Archaeology of "Disasterology". Postmodern Environmental Atmospheres of the Lack of Future
Archaeology of "Disasterology". Postmodern Environmental Atmospheres of the Lack of Future
Tuesday, 8 July 2025: 13:40
Location: SJES022 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
Oral Presentation
Within this age of “poly-crisis” and “permacrisis”, a more systemic and long-lasting one stands out. Namely, the environmental and climate crisis, one of the strongest expressions of the contemporary idea of dystopia and negative future is manifested.
This paper aims to analyse some of the narratives of a postmodern atmosphere in which visions of the apocalypse constitute one of the fundamental ingredients, and the genesis and diffusion in the last three decades (especially in French-speaking circles) of the vision of «disasterology». In particular by the French philosopher Paul Virilio (1932-2018), which has constantly confronted one of postmodernism’s issue par excellence, namely technique. It identified the common thread that ran from his analyses on the impact of speed in the redefinition of society to his reflections on disasters as a sign of the times and the category of “stereoreality” (the ‘augmented reality’ resulting from the splitting of real and media experience). An elaboration always under the banner of a strongly critical vocation that led him to express very concerned judgements about the age of dromocracy and turbo-capitalism, summarized in the formulas of the disappearance of art, «epidemic of the imaginary» and museification of the world as an effect of the disappearance of reality. Many visions of a desolate Earth consistent with the catastrophism of the theoretician of the accident – from Chernobyl to stock markets crashes – as an ineluctable outcome of technological progress (and of the failure of technical rationality). A vision which is also at the basis of «collapsology», another cultural current with the ambition of thinking about the «post-collapse» future characterised by the catastrophe of «thermo-industrial civilization». This paper intends to analyze the framework of disasterology, and some of its most recent cultural outcomes (including the widespread idea of zombification extended to fields ranging from politics to economics).
This paper aims to analyse some of the narratives of a postmodern atmosphere in which visions of the apocalypse constitute one of the fundamental ingredients, and the genesis and diffusion in the last three decades (especially in French-speaking circles) of the vision of «disasterology». In particular by the French philosopher Paul Virilio (1932-2018), which has constantly confronted one of postmodernism’s issue par excellence, namely technique. It identified the common thread that ran from his analyses on the impact of speed in the redefinition of society to his reflections on disasters as a sign of the times and the category of “stereoreality” (the ‘augmented reality’ resulting from the splitting of real and media experience). An elaboration always under the banner of a strongly critical vocation that led him to express very concerned judgements about the age of dromocracy and turbo-capitalism, summarized in the formulas of the disappearance of art, «epidemic of the imaginary» and museification of the world as an effect of the disappearance of reality. Many visions of a desolate Earth consistent with the catastrophism of the theoretician of the accident – from Chernobyl to stock markets crashes – as an ineluctable outcome of technological progress (and of the failure of technical rationality). A vision which is also at the basis of «collapsology», another cultural current with the ambition of thinking about the «post-collapse» future characterised by the catastrophe of «thermo-industrial civilization». This paper intends to analyze the framework of disasterology, and some of its most recent cultural outcomes (including the widespread idea of zombification extended to fields ranging from politics to economics).