Speculate This!

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Economic Policy, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book Speculate This! by uncertain commons, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: uncertain commons ISBN: 9780822376934
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: May 24, 2013
Imprint: Duke University Press Language: English
Author: uncertain commons
ISBN: 9780822376934
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: May 24, 2013
Imprint: Duke University Press
Language: English

Speculate This! is a concise, provocative manifesto advocating practices of "affirmative speculation" over and against contemporary forms of speculation that quantify and contain risk to generate financial profit for a privileged few. This latter mode of speculation is predatory and familiar, its fallout evident in ongoing environmental degradation, in restrictive legal claims on natural resources in distant lands, and in the foreclosures, evictions, and unemployment resulting from the financial collapse of 2007–08. While such exploitive speculation seeks to reduce uncertainty and pin down the future, the affirmative practices championed by the authors of Speculate This! engage uncertainty, contingency, and difference, and they multiply, rather than reduce, possible futures. In these affirmative practices, social relations and the creation of goods and knowledge are not driven by the desire for financial gain or professional status. Whether manifest in open-source software, eco-communes, global activist movements, community credit networks, or experimental art, speculative living affirms our commonality. As a collaborative work coauthored by a group of anonymous scholars, Speculate This! argues for and embodies affirmative speculation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Speculate This! is a concise, provocative manifesto advocating practices of "affirmative speculation" over and against contemporary forms of speculation that quantify and contain risk to generate financial profit for a privileged few. This latter mode of speculation is predatory and familiar, its fallout evident in ongoing environmental degradation, in restrictive legal claims on natural resources in distant lands, and in the foreclosures, evictions, and unemployment resulting from the financial collapse of 2007–08. While such exploitive speculation seeks to reduce uncertainty and pin down the future, the affirmative practices championed by the authors of Speculate This! engage uncertainty, contingency, and difference, and they multiply, rather than reduce, possible futures. In these affirmative practices, social relations and the creation of goods and knowledge are not driven by the desire for financial gain or professional status. Whether manifest in open-source software, eco-communes, global activist movements, community credit networks, or experimental art, speculative living affirms our commonality. As a collaborative work coauthored by a group of anonymous scholars, Speculate This! argues for and embodies affirmative speculation.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Ambient Television by uncertain commons
Cover of the book The Public Life of Privacy in Nineteenth-Century American Literature by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Sex, or the Unbearable by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Music, Sound, and Technology in America by uncertain commons
Cover of the book The Land and the Loom by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Stuart Hall's Voice by uncertain commons
Cover of the book The Promise of the Foreign by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Two Bits by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Figurations by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Vibrant Matter by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Border Dilemmas by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Signal and Noise by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Mapping Yorùbá Networks by uncertain commons
Cover of the book Flexible Citizenship by uncertain commons
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy