, and more. The FRINGE Centre Relationality Seminar Series aims to explore the interdisciplinary approach to planetary relationality analysing the variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives within the SSEES region and beyond. Held across terms 1 and 2, the seminars will feature talks by scholars working on different aspects of relationality from diverse disciplines, each contributing unique insights into relationality and deepening our understanding of planetary politics.