In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker

Affect, Materiality and Meaning Making

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, Architecture, Public, Commercial, or Industrial Buildings, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Human Geography, History, Modern, 20th Century
Cover of the book In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker by , Rowman & Littlefield International
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: ISBN: 9781783487356
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International Publication: June 22, 2017
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield International Language: English
Author:
ISBN: 9781783487356
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International
Publication: June 22, 2017
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield International
Language: English

During the Cold War military and civil defence bunkers were an evocative materialisation of deadly military stand-off. They were also a symbol of a deeply affective, pervasive anxiety about the prospect of world-destroying nuclear war. But following the sudden fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 these sites were swiftly abandoned, and exposed to both material and semantic ruination.

This volume investigates the uses and meanings now projected onto these seeming blank, derelict spaces. It explores how engagements with bunker ruins provide fertile ground for the study of improvised meaning making, place-attachment, hobby practices, social materiality and trauma studies. With its commentators ranging across the arts and humanities and the social sciences, this multi-disciplinary collection sets a concern with the phenomenological qualities of these places as contemporary ruins – and of their strange affective affordances – alongside scholarship examining how these places embody, and/or otherwise connect with their Cold War originations and purpose both materially and through memory and trauma.

Each contribution reflexively considers the process of engaging with these places – and whether via the archive or direct sensory immersion. In doing so the book broadens the bunker’s contemporary signification and contributes to theoretically informed analysis of ruination, place attachment, meaning making, and material culture.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

During the Cold War military and civil defence bunkers were an evocative materialisation of deadly military stand-off. They were also a symbol of a deeply affective, pervasive anxiety about the prospect of world-destroying nuclear war. But following the sudden fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 these sites were swiftly abandoned, and exposed to both material and semantic ruination.

This volume investigates the uses and meanings now projected onto these seeming blank, derelict spaces. It explores how engagements with bunker ruins provide fertile ground for the study of improvised meaning making, place-attachment, hobby practices, social materiality and trauma studies. With its commentators ranging across the arts and humanities and the social sciences, this multi-disciplinary collection sets a concern with the phenomenological qualities of these places as contemporary ruins – and of their strange affective affordances – alongside scholarship examining how these places embody, and/or otherwise connect with their Cold War originations and purpose both materially and through memory and trauma.

Each contribution reflexively considers the process of engaging with these places – and whether via the archive or direct sensory immersion. In doing so the book broadens the bunker’s contemporary signification and contributes to theoretically informed analysis of ruination, place attachment, meaning making, and material culture.

More books from Rowman & Littlefield International

Cover of the book Ricoeur and the Post-Structuralists by
Cover of the book Critical Perspectives on Human Rights by
Cover of the book Limit-Phenomena and Phenomenology in Husserl by
Cover of the book The Moral Psychology of Curiosity by
Cover of the book Contemporary Korean Political Thought and Park Chung-hee by
Cover of the book Political Violence in Context by
Cover of the book The Virtual Ninja Manifesto by
Cover of the book Posthuman Ecologies by
Cover of the book Protest Campaigns, Media and Political Opportunities by
Cover of the book The Birth of Austerity by
Cover of the book The Domestication of Critical Theory by
Cover of the book Little Vast Rooms of Undoing by
Cover of the book Oxi: An Act of Resistance by
Cover of the book Credo Credit Crisis by
Cover of the book Affect and Social Media by
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy