Bo Allesøe Christensen

Why Do We Care about Post-humanism? A Critical Note

Abstract What is disclosed in the questioning of the human being in post‐humanism? Addressing this question in congruence with Heideggers questioning of being in Being and Time, we end up with two discoveries: first, that the characteristic of Dasein, as the being of the questioning, already carries the same implications as the post‐human figure, and second, that questioning in this sense is indicative of the effort of realizing anew scientific space for conceptualizing the human being as non‐substantialist. Conceived of in this way, however, post‐humanism is a result of a very human effort indeed.

Connecting experience and economy - aspects of disguised positioning

The focus of this article is the use of experience made within the literature of the “new” economical discipline of experience economy. By combining a methodological individualism with a causal and dehumanising picture of the process of experience, this discipline conceives economic interactions as acts of autonomy. These acts, it is claimed, are part of economical instrumental reason restructuring itself by using experiences as tools in convincing consumers that they are free to pursue their respective paths of lives. Described through the use of positioning theory, however, this turns out to be a result of an effort of equipping consumers with a new economic norm of forced positioning disguised as deliberate self-positioning.

Steps towards an integrated eco-economy: The case of Randers, Denmark

An important factor in the recent economical development of the Danish city Randers has been the project Randers Rainforest (RR). RR is a tropical zoo, which consists of an indoor exhibition within three domes, as well as an outdoor exhibition which includes the neighbouring meadows adjacent to the River Guden. RR has been an active part in creating and facilitating a multidimensional project space which combines experience economy, nature conservation, biodiversity enhancement, environmental regulation services, rural and landscape management, and food networks. RR can be interpreted as an attempt to develop an integrated eco-economy, which transcends established borders between public and private organizations, private and community enterprise and between rural and urban spatial development. The specific aim of the paper is to demonstrate how modernization has decoupled urban and rural space and has produced �left-over� spaces within both domains. It will also be demonstrated how the tropical zoo project in Randers have revalorized �left-over� qualities and reintegrated significant ecosystem services and other functions into the local economy, thus providing an overall enhancement of urban green infrastructure

Valuing Nature: Connecting Eco-Economy and the Capability Approach

Abstract This article analyses Kitchen and Marsdens eco-economy by asking whether it manages to dissolve the untenable dualism of facts and values associated with the positivistic distinction between normative and positive economy. The analysis shows that a tension still exists within eco-economy between accepting normative considerations and operating with certain welfare-economic assumptions not embracing the entanglement between facts and values. This tension is sought to be dissolved by connecting eco-economy with Amartya Sens capability approach, thereby contributing to the future development of eco-economy exemplified by the notion of entrepreneurism and policy-making.