Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
strong a word. Dongtan is
necessary
for how people need to live in the future
when resources are limited. We need 'appropriate' models of transport and
energy.”
21
Arup's disavowal of utopianism and embrace of technocratic lan-
guage is not surprising, as the term
utopian
(or
ecotopian
) generates ambiva-
lence among engineers and mixed reactions in diff erent political and
historical contexts.
h is reaction is particularly intense in China, where utopian ideas and
political revolution have a diff erent cultural valence. Within the contempo-
rary West,
eco-utopianism
is often perceived as a dirty word, irrelevant and
dreamy, raising embarrassing memories of baby boomer self-absorption. In
rejecting utopia/ecotopia, Arup staff focuses instead on the hard-headed
pragmatism of their technical work. For Arup, their role in alleviating the
global environmental crisis is to do what they've always done best: to fi nd
innovative engineering and technology solutions. h e language of “appro-
priate models” leaves little (acknowledged) space for dreams and stories,
while expertise and specialized knowledge rule with rational and some-
times totalizing force.
Nonetheless, Arup's descriptions of Dongtan are themselves redolent of
the utopian label they run from. Rather than ecotopianism, they revel in
their own version of techno-utopianism. Embedded in this worldview is an
admiration of all that is technical, rational, and e' cient. According to one
profi le of Arup's then-deputy chairman Cecil Balmond, “engineers build
cities—the rest of us just live in them.”
22
To paraphrase, engineers and archi-
tects build eco-cities—the questions are whether anyone will live in them,
why or why not, how they will be built, what they look like, and what values
they embody.
In their writings, Arup staff celebrate their role in the “iconic and monu-
mental projects commissioned to support the Olympics,” and the fi rm
proudly boasts that more than 25 percent of its staff is located in China.
23
Arup is not alone in its view of China as its best customer, one of the few
