Bard College Berlin News
Prof. Dr. Agata Lisiak gives lecture on "Rosa Luxemburg’s Political Ecology and the Feminist Politics of Life Affirmation" in Vienna
Rosa Luxemburg argued that “only the continuous and progressive disintegration of non-capitalist organizations makes accumulation of capital possible," noting that the state enables and supports capitalist domination over subsistence economies by imposing new structures of ownership and dispossession, Lisiak states.
Lisiak looked closely at Rosa Luxemburg’s herbarium and gardening practices, proposing we consider them as manifestations of "plant companionship," a term she uses to describe the practice of noticing plant life and acknowledging it for what it is, caring for and about it, protecting and defending it, and remaining humbly open to what we do not (yet) know about it.
Inspired by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s ‘arts of noticing,’ Lisiak combed through Luxemburg’s botanical notebooks, letters, and political and economic writings to reveal the ongoing relevance of her political ecology. This uncovers Luxemburg’s extended understanding of companionship – or comradeship – in struggles for justice, one that includes caring relations with the nonhuman world. Such a reading of Luxemburg’s work opens up the interlaced genealogies of two most pressing causes of our time – human liberation and earth liberation – and expands their geographical horizons. To further tease out the resistance dimension of plant companionship, Lisiak turns to contemporary artist-researchers who have been engaging with plants in formally inventive, careful, and participatory ways: Milena Bonilla, Marwa Arsanios, and Jumana Manna.
Post Date: 05-22-2025