On 19 May 2026, CETE-P organised the second edition of Climate Dialogues entitled “Ecological Solidarities”, which brought together two important voices in environmental philosophy: Alexis Shotwell and Michael Marder. In their public talks, Shotwell and Marder considered what it means to think and act in solidarity with beings that, when approached from the anthropocentric perspective, seem neither to speak nor to reciprocate, and how attention to unevenly distributed vulnerability reshapes ethical and political responsibility. Shotwell and Marder considered solidarity in more-than-human constellations and asked what happens to solidarity when all beings (both human and other-than-human) are faced with multiple ecological crises.
Michael Marder spoke about “solidarity of beings reduced to their mass” (“solidarity of weight”), where “mass” and “gravity” are something that all entities share, while Alexis Shotwell focused on difference (“aspirational solidarity across difference”) and spoke about solidarity of action, a “solidarity work” that moves towards a shared vision of a common world.
In a conversation with each other, facilitated by Iwona Janicka (CETE-P), the two thinkers considered what would their concepts of solidarity mean for politics and political practice in the context of ecological crisis, how would their political subjects be defined and what would count as a political action.
What is more, Alexis Shotwell and Michael Marder touched on the question of spirituality. They discussed the role of spirituality in their conceptions of solidarity and whether we need a new religion to transition from our modern approaches to the world to the more ecological ones. The two thinkers discussed also the compatibility of their concepts of solidarity and posed questions to each other. In the Q&A with the public, Shotwell and Marder answered questions about accelerationism, the influence of Donna Haraway on their concepts, the complexity of the idea of “shared interests” and how liveable more-than-human ecological futures can be ensured. The event took place at Edison Filmhub Prague.

Climate Dialogues is an annual series of honorary lectures – a signature event for CETE-P – that brings two internationally distinguished scholars to Prague to discuss philosophy, politics and ethics in light of climate crisis and propose new ways of thinking about our world today.

The event was followed on the next day (20 May 2026) by a workshop with Michael Marder and Alexis Shotwell called Metabolize, Prefigure, Articulate! Practicing Solidarity in the Face of Ecological Crisis.

On 21 May 2026 Alexis Shotwell gave a workshop entitled Suffering-Free Academic Writing. 

Photos: Anna Šolcová