Anthropocene Encounters: New Directions in Green Political Thinking
Cambridge University Press, 2/7/2019
EAN 9781108740418, ISBN10: 1108740413
Paperback, 272 pages, 24.7 x 17.4 x 1.2 cm
Language: English
Coined barely two decades ago, the Anthropocene has become one of the most influential and controversial terms in environmental policy. Yet it remains an ambivalent and contested formulation, giving rise to a multitude of unexpected, and often uncomfortable, conversations. This book traces in detail a broad variety of such 'Anthropocene encounters': in science, philosophy and literary fiction. It asks what it means to 'think green' in a time when nature no longer offers a stable backdrop to political analysis. Do familiar political categories and concepts, such as democracy, justice, power and time, hold when confronted with a world radically transformed by humans? The book responds by inviting more radical political thought, plural forms of engagement, and extended ethical commitments, making it a fascinating and timely volume for graduate students and researchers working in earth system governance, environmental politics and studies of the Anthropocene. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.
List of figures
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
1. Encountering the 'Anthropocene'
setting the scene Frank Biermann and Eva Lövbrand
Part I. The Conceptual Politics of the Anthropocene
Science, Philosophy, and Culture
2. The 'Anthropocene' in global change science
expertise, the Earth, and the future of humanity Noel Castree
3. The 'Anthropocene' in philosophy
the neo-material Turn and the question of nature Manuel Arias-Maldonado
4. The 'Anthropocene' in popular culture
narrating human agency, force and our place on Earth Alexandra Nikoleris, Johannes Stripple and Paul Tenngart
Part II. Key Concepts and the Anthropocene
A Reconsideration
5. Power, world politics and thing-systems in the Anthropocene Anthony Burke and Stefanie Fishel
6. Time and politics in the Anthropocene
to fast, too slow? Victor Galaz
7. Democracy in the Anthropocene AyÅŸem Mert
8. Global justice and the Anthropocene
reproducing a development story Jeremy Baskin
Part III. The Practices of Political Study in the Anthropocene
9. The 'Good Anthropocene' and green political theory
rethinking environmentalism, resisting ecomodernism Anne Fremaux and John Barry
10. Co-producing knowledge and politics of the Anthropocene
the case of the future Earth program Silke Beck
11. The ethics of political research in the Anthropocene Paul Wapner
12. Epilogue
continuity and change in the Anthropocene James Meadowcroft
Index.