[Nettime-bold] Where's Mumford and Ellul

["Steve Cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>]

Another name mentioned in Sean Cubit's posting: Jacques Ellul  I've
been interested in a group whose work is not destined for electronic
fora and archives:  The Jacques Ellul Society, which is a spinoff of
the deep ecology philosophy.  It's main supporters are rather
technophobic and usually show up at the non-violent globophobe events:
Jerry Mander, Andrew Kimbrell, Stephanie Mills, Kirkpatrick Sale.
Then there is the very thoughtful Langdon Winner who has tenure at an
engineering institute in New York.  Here is what little I found online
about the JES: www.deepecology.org/jacques.html


 JACQUES ELLUL SOCIETY

In the early 1990s, FDE hosted a number of strategic meetings with
international technology critics to discuss the roles that unbridled
industrial megatechnologies are playing in the destruction of
ecosystems, species and communities. These spirited "neo-Luddite"
gatherings took place at FDE's San Francisco headquarters as well as
at Schumacher College in Devon, England. They enlisted dozens of
prominent activists to engage in systemic critiques of
megatechnologies and technocracies in the tradition of Gandhi,
Mumford, Schumacher, Illich, and others. By September 1995, a new
organization had formed as a separate project within the International
Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) in Washington, D.C. Following
significant discussions, the idea emerged to name the group the
Jacques Ellul Society (JES), after the distinguished twentieth century
French philosopher, who argued that only by analyzing the
technological systems dominating culture and nature could modern
society be understood.

Up to that time, the creation of a coordinated, technology-critiquing
movement faced enormous challenges, given the public's quasi-religious
belief in technology as well as policy makers' increasing reliance on
new technologies to address escalating social and environmental
problems. Most critics and activists had been working in relative
isolation, their views dismissed as Luddite or reactionary. With the f
ormation of the Jacques Ellul Society under the direction of
writer-activist-attorney Andrew Kimbrell (author of The Human Body
Shop), like-minded thinkers finally found a forum and a more powerful,
concerted voice. Through yearly meetings, members could share
experiences and research, identify and respond to urgent
controversies, and create a body of white papers documenting
collective opinions on a variety of issues, from computers in
education to genetic engineering to mountaintop removal mining.

By the winter of 1998, JES launched the first issue of their journal,
Techne, named after the Greek word that is the root of the word
"technology" and means "the arts and crafts of man." The aim of the
journal was to create an "alternative future vision" and to produce
analyses of technologies that are far too often perceived as neutral,
necessary for progress and without negative consequences. Stephanie
Mills, Jerry Mander, Langdon Winner, Kirkpatrick Sale, Fritjof Capra,
and others contributed articles and essays to that first issue. It was
widely distributed among members of the media, academia, and activist
communities. In the future, editorial responsibilities will be shared
by Andrew Kimbrell and Charlene Spretnak (author of The Resurgence of
the Real).

With budgets for technology soaring in schools at the expense of arts,
music, sports and nature classes, JES's Computers in Education Project
has become the organization's top-priority campaign. Techne's second
issue will be focused solely on the topic. A white paper on computer
use in elementary schools is currently being written. A national press
campaign is planned around its release, as well as legal action to
challenge the federal government's computerizing of the education
system. Other future JES projects include a public teach-in (in
collaboration with the International Forum on Globalization) and the
compilation of two annotated bibliographies to serve as essential
resource guides for activists and researchers examining the role of
technology in organizing social life in the modern world.




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