BLOCK

BLOCK was a hugely influential journal in the developing fields of Visual and Cultural Studies. The journal’s editors and contributors sought to further the critical tradition in art history, respond to the work of contemporary artists, and bring the concerns of new cultural and critical theory, particularly feminist and post-colonial theory, to the study of art and design history. Classic writings by leading cultural theorists and artists which were first published in the journal, to provide an invaluable resource for the teaching and study of art and design history and theory and cultural studies are brought together in The Block Reader (1996)

FUTURES: New Perspectives for Cultural Analysis – A Routledge series edited by BLOCK:

Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change, edited by Jon Bird, Barry Curtis, Tim Putnam, Lisa Tickner (Routledge, 1993)

There are now new experiences of space and time; new tensions between globalism and regionalism, socialism and consumerism, reality and spectacle; new instabilities of value, meaning and identity – a dialectic between past and future. How are we to understand these? Mapping the Futures is the first of a series which brings together cultural theorists from different disciplines to assess the implications of economic, political and social change for intellectual inquiry and cultural practice.

Travellers’ Tales: Narratives of Home and Displacement Edited by Jon Bird, Barry Curtis, Melinda Mash, Tim Putnam, George Robertson, Lisa Tickner (Routledge, 1994)

An investigation into the future of travelling in a world where boundaries are shifting and dissolving. Amongst the issues covered are politics and identity, history and narration and the representation of other cultures.

Futurenatural: Nature, Science, Culture Edited by Jon Bird, Barry Curtis, Melinda Mash, George Robertson, Lisa Tickner (Routledge, 1996)

’FutureNatural is a fascinating anthology that largely carries out its editorial brief of discussing how to speak of and about the future of ‘nature’ in political and cultural approaches these essays reflect very well the complex scientific and cultural debates that swirl about in popular culture and academia.’ – Australian Feminist Studies, 1999, No 29

’A collection well worth reading for its diversity and insights.’ – Bettina Lange, Capital & Class

We are living in an age when ‘nature’ seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, ‘nature’ is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate. Futurenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of ‘nature’ – its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments in biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphores that have material effects in transforming ‘ways of seeing’ and `structures of feeling’. The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and the environment can take place without reference to ‘nature’ or the `natural’. This collection considers how we might ‘think’ a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the ‘natural’ ?