What do you think?
Rate this book
Energy and Society
On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy
On Petroculture s brings together key essays by Imre Szeman, a leading scholar in the field of energy humanities and a critical voice in debates about globalization and neoliberalism. Szeman’s most important and influential essays, in dialogue with exciting new pieces written for the book, investigate ever-evolving circuits of power in the contemporary world, as manifested in struggles over space and belonging, redefinitions of work and individual autonomy, and the deep links between energy use and climate change.
These essays explore life lived in the twenty-first century by examining critically the vocabulary through which capitalism makes sense of itself, focusing on concepts like the nation, globalization, neoliberalism, creativity, and entrepreneurship. At the heart of the volume is the concept of “petrocultures,” which demands that we understand a fundamental fact of modern we are shaped by and through fossil fuels. Szeman argues that we cannot take steps to address global warming without fundamentally changing the social, cultural, and political norms and expectations developed in conjunction with the energy riches of the past century. On Petrocultures maps the significant challenge of our dependence on fossil fuels and probes ways we might begin to leave petrocultures behind.
These essays explore life lived in the twenty-first century by examining critically the vocabulary through which capitalism makes sense of itself, focusing on concepts like the nation, globalization, neoliberalism, creativity, and entrepreneurship. At the heart of the volume is the concept of “petrocultures,” which demands that we understand a fundamental fact of modern we are shaped by and through fossil fuels. Szeman argues that we cannot take steps to address global warming without fundamentally changing the social, cultural, and political norms and expectations developed in conjunction with the energy riches of the past century. On Petrocultures maps the significant challenge of our dependence on fossil fuels and probes ways we might begin to leave petrocultures behind.
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
38 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 10, 2019
The humanities grow like a rhizome when you're not looking. Apparently now there is an area of study called "energy humanities" and this encompasses "petrocultures" and "petrofiction" and the like. Undoubtedly, everyone needs to make a living.
The two chapters I found most interesting here had little to do with petroculture, though. "Neoliberals Dressed in Black, or, the Traffic in Creativity", is a critique of Richard Florida's 2002 book The Rise of the Creative Class. This critique helped me see its smarminess. And "Entrepreneurship as the New Common Sense" argues that the entrepreneur is "the perfect figure for a world in which the market has replaced society." We're all encouraged to be entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship is glorified, and the power structure loves entrepreneurs because they don't demand systemic change and make fewer demands on the state.
Displaying 1 of 1 review