For human civilization to survive and thrive into the coming centuries and millennia, it must become ecological: it must work with and within, not against and at the expense of, Earth’s living systems and communities. This will require a radical refashioning of how we live.
To date, “ecological civilization” is a nebulous term proposed as a developmental goal by (among others) the Chinese Communist state, and pursued by a coterie of ecologists, economists, social scientists, and activist intellectuals around the world, but without much public uptake, let alone tangible evidence of wide-scale application. Ecology itself is, at heart, a natural science, but any transition to an ecological society is only technically a matter for scientists. The real challenge is not scientific, but cultural, and addressing it will require imagination, creativity, and the retraining of desire -- the kinds of things best engaged by artists, media makers, and other “cultural creatives.” And to be successful, this challenge must be addressed inclusively and democratically, taking into account the different cultural perspectives, experiences, and histories of those who live in any given place.
EcoCultureLab is devoted to new forms of conversation and collaboration between artists, humanists, scientists, designers, policy makers, and engaged citizens, including those who maintain longstanding Indigenous traditions of ecological practice. It aims to contribute to a widescale public revisioning of how we live and how we could live – and to developing ways of life that are ecologically viable, aesthetically and spiritually inspiring, and socially and ethically just. It sees the future as an open-ended process of developing “common worlds” that are inclusive of our differences while respecting the parameters of place (community, region, ecosystem) and time (local history, the urgency posed by eco-crisis events).
EcoCultureLab began as a network of scholars and practitioners centered at the University of Vermont in collaboration with community members of Vermont’s largest urban area, metropolitan Burlington. Coordinated by Adrian Ivakhiv, Steven Rubenstein Professor of Environment and Natural Resources, with a steering committee of scholars, artists, and activists, EcoCultureLab organized a series of events and activities including the 2018 symposium and festival Feverish World: Arts and Sciences of Collective Survival, gallery exhibitions, book talks, and public forums. In this it was supported by the Steven and Beverly Rubenstein Charitable Foundation, the Gund Institute for Environment, and others.
Following a hiatus resulting in part from the Covid-19 pandemic, EcoCultureLab is being redeveloped as an international network, with a core hub at Simon Fraser University’s Institute for the Humanities in Vancouver, Canada, with affiliate groups around the world. In this new iteration, it will be coordinated by Adrian Ivakhiv, J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities at SFU (and University of Vermont Emeritus Professor of Environmental Thought and Culture). EcoCultureLab welcomes the participation of those who share its general vision. If you would like to join the EcoCultureLab mailing list, please write to ecoculture@uvm.edu.