Iron Cities: Discussion on the Exhibition Landscapes of Logistics
Galerie VI PER invites you on March 25, 2019, at 7:00 PM to the discussion Iron Cities, which is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition Landscapes of Logistics.
“Here, iron cities were built. Agricultural land was taken, and those huge halls were erected. A lot of people come from afar. And I have yet to hear anyone say they are satisfied with their wages.” With these words, the owner of a pub in a small town in western Bohemia near one of the complexes summarizes the logistics succinctly.
What he calls iron cities in a Verne-like manner resembles real cities in its size and the number of its temporary "inhabitants." Logistics centers with enormous warehouses are a physical reflection of the current global economy, a system based on a continuous flow of goods. Over the past three years, the total warehouse area in our country has almost doubled. In relation to GDP, we now have nearly twice as many as in Poland and three times more than in Hungary and Slovakia. We are becoming the warehouse (and warehouse workers) of Europe.
In the discussion, we will touch upon several questions related to this topic. What impact does the construction of large-scale warehouses filled with less skilled labor have on Czech society, the Czech countryside, its everyday reality, and future? What role do micro-dimensions play in the social structure, cohesion, and neighborly relations? Are lightweight modular systems according to international sustainability certificates sustainable, and do they change the landscape only temporarily, or do they represent a gradual, irreversible change to the environment? Logistics centers are not cities, parks, nor are they merely infrastructure. So, what are they?
Confirmed guests:
Vít Bohal is a PhD candidate in critical and cultural theory at Charles University. He is a member of the Prague group Diffractions Collective, which focuses on topics such as accelerationism, posthumanism, geophilosophy, and critical theory. His texts have appeared in magazines VLAK, VICE, A2larm, A2, Word Addict, and Tvar. He is a co-editor of publications Reinventing Horizons (display, 2016), and Allegorithms (Litteraria Pragensia, 2017).
Martin Ouředníček is an associate professor at the Faculty of Science at Charles University, and is the head of the research team Urban and Regional Laboratory at the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development. He is the editor of several books, such as Atlas of Social-Spatial Differentiation in the Czech Republic (2011), Historical Atlas of the Population of the Czech Lands (2017), Social Geography of the Prague Urban Region (2006), Social Changes in Prague’s Districts (2012), Sub Urbs (2013), and Social Environment of Prague (2017), and the author of more than 100 scientific publications.
Michaela Pixová is a social geographer researching urban environments and their relationship to alternative cultures, an active civil society, and social inequalities. She works as a research associate at the Institute of Sociological Studies at FSV UK in Prague. As an author, she collaborates with the online journal A2larm.
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“Here, iron cities were built. Agricultural land was taken, and those huge halls were erected. A lot of people come from afar. And I have yet to hear anyone say they are satisfied with their wages.” With these words, the owner of a pub in a small town in western Bohemia near one of the complexes summarizes the logistics succinctly.
What he calls iron cities in a Verne-like manner resembles real cities in its size and the number of its temporary "inhabitants." Logistics centers with enormous warehouses are a physical reflection of the current global economy, a system based on a continuous flow of goods. Over the past three years, the total warehouse area in our country has almost doubled. In relation to GDP, we now have nearly twice as many as in Poland and three times more than in Hungary and Slovakia. We are becoming the warehouse (and warehouse workers) of Europe.
In the discussion, we will touch upon several questions related to this topic. What impact does the construction of large-scale warehouses filled with less skilled labor have on Czech society, the Czech countryside, its everyday reality, and future? What role do micro-dimensions play in the social structure, cohesion, and neighborly relations? Are lightweight modular systems according to international sustainability certificates sustainable, and do they change the landscape only temporarily, or do they represent a gradual, irreversible change to the environment? Logistics centers are not cities, parks, nor are they merely infrastructure. So, what are they?
Confirmed guests:
Vít Bohal is a PhD candidate in critical and cultural theory at Charles University. He is a member of the Prague group Diffractions Collective, which focuses on topics such as accelerationism, posthumanism, geophilosophy, and critical theory. His texts have appeared in magazines VLAK, VICE, A2larm, A2, Word Addict, and Tvar. He is a co-editor of publications Reinventing Horizons (display, 2016), and Allegorithms (Litteraria Pragensia, 2017).
Martin Ouředníček is an associate professor at the Faculty of Science at Charles University, and is the head of the research team Urban and Regional Laboratory at the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development. He is the editor of several books, such as Atlas of Social-Spatial Differentiation in the Czech Republic (2011), Historical Atlas of the Population of the Czech Lands (2017), Social Geography of the Prague Urban Region (2006), Social Changes in Prague’s Districts (2012), Sub Urbs (2013), and Social Environment of Prague (2017), and the author of more than 100 scientific publications.
Michaela Pixová is a social geographer researching urban environments and their relationship to alternative cultures, an active civil society, and social inequalities. She works as a research associate at the Institute of Sociological Studies at FSV UK in Prague. As an author, she collaborates with the online journal A2larm.
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