In the organizer's words:

Lecture by Simon Schaupp
Followed by a discussion with Hans-Christian von Herrmann and Alexander Karschnia

Thanks to Brecht's "Saint Joan", the slaughterhouses of Chicago are still familiar to many today. However, the importance of these meat factories can hardly be overestimated: They were not only the site of fierce labor disputes, but also a hotbed of revolutionary technical innovations for this very reason: Both the assembly line and refrigeration technology were developed here. The meat industry is a paradigmatic place for what Simon Schaupp calls "metabolic politics": The world of work as a political arena in which social relations of nature are negotiated. Not only the recalcitrance of work, but also the recalcitrance of nature, for example in the form of rotting animal bodies, have significantly shaped the history of work. With this perspective, Schaupp opens up an understanding of work as a central place of causation and also of dealing with the escalating ecological crisis.