COMPRAR, TIRAR, COMPRAR Emma Robinson. 2011 PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE A policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life,

COMPRAR, TIRAR, COMPRAREmma Robinson

2011

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE

• A policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so it will become unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE

•Methods•Reasons•Consequences for consumers•Environmental/global impact•Alternatives

METHODS

• Designed to fail• Inkjet printers• Lightbulbs• Nylons • iPod batteries

• Designed to go “out of style”• Implies “consumer choice”

CENTENNIAL BULB

• http://www.centennialbulb.org/

• “the Longest burning Light Bulb in history. Now in its 114th year of illumination.”

• Livermore, CA

DUPONT NYLON

REASONS

• Method of economic stimulation during the Depression• Bernard London, Ending the Depression through Forced

Obsolescence• Market/labor equilibrium

• “Successful” business model• Keeps people buying• East German products

• Profit for businesses and engineers

CONSUMER CONSEQUENCES

•Credit/debt•Trash•Frustration

GLOBAL IMPACT

• Growth for growth’s sake – ecological footprint exceeds planet’s capacity• Production of “residues” instead of “nutrients” -Thackara• “Dumping” used/useless products in Third World Countries

Mike Anane, Ghanahttps://youtu.be/24CM4g8V6w8?t=37m48s

2014https://vimeo.com/95789417

ALTERNATIVES

•Warner Philips – LED lightbulbs• John Thackara – The Doors of Perception•Serge Latouche – “Decrecimiento”

JOHN THACKARA

“the founder of Doors of Perception, is John Thackara. He does live and online talks, and produces events, for cities, institutions and organisations around the world. The outcomes of each collaboration are, typically: a shared perception of new opportunities; a good idea of how to exploit them; and new connections between people to make those actions happen.”

--http://www.doorsofperception.com

SERGE LATOUCHE

DECRECIMIENTO

• la consigna del decrecimiento tiene como meta, sobre todo, insistir fuertemente en abandonar el objetivo del crecimiento por el crecimiento, [...] En todo rigor, convendría más hablar de "acrecimiento", tal como hablamos de "ateísmo”

--Serge Latouche

La apuesta por el decrecimiento

DECRECIMIENTO

CONNECTIONSLa deuda ecológica española (Balanyá, Batista, et. al.)

• Deuda ecológica – “conjunto de impactos ecológicos, sociales y monetarios que produce nuestro estilo de vida en los países empobrecidos, a través de determinados impactos ambientales que son generados debido a nuestras políticas y actividades económicas”

• Mochila ecológica – manera de pensar la “cantidad de material requerida para conseguir una unidad de producto final”

• Huella ecológica – manera de “medir la superficie necesaria para sustentar un sistema económico”

CONNECTIONS (cont.)

Slow Violence (Rob Nixon)• Waste pushed off into third world countries now encroaching on first world

territory, becoming more visible

“Beyond the Crisis: The emergence of Alternative economic practices” (Conill, Castells, et.al.)

• Decrecimiento – less production, more reduction/reuse• Doors of Perception – “nutrients” vs. “residues”• Rethinking the current economic/capitalist system

The Story of Stuff• Planned vs. perceived obsolescence

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