The Industrial Revolution is the inflection point of economic history. During all the millennia before that revolution, incomes were static and humans were poor—often hungry, inadequately clothed, ill-housed. But somehow, in the two-and-a-half centuries since humanity learned to mass produce, a large number of ordinary people have acquired more material comfort than even the wealthiest … Read more

Great CfP by Eleanor Saitta (Structure Light Design Research Collective). It is now evident that postmodernism is dead. It has not ceased to function, exactly. The tools it gave us for the analysis of culture still work to the same degree they did previously. It remains a functional standpoint for understanding the effects of traditional … Read more

Wasn’t the fall of the Berlin Wall supposed to set the world free and end history? In the 20 years since, communities worldwide have voluntarily retreated behind walls and security cameras. Link

In terms of the great implosion of the global economy which began on Wall Street in late 2008, the Greek financial collapse is a storm in a retsina glass. The sums concerned are trivial by the standards of modern multitrillion-dollar high finance, or indeed by the standards of the Bundesbank. During a short contract reviewing … Read more