COP30: Seeking change shopping in the far North & SOUTH

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	Understanding the Impact of Architecture 12 · 2020 by John Kørner 80 x 120 cm · (102 x 138 x 6,5 cm)
	COP30 COP stands for "Conference of the Parties"

'John Kørner (born 1967, Danish): Understanding the Impact of Architecture, 12, 2020

Lithograph

Kørner pursues his artistic practice through various media, including painting, printmaking, ceramics, installations, sculpture, videos and theatre work. Throughout his career he has tackled contemporary global issues such as migration, war, and systems of production and consumption. He refers to these as 'Problems' that form an ongoing process of enquiry in his work. In his series of paintings and prints Understanding the Impact of Architecture (begun in 2014) he explores the way architecture influences, impacts and interacts with people and their environment. This print from the series addresses blind consumerism and its effect on the fragile Nordic landscape. It was made at Edition Copenhagen which along with Borch Editions is the other major print workshop in Denmark.

Acquisition supported by AKO Foundation, 2023,7056.2'

Text and my source: British Museum Room 90

Nordic noir
works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson

Exhibition / 09 October 2025 – 22 March 2026

See previously: 'care architecture' : 'architecture'

The dynamics of life and death

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dynamic care?	dynamic care?
dynamic care?	'dynamic pricing'

Cavet emptor!

Beware -

 you get what you pay for; but do you get what you pay for?

Previously on W2tQ - 'dynamic'

Book: "The Unintended Consequences of Technology" - UCOT

Solutions, Breakthroughs, and the Restart We Need

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"The Unintended Consequences of Technology" UCOT	here ... [or, full-steam ahead?] UCOT
... here ...	... and here?

Book cover: c/o Wiley

ii This post reflects the two-sides of technology:

Territories of Belief, Community, Nature and Technology i

More posts to follow over coming months on this theme ...

Weighty matters ...

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I have due regard for my 'footprint'?	"The weight of roads, buildings and other constructed or manufactured materials is doubling roughly every 20 years, and authors of the research said it currently weighed 1.1 teratonnes (1.1 trillion tonnes)."
Our 'footprint'?	Our 'footprint'?

 

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-manmade-mass-outweighs-life-earth.html

My source: several

Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3010-5

Time to Define: Person-Centred Care...

In a global, planetary context self-care also takes on new meanings and urgency:

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::

Greta Thunberg

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ANXIETY : TIME

LOVE - CARING --------------------------------- biospherics
responsibility ------------------------------ evidence

CONSUMERS : POLICY VACUUM

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Global Consciousness
Gaia's Friends*

personal growth self-motivation, anger, sense of betrayal, trust in political motivation	PLANETARY HEALTH cloud air water soil land glacier weather: temperatures, rains, winds, sea level ...
Communities Societies People's Bound to 'consume': but a collective  aspiration to be  more than: CONSUMERS	economic growth ... ? Climate activist Greta Thunberg photographed on the shore in Lisbon, Portugal December 4, 2019 Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva for TIME

*Gaia does not have 'friends' of course.
Get this wrong - 'We' are gone.

G.D.P. Capitalism pp. A.M. Holistic ...

One pivot-point or several?

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"A more holistic approach to 'growth' needs to evolve ... Growth mania -	Demographics: Population Growth  GDP per capita - new measures? "nominal GDP growth, supported by population growth,
... looking to capture societal and environmental benefits and costs". "borrowing from the future while destroying the environment". socio -	[and profit] growth" Gross Domestic Product [GDP] Sustainability - economics

This week there has been a major focus on Self  Care Week.

Lars Münter brought to my attention the need for an 'Economy of Wellbeing'. 

Jenkins's item in the FT refers to Milton Friedman, shareholders and stakeholders. The latter seems to be an over-used term in healthcare and health services, but there is learning in comparing and contrasting the two.

The climate emergency will change capitalism. 

Perhaps, what we need is not just an:

'Economy of Wellbeing'

as 'Economies of Wellbeing'

The presiding orientation of which must be circular.

See also:
The Friedman Doctrine, or Shareholder Theory; and Stakeholder Theory. 

My source:
Patrick Jenkins, Fund chiefs call for shift in capitalism, FT Weekend, 16-17 November 2019, p.4.

Review: ii "Climate Change and the People's Health"

Climate Change and the People's Health

You could read this excellent little book in a couple of hours, but me being me ...

Part of a Series of 'Small Books, Big Ideas' in population health this is an important and timely text of a type that sadly will need to be a constant stream. Constant, not only to keep the message and issue in people's consciousness, but to update the research of a still new interdisciplinary field. Not only that but some sense (measure) of the socio-economic-political state must be realised to identify change (progress). This small book argues for the big change in attitudes, behaviours and systems that must follow.

The book prompts me to imagine the day (whether or not in my future) when the media can report on the gradual reverse of climate change? We have heard of positive changes in the size and behaviour of the Antarctic ozone layer for example; only for progress to be challenged once again. It is not enough to hope for our children, their children ...  and the biosphere of Earth.

The book has just three chapters in 146 pages; 188 pages including the references and index. The 'small' quality relates not only to page number but a hardback size of 18 x 15 cms, such that my copy has been on tour (petrol car and alone) over the summer. A Forward by Nancy Krieger refers to the book series as a whole and points to the political dimensions and how inevitably practitioners must be part of this 'game'. Not just what we oppose but what people stand for. The dynamism in this field is apparent in the reference to expressed opposition alone given rise to despair. This book is very current (2019) but 'eco-anxiety' did not make the index, such is the pace of events (Greta Thunberg). This is not a criticism but speaks of the dynamism and hope that action can (and must) bring as Krieger writes. The fact of this being a political struggle is acknowledged by Friel in the conclusion.

This is not just important but critical. You should never generalise and many nurses (for example) are politically very literate and Active. They seek to protect, sustain and improve the values, the health and health care systems they hold dear. Many other nurses focus on the 'job' of caring. The thought follows that while politics starts in the staff-room and rota; the Politics begins in the ward office and the various meetings and committees. They conclude that they'll leave that to others. For all healthcare workers we can no longer take this stance. Population health demands a population response.

To be continued (of course you don't have to wait to obtain your copy - this is essential reading):

Chapter 1. Climate Change, Global Justice, and Health Inequities

Chapter 2. It's a Consumptagenic World: Producing Climate Change, Exacerbating Health Inequities

Chapter 3. Challenges and Future Prospects


Friel, S. (2019) Climate Change and the People's Health, Oxford University Press, New York

"Sea Things" (and Care Concepts) c/o V&A

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	Sam Jacob creates Sea Things

Happy to say that 'Sea Things', our project with @Sap for @L_D_F has been extended till Oct 19th. Installation in the V&A's entrance and experimental post plastic objects in the Ceramics gallery. @SamJacobStudio pic.twitter.com/2WBXbA5ax0

— Sam Jacob (@_SamJacob) September 25, 2019

Photo:
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/16/sam-jacob-sea-things-installation-london-design-festival/

My source:
The Times, Saturday, 14 September, 2019. p.10.

Book: "Climate Change and the People's Health" i

Climate Change and the People's Health

"Chapter 3 looks forward. It begins by calling for a wider conceptual and methodological toolkit among public health researchers - one that includes systems science as well as a focus on policymaking processes." p.xxxvi

Friel, S. (2019) Climate Change and the People's Health, Oxford University Press, New York.

Review to follow ...

Purple Tuesday - National Day Disabled Shoppers

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Ability to exercise choice (visually impaired - buying clothes) Cognitive access Do not assume a person does not have mental capacity Thought... that really counts	'Exercise' Physical access mobility, reach "Transact on the pavement" Conduct business with the shopper outside the store/shop without access Equipment - maintenance  Extent of provision Token-
Do not assume that the person who is with a disabled person is their carer. The shopping experience cafe, restaurant, shops interaction training	-ism activism The Purple Pound  £249bn a year on retail and leisure  customers - clients - citizens Law:  The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 The Equality Act 2010 c

My prompt and source:
BBC Radio 4 You and Yours - Consumer Affairs

Society (global trends?) that diminishes the greatest gifts

Last December 15th -16th Harry Eyres' column The Slow Lane in the FT Weekend (p.24) pointed me to the New Economic Forum's pamphlet entitled The New Materialism. Mr Eyres wrote about the The most precious gifts and the fact that things do not last like they used to. Quality lies in things that last, things that are worth repairing and repairable.

The piece prompted me to think back about some of the children's toys. Very gratefully received as gifts, guilt sprung when more of an impulse (impelled) buy: what about the amount of plastic, the oil, the probable lack of longevity in use, the longevity in decay and the some-other-where of waste and disposal?

Recall then the joys of the wooden train set, with non-toxic paint... The toy flung aside as the cardboard box is tossed, turned and crawled into and puzzled about. The reflection took me around a few towns too, the pound shops. It's good when you really can afford to make a choice about what you buy, about quality. The hammer, clearly not ready for hand: unbalanced once home. I'm not saying all 'cheap' screwdrivers are the same, but the slightest amount of torque and the handle is undone. Probably the one cheap find and sometimes free are the watchmaker's screwdriver sets. Eye-saving when the screw on the side of my glasses comes loose and the lens falls out on something soft thus far.

All the mass production and lack of love and care invested in making things - the loss of true craft, as Mr Eyres points out, makes me wonder whether this also pollutes the way we value our health.

Like so much advertising - conditioning - we recognize the true significance of what is happening only when forced to and we ourselves suffer a failure and 'break' in some way, to some degree.

This issue is provoking various responses. An example being Beck's Song Reader, an album released solely as sheet music.

The Story of Stuff - a 20min video

What is the Story of Stuff?

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.