Manifest dismantling is creative purposiveness that redirects, not abandons, work.

Evidence

I am interested in manifest dismantling as a form of purposiveness bound up with remediation, something that requires us to give up the idea that progress can only face forward blindly. It provides a new direction for our work ethic. Remediation certainly takes the same amount of work: in this case, a dam that had taken three years to build took close to the same amount of time to remove. The word “innovation” came up a lot in coverage of the San Clemente Dam removal, since it not only required significant design and engineering, but also unprecedented cooperation and consultation among engineers, scientists, lawyers, local agencies, state agencies, nonprofits, and members of the Ohlone Esselen tribe. Seen through the lens of manifest dismantling, tearing down the dam is indeed a creative act, one that does put something new in the world, even if it’s putting it back. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 643

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core quoted definition of manifest dismantling as purposiveness bound to remediation, taking work seriously rather than withdrawing.
• XREF: Plays off the historical phrase ‘manifest destiny,’ useful as a contronym the reader flagged in the reading purpose.