IN/CONVENIENCE

The felt sense that we inhabit a convenience economy and culture is by now widespread. Nested in this understanding are ideas about ease and comfort, perpetually new technologies, and empowered consumers, on the one hand, and growing inequalities and frictions between the speed and exhaustion that convenience engenders, on the other. While conveniences involve the social production of inequality, a focus on ease, time, and technologized efficiency are not sufficient to grasp and critique this shared sense of a divided world. Convenience is a condition we inhabit within contemporary capitalism, and must be submitted to rigorous analysis, historical and conceptual. That even proponents of radical politics assume that convenience will be part of a post-capitalist society, suggests the relational nature of what the working group will explore as in/convenience. Responding to this condition requires us to think beyond simply not clicking “buy now." 

This project is a collaboration between Marc Steinberg and Joshua Neves of the GEM Lab examining the culture and politics of in/convenience, and will include three reading group meetings and culminate in a hybrid conference on April 21-22, 2022 (featuring: Neta Alexander, Armin Beverungen, Melissa Gregg, Orit Halpern, Mél Hogan, and Tung-hui Hu). 

For more information see here:[https://www.globalemergentmedia.com/in-convenience-2021-2022]