Future Histories International Anna Kornbluh on Climate Counteraesthetics
Anna Kornbluh on the prevalence of aesthetic immediacy and why we need climate counteraesthetics.
Events (from the introduction):
at the Zollo Collective:
https://www.instagram.com/zollo.hamburg/?hl=enat La Band Varga:
https://labandavaga.org/?page_id=102
Rethinking Economics Summer School Switzerland:
Shownotes
Anna Kornbluh’s personal website (including all her publications):
Anna at the University of Illinois Chicago:
https://engl.uic.edu/profiles/kornbluh-anna/
Kornbluh, A. (2024). Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism. Verso Books.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/3031-immediacy-or-the-style-of-too-late-capitalism
Kornbluh, A. (2023). We Didn’t Start The Fire. Death Drive and Ecocide. Parapraxis Magazine Issue 3.
https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/we-didnt-start-the-fire
Kornbluh, A. (2020). Climate Realism, Capitalist and Otherwise. Mediations. Journal of the Marxist Literary Group. Vol. 33. No. 1-2. P. 99-118.
https://mediationsjournal.org/articles/climate-realism
Kornbluh, A. (2019). The Order of Forms. Realism, Formalism, and Social Space. University of Chicago Press.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo44521006.html
Groos, J., Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction. Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction
on Alexis Pauline Gumbs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Pauline_Gumbs
https://www.alexispauline.com/
her essay on the Maui wildfires:
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a44819303/climate-crisis-maui/
on climate fiction (cli-fi):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_fiction
Rebecca Saltzman:
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble
Tsing, A. L. (2021). The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691220550/the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world
on the genre of the Heist film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_film
on “Logan Lucky”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Lucky
Strange, S. (2015). Casino Capitalism. Manchester University Press.
https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784991340/
Edward Morgan Forster on Narrative:
https://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/04/e-m-forster-the-difference-between-story-and-plot/
on climate/eco-anxiety:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-anxiety
Spufford, F. (2012). Red Plenty. Graywolf Press.
https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/red-plenty
explanation “hypersititon”:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyperstition
on Kim Stanley Robinson:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson
Robinson, K. S. (2020). The Ministry for the Future. Orbit.
https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/the-ministry-for-the-future
Robinson, K. S. (2017). New York 2140. Orbit.
https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/new-york-2140
on the Inflation Reduction Act:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act
on the Green New Deal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal
website of Daniel Aldana Cohen (including all his publications):
Climate & Community Institute:
https://climateandcommunity.org/
“A Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” video from 2019:
https://youtu.be/d9uTH0iprVQ?si=8O-M_fS2iO_AQhiL
Aronoff, K., Battistoni, A., Cohen, D. A., & Riofrancos, T. (2019). A Planet to Win. Why We Need a Green New Deal. Verso Books.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2546-a-planet-to-win
Klein, N., Taylor, A. (2025). The Rise of End Times Fascism. The Guardian.
on the Zohran Mamdani campaign:
on Social Realism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism
on Brandon Taylor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Taylor_(writer)
his website:
on Colson Whitehead:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colson_Whitehead
his website:
https://www.colsonwhitehead.com/
on “Succession”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_(TV_series)
on “Somebody Somewhere”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Somewhere_(TV_series)
on public luxury:
https://communia.de/en/project/public-luxury/
https://autonomy.work/portfolio/public-luxury-in-practice/
Nunes, R. (2021). Neither Vertical nor Horizontal. A Theory of Political Organization. Verso Books.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/772-neither-vertical-nor-horizontal
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò’s website:
Táíwò, O. (2020). Who gets to feel secure? On Liberty, Security, and Our System of Racial Capitalism. Aeon.
https://aeon.co/essays/on-liberty-security-and-our-system-of-racial-capitalism
Boston Review issue on “What is the State for?”:
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/from-the-editors-what-is-the-state-for/
on Freud’s concept of the Death drive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_drive
Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics
S3E32 | Jacob Blumenfeld on Climate Barbarism and Managing Decline
S03E30 | Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries
S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdown
S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning
S03E02 | George Monbiot on Public Luxury
https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e02-george-monbiot-on-public-luxury/
S02E27 | Nick Dyer-Witheford on Biocommunism
https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e27-nick-dyer-witheford-on-biocommunism/
S02E18 | Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese on Half Earth Socialism
S01E16 | Richard Barbrook on Imaginary Futures
https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e16-richard-barbrook-on-imaginary-futures/
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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:
Democratic planning – an information website
https://www.democratic-planning.com/
Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1
Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction
International Network for Democratic Economic Planning
Democratic Planning Research Platform:
https://www.planningresearch.net/
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Episode Keywords
#AnnaKornbluh, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #DemocraticPlanning, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #FutureImaginaries, #Art, #Literature, #Representation, #Immediacy, #ClimateChange, #ClimateBreakdown, #ClimateCollapse, #Capitalism, #Economics, #Collapse, #GreenNewDeal, #ClimateAnxiety