Gregory Bateson, Long Sixties, Ecological Consciousness

Show notes

In this conversation, we look at Gregory Bateson’s role within the broader 1960s conversations on cultural and ecological change. In order to do so, we will revisit what Chaney identifies as the long 1960s, particularly the sites where explorations on finding better ways to engage questions of systems change at social, environmental and political levels were underway. By using the Dialectics of Liberation Congress as a focus point, we will discuss multiple ways Bateson’s ideas, such as the ‘double bind’ started to resonate with broader explorations in art such as in the work of Allen Ginsberg, as well as other cultural discussions related to concepts such as catch-22 or the absurd. Another point of focus would be the ways in which Bateson’s approach to addressing change set him apart from how the ‘culturalists’ and ‘structuralists’ of the period approached the topic.

The double bind is one way of understanding the destructive relationship between design activities and the environment in which they are embedded, explaining the ongoing impasse where progress remains piecemeal despite broad agreement on the urgency of environmental action. We will see how Bateson’s explorations around the double bind and change in the 60s can inform these discussions.