Scarcity and Agency

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 Based on the etymological derivation from the medieval French term escarceté, denoting an insufficiency of supply.2 "Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment," a trans-European project funded by HERA and led by Jeremy Till, 2010-13. With teams from University of Westminster, London (Jon Goodbun, Deljana Iossifova, Isis Nunez-Ferrara, Jeremy Till), TU Vienna (Michael Klein, Georg Kolmayr, Andreas Rumpfhuber), and AHO, Oslo (Barbara Ascher, Christian Hermansen, Arna Mathiesen, Edward Robbins). See www.scibe.eu.3 Nicholas Xenos, Scarcity and Modernity (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), 35.4 T. R. Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 280. In this, he argues that if one attempts to alleviate poverty, as was being proposed in the contemporaneous Poor Laws, then population growth will follow, which in turn will lead to scarcities. Malthus's solution is to leave the poor alone: "the poor are the arbiters of their own destiny," he writes, "and what others can do for them is like dust in the balance compared to what they can do for themselves." Let scarcity regulate poverty; it is both the origin of poverty and the effective instrument against any population growth that might arise out of the alleviation of poverty.5 Lionel Robbins, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (London: Macmillan, 1932), 40.6 For a good critique of the myths around the austerity regimes, see Carys Afoko and Daniel Vockins, Framing the Economy: The Austerity Story (London: New Economics Foundation, 2013).7 Most clearly and concisely in Jon Goodbun and others, The Design of Scarcity (Moscow: Strelka, 2013). The research project is SCIBE.8 These terms (relational, sociomaterial, transcalar, and contextual) are further explained and then illustrated on the project website, www.scarcity.is.9 Mike Davis, "Fear and Money in Dubai," New Left Review 41 (2006): 47.10 Jeremy Till, "Scarcity Contra Austerity: Places: Design Observer," Places, 2012, http://places.designobserver.com/feature/scarcity-contra-austerity/35638/, accessed September 13, 2013.11 This is the headline of The Scarcity Project, an installation by the designer Paulo Goldstein at Central Saint Martins, September 2013. See http://paulogoldstein.com/The-Scarcity-Project. These terms are expanded on and illustrated on the website www.scarcity.is.12 See, for example, Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity (London: Marion Boyars, 1974).13 Anthony Giddens, Social Theory and Modern Sociology (Cambridge: Polity, 1987), 220.14 Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider, and Jeremy Till, Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture (London: Routledge, 2011).15 For details of the Kenyan school, see www.waterbanks.org.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJeremy TillJeremy Till is an architect, educator, and writer. He is Head of Central Saint Martins and Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of the Arts London. His extensive written work includes Flexible Housing (with Tatjana Schneider, 2007), Architecture Depends (2009), and Spatial Agency (with Nishat Awan and Tatjana Schneider, 2011). All three of these won the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding Research. As an architect, he worked with Sarah Wigglesworth Architects on their pioneering building, 9 Stock Orchard Street, which won the RIBA Sustainability Prize

Agency (philosophy) · Economic history · Economics · Political science · Population · Poverty · Scarcity · Social science · Sociology · Demography · Economic Theory and Policy · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political Economy and Marxism

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