Blubberland
Subtitle: The Dangers of Happiness (Inside Technology S.)
Publisher: The MIT Press; MIT Press
Published: March 31, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 219
ISBN-13: 9780262562362
Subjects: Cultural studies; Architecture; Archaeology / Anthropology; Anthropology - Cultural; Criticism; Environmental Conservation & Protection - General; Architecture / Criticism; Popular Culture - General; Consumption (Economics); Happiness; Popular culture
Description: "In Blubberland, award-winning critic Elizabeth Farrelly looks at our "superfluous superfluity," our huge eco-footprint, and asks why we find it so hard to abandon habits we know to be destructive. Why can't we build human-scale cities, design meaningful public spaces, eat reasonable meals, and stop assaulting nature?" "Farrelly, trained as an architect, begins this story with architecture, urban sprawl and housing, but she does not end there. She also looks at "affluenza," childhood asthma, diabetes, addiction, beauty, ugliness, narcissism, climate change, mega-churches, big box retailers, sustainability, depression, anorexia, and the links that collect all of these issues under the same roof - the roof, as it were, of the McMansion. As "big" becomes more and more pervasive, and success is seen in increasingly measurable and material terms, the goal of happiness jeopardizes our survival. Blubberland is a smart, thoughtful, and stylish argument for turning things around."--Jacket.