New Rural (Albert Kirchengast)

While everyone is talking about multiple crises, the economy continues to grow (green), AI promises to reduce complexity, and wars rage, this book takes a stand: it calls for a new relationship with nature and human nature beyond extractivism and tourism. The authors argue for a fundamental change in mentality, for a new rurality. Urban virtues such as freedom, reason, and intimacy must be rethought and relived with an eye to the forgotten rural spaces. Could a change in our everyday life decentralized, beyond globalisation and consumption offer a viable alternative? And what might it look like? New Rural is not a conventional anthology. It is a choreography of various essays and positions that invites us to engage with the material realities of everyday life in new ways.

With photo series by Ralf Mecke and Elfie Semotan

• Latest volume in the publication series on the aesthetics and design of the landscape
• With the manifesto "New Rurality,"
• Interdisciplinary exchange on critical rural literature, decentralized architecture, and post-growth economies

Albert Kirchengast is professor of architectural theory at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and author/editor of numerous specialist books.

Simon Strauß is an author, cultural editor at F.A.Z., and founder and board member of the non-profit association Arbeit an Europa e.V.