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Forerunners: Ideas First
Callous Objects: Designs against the Homeless
Uncovering injustices built into our everyday surroundings
Callous Objects unearths cases in which cities push homeless people out of public spaces through a combination of policy and strategic design. Robert Rosenberger examines such commonplace devices as garbage cans, fences, signage, and benches—all of which reveal political agendas beneath the surface. Such objects have evolved, through a confluence of design and law, to be open to some uses and closed to others, but always capable of participating in collective ends on a large scale. Rosenberger brings together ideas from the philosophy of technology, social theory, and feminist epistemology to spotlight the widespread anti-homeless ideology built into our communities and enacted in law. Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.
Callous Objects unearths cases in which cities push homeless people out of public spaces through a combination of policy and strategic design. Robert Rosenberger examines such commonplace devices as garbage cans, fences, signage, and benches—all of which reveal political agendas beneath the surface. Such objects have evolved, through a confluence of design and law, to be open to some uses and closed to others, but always capable of participating in collective ends on a large scale. Rosenberger brings together ideas from the philosophy of technology, social theory, and feminist epistemology to spotlight the widespread anti-homeless ideology built into our communities and enacted in law. Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.
79 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 16, 2023
I’ve been aware of antihomelessness policies and designs, but this book lays it out so clearly and also adds in philosophy and social theory that allows a reader to think deeper. It’s a quick read, but each of the examples shows just how pervasive these designs are and the lengths taken to remove the unhoused from visible space. Technology is political, objects (and their designers) can be hostile, and the author crisply argues the need to recognize and interrogate the politics of our built environment and who it is built for.
January 1, 2023
Gets better towards the end, but sometimes I think the one thing more absurd than religious existentialism and the religious disavowal of the self- help that organized religion pushes, is the absurdity of how my generation defines discrimination.
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April 28, 2025Idk how I never noticed the ghostly imprints of heads that have rested on the walls above those shitty awful
benches in the Laurier metro
benches in the Laurier metro
April 24, 2019
i was walking through gallery place one night bc i didn't have a metro card on me and i saw a bench with a statue of a homeless person on it and it made me really angry because not only does dc truly not give a fuck about its homeless population, it now exploits them for a piece of architecture that could have actually been useful to a real person?
ive been aware of hostile architecture peripherally but this is the first time i've read anything that really analyzes when and why cities are so unfriendly to the homeless and its both making me incredibly angry and also fascinated by how much of it is purposeful
ive been aware of hostile architecture peripherally but this is the first time i've read anything that really analyzes when and why cities are so unfriendly to the homeless and its both making me incredibly angry and also fascinated by how much of it is purposeful
July 16, 2025
Callous Objects surprised me because Rosenberger devoted much of the text to abstract social theorizing, STS, and philosophy of technology. I was expecting a compendium of sorts, or an inventory of hostile architectures, but the purpose of Callous Objects was really to redefine technology itself as a non-neutral site of political struggle.
The crux: A technological instrument, like a bench, is multistable, meaning it offers a variety of alternative use-values ("stabilities") in addition to its dominant function as a platform for your ass. The relationships between the bench and various social groups are fluid ("actor-network theory"), and more powerful networks often enlist benches with "restrictionary modifications" that bolster the dominant stability while suppressing nonconformist bench-usage, like an unhoused person sleeping there. From a privileged standpoint, we're liable to overlook such modifications ("occlusion") when it's not our bench-use being suppressed. Rosenberger encourages us to view (first, to see) these benches, fire hydrants, garbage cans, etc., as imbued with systemic antihomeless violence. We must condemn these "guilty" instruments as antithetical to our moral intuitions.
Rosenberger makes a very compelling case, but Callous Objects is muddled with jargon that just feels superfluous as concepts are name-dropped and dropped out at the drop of a hat.* Because I learned a lot—frankly, because I like jargon—I didn't mind, but I can see how some readers might find it frustrating...
"Material inscriptions? Just say the thing! 'They. Made. The benches. Hard. To. Lay down on.'"
*(Well... okay that's not fair; all presented concepts retain an implicit presence. But, like, the vibe, dude.)
Set forth in brief subchapters called "Interludes" are discussions of spikes, punishment, and protest art. Each Interlude serves as a respite from abstraction during which Rosenberger introduces new, tangible dimensions of the struggle. What I especially appreciated was that each Interlude incorporated pushback—legal battles, Archisuits, paraSITEs, mass protests. This was a good choice.
A poor choice was the inclusion of a disproven hoax that China introduced dystopian pay-per-sit spike-benches at "Yantai Park". The author states that this claim was "difficult to confirm", yet he includes it anyway. To be charitable, though, NPR and The Guardian did it first. ;)
The crux: A technological instrument, like a bench, is multistable, meaning it offers a variety of alternative use-values ("stabilities") in addition to its dominant function as a platform for your ass. The relationships between the bench and various social groups are fluid ("actor-network theory"), and more powerful networks often enlist benches with "restrictionary modifications" that bolster the dominant stability while suppressing nonconformist bench-usage, like an unhoused person sleeping there. From a privileged standpoint, we're liable to overlook such modifications ("occlusion") when it's not our bench-use being suppressed. Rosenberger encourages us to view (first, to see) these benches, fire hydrants, garbage cans, etc., as imbued with systemic antihomeless violence. We must condemn these "guilty" instruments as antithetical to our moral intuitions.
Rosenberger makes a very compelling case, but Callous Objects is muddled with jargon that just feels superfluous as concepts are name-dropped and dropped out at the drop of a hat.* Because I learned a lot—frankly, because I like jargon—I didn't mind, but I can see how some readers might find it frustrating...
"Material inscriptions? Just say the thing! 'They. Made. The benches. Hard. To. Lay down on.'"
*(Well... okay that's not fair; all presented concepts retain an implicit presence. But, like, the vibe, dude.)
Set forth in brief subchapters called "Interludes" are discussions of spikes, punishment, and protest art. Each Interlude serves as a respite from abstraction during which Rosenberger introduces new, tangible dimensions of the struggle. What I especially appreciated was that each Interlude incorporated pushback—legal battles, Archisuits, paraSITEs, mass protests. This was a good choice.
A poor choice was the inclusion of a disproven hoax that China introduced dystopian pay-per-sit spike-benches at "Yantai Park". The author states that this claim was "difficult to confirm", yet he includes it anyway. To be charitable, though, NPR and The Guardian did it first. ;)
February 27, 2025
An invitation to think about the infrastructure of our society more critically, this work introduces a modernized philosophical framework and presents evidence of an anti-homeless agenda that includes a mission to criminalize homelessness and remove homeless persons from the public consciousness. Sufficient data and examples are featured to support his points, but it calls for a more complete analysis and more actionable reform propositions, even at the time of publication in 2017. However, as an introduction, it's foundational.
December 25, 2020
This short book helped me understand how the design of our communal spaces shape our behaviors in ways that, due to my conform lifestyle, is largely invisible to me but which can deeply affect other groups of people. The text is somewhat dry but the pictures helps quickly illustrate examples and makes it easy to recognize designs that you may have encountered.
July 27, 2023
like the concept but it isn’t accessible to anyone who hasn’t taken a course named or similar to “reality and human existence”
November 2, 2023
pretty good stuff, but i read it in a space of a day and now i have a headache from all the technicality and social theory.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews