ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors draw upon the concept of cosmopolitanism — i.e. a “dynamic and sustainable system of relations between subjects, objects and their environment” — to study their precarious and contradictory productive-yet-consumptive relations with the commons. They offer some curricular and pedagogical implications for studying mediated representations of consuming, producing, protesting, and politicking a beautiful destruction in the classroom. Since the “great Canadian oil patch”, a distinct branch of the country’s economy, resides on Alberta territory, its royalties belong to the province. Transportation of oil for refining is important aspect of the history of oil sands. L. Helbig’s photographs provide a curricular canvas for teachers and students to reimagine the impacts of economic production and material consumption. The authors seek to understand different mediated representations in relation to concepts such as settler colonialism, ecojustice, cosmopolitanism, and aesthetics.
