Cosmologies of the Anthropocene

Cosmologies of the Anthropocene

Author: Arne Johan Vetlesen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-28

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 0429594097

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This book engages with the classic philosophical question of mind and matter, seeking to show its altered meaning and acuteness in the era of the Anthropocene. Arguing that matter, and, more broadly, the natural world, has been misconceived since Descartes, it explores the devastating impact that this has had in practice in the West. As such, alternatives are needed, whether philosophical ones such as those offered by figures such as Whitehead and Nagel, or posthumanist ones such as those developed by Barad and Latour. Drawing on recent anthropological work ignored by philosophers and sociologists alike, the author considers a radical alternative cosmology: animism understood as panpsychism in practice. This understanding of mind and matter, of culture and nature, is then turned against present-day posthumanist critiques of what the Anthropocene amounts to, showing them up as philosophically misguided, politically mute, and ethically wanting. A ground-breaking reconceptualization of the natural world and our treatment of it, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, philosophy and anthropology with interests in our understanding of and relationship with nature.


Book Synopsis Cosmologies of the Anthropocene by : Arne Johan Vetlesen

Download or read book Cosmologies of the Anthropocene written by Arne Johan Vetlesen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-28 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book engages with the classic philosophical question of mind and matter, seeking to show its altered meaning and acuteness in the era of the Anthropocene. Arguing that matter, and, more broadly, the natural world, has been misconceived since Descartes, it explores the devastating impact that this has had in practice in the West. As such, alternatives are needed, whether philosophical ones such as those offered by figures such as Whitehead and Nagel, or posthumanist ones such as those developed by Barad and Latour. Drawing on recent anthropological work ignored by philosophers and sociologists alike, the author considers a radical alternative cosmology: animism understood as panpsychism in practice. This understanding of mind and matter, of culture and nature, is then turned against present-day posthumanist critiques of what the Anthropocene amounts to, showing them up as philosophically misguided, politically mute, and ethically wanting. A ground-breaking reconceptualization of the natural world and our treatment of it, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, philosophy and anthropology with interests in our understanding of and relationship with nature.

Ethics and Politics of Space for the Anthropocene

Ethics and Politics of Space for the Anthropocene

Author: Anu Valtonen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2020-10-30

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1839108703

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Featuring an international, multidisciplinary set of contributors, this thought-provoking book reimagines established narratives of the Anthropocene to allow differences in regions and contexts to be taken seriously, emphasising the importance of localised and situated knowledge. It offers critical engagement with the debates around the Anthropocene by challenging the dominant techno-rational agenda that often prevails in socio-political and academic discussions.


Book Synopsis Ethics and Politics of Space for the Anthropocene by : Anu Valtonen

Download or read book Ethics and Politics of Space for the Anthropocene written by Anu Valtonen and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring an international, multidisciplinary set of contributors, this thought-provoking book reimagines established narratives of the Anthropocene to allow differences in regions and contexts to be taken seriously, emphasising the importance of localised and situated knowledge. It offers critical engagement with the debates around the Anthropocene by challenging the dominant techno-rational agenda that often prevails in socio-political and academic discussions.

Urgency in the Anthropocene

Urgency in the Anthropocene

Author: Amanda H. Lynch

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-11-13

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0262038706

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A proposal to reframe the Anthropocene as an age of actual and emerging coexistence with earth system variability, encompassing both human dignity and environmental sustainability. Is this the Anthropocene, the age in which humans have become a geological force, leaving indelible signs of their activities on the earth? The narrative of the Anthropocene so far is characterized by extremes, emergencies, and exceptions—a tale of apocalypse by our own hands. The sense of ongoing crisis emboldens policy and governance responses that challenge established systems of sovereignty and law. The once unacceptable—geoengineering technology, for example, or authoritarian decision making—are now anticipated and even demanded by some. To counter this, Amanda Lynch and Siri Veland propose a reframing of the Anthropocene—seeing it not as a race against catastrophe but as an age of emerging coexistence with earth system variability. Lynch and Veland examine the interplay between our new state of ostensible urgency and the means by which this urgency is identified and addressed. They examine how societies, including Indigenous societies, have understood such interplays; explore how extreme weather and climate weave into the Anthropocene narrative; consider the tension between the short time scale of disasters and the longer time scale of sustainability; and discuss both international and national approaches to Anthropocene governance. Finally, they argue for an Anthropocene of coexistence that embraces both human dignity and sustainability.


Book Synopsis Urgency in the Anthropocene by : Amanda H. Lynch

Download or read book Urgency in the Anthropocene written by Amanda H. Lynch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A proposal to reframe the Anthropocene as an age of actual and emerging coexistence with earth system variability, encompassing both human dignity and environmental sustainability. Is this the Anthropocene, the age in which humans have become a geological force, leaving indelible signs of their activities on the earth? The narrative of the Anthropocene so far is characterized by extremes, emergencies, and exceptions—a tale of apocalypse by our own hands. The sense of ongoing crisis emboldens policy and governance responses that challenge established systems of sovereignty and law. The once unacceptable—geoengineering technology, for example, or authoritarian decision making—are now anticipated and even demanded by some. To counter this, Amanda Lynch and Siri Veland propose a reframing of the Anthropocene—seeing it not as a race against catastrophe but as an age of emerging coexistence with earth system variability. Lynch and Veland examine the interplay between our new state of ostensible urgency and the means by which this urgency is identified and addressed. They examine how societies, including Indigenous societies, have understood such interplays; explore how extreme weather and climate weave into the Anthropocene narrative; consider the tension between the short time scale of disasters and the longer time scale of sustainability; and discuss both international and national approaches to Anthropocene governance. Finally, they argue for an Anthropocene of coexistence that embraces both human dignity and sustainability.

Fundamentals for the Anthropocene

Fundamentals for the Anthropocene

Author: Jack Pearce

Publisher: De Gruyter Open

Published: 2018-05-26

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 9783110567304

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This book seeks to bridge the gap between leading edge scholarship about the nature of the physical, tangible Universe and the nature of the life process on Earth on the one hand, and on the other hand challenges facing human society as to the current revolution in energy sources, national and international levels of political and economic organization, and humanity's impacts upon the global ecosystem which have given rise to the depiction of a new era in earthlife termed the "anthropocene". The author's public career included responsibilities for economic policy formulation and implementation at the United States Department of Justice, the United States Agency for International Development, and a White House Office of Consumer Affairs. This provided an elevated overview of many current economic and political issues. These responsibilities stimulated a multi-decade exploration of leading academics' insights into the relational structuring of the Universe, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, complexity in the universe, and the structure of the life process. This book applies such fundamental insights to the question whether humanity will succeed or fail in its ambitious but uncertain quest.


Book Synopsis Fundamentals for the Anthropocene by : Jack Pearce

Download or read book Fundamentals for the Anthropocene written by Jack Pearce and published by De Gruyter Open. This book was released on 2018-05-26 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to bridge the gap between leading edge scholarship about the nature of the physical, tangible Universe and the nature of the life process on Earth on the one hand, and on the other hand challenges facing human society as to the current revolution in energy sources, national and international levels of political and economic organization, and humanity's impacts upon the global ecosystem which have given rise to the depiction of a new era in earthlife termed the "anthropocene". The author's public career included responsibilities for economic policy formulation and implementation at the United States Department of Justice, the United States Agency for International Development, and a White House Office of Consumer Affairs. This provided an elevated overview of many current economic and political issues. These responsibilities stimulated a multi-decade exploration of leading academics' insights into the relational structuring of the Universe, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, complexity in the universe, and the structure of the life process. This book applies such fundamental insights to the question whether humanity will succeed or fail in its ambitious but uncertain quest.

The Task of Philosophy in the Anthropocene

The Task of Philosophy in the Anthropocene

Author: Richard Polt

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-04-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1786605562

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The so-called anthropocene is one of the most widely discussed concepts in philosophy and critical theory at the moment. This volume takes a broad historical view of the topic, bringing together high profile theorists, including Luce Irigaray and Adrian Parr, providing a platform for highly original work in this important and timely field.


Book Synopsis The Task of Philosophy in the Anthropocene by : Richard Polt

Download or read book The Task of Philosophy in the Anthropocene written by Richard Polt and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The so-called anthropocene is one of the most widely discussed concepts in philosophy and critical theory at the moment. This volume takes a broad historical view of the topic, bringing together high profile theorists, including Luce Irigaray and Adrian Parr, providing a platform for highly original work in this important and timely field.

Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene

Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene

Author: Earl T. Harper

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-28

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1000453502

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Bringing together scholars from English literature, geography, politics, the arts, environmental humanities and sociology, Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene contributes to the emerging debate between bodies of thought first incepted by scholars such as Mouffe, Whyte, Kaplan, Hunt, Swyngedouw and Malm about how apocalyptic events, narratives and imaginaries interact with societal and individual agency historically and in the current political moment. Exploring their own empirical and philosophical contexts, the authors examine the forms of political acting found in apocalyptic imaginaries and reflect on what this means for contemporary society. By framing their arguments around either pre-apocalyptic, peri-apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic narratives and events, a timeline emerges throughout the volume which shows the different opportunities for political agency the anthropocenic subject can enact at the various stages of apocalyptic moments. Featuring a number of creative interventions exclusively produced for the work from artists and fiction writers who engage with the themes of apocalypse, decline, catastrophe and disaster, this innovative book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the politics of climate change, the environmental humanities, literary criticism and eco-criticism.


Book Synopsis Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene by : Earl T. Harper

Download or read book Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene written by Earl T. Harper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together scholars from English literature, geography, politics, the arts, environmental humanities and sociology, Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene contributes to the emerging debate between bodies of thought first incepted by scholars such as Mouffe, Whyte, Kaplan, Hunt, Swyngedouw and Malm about how apocalyptic events, narratives and imaginaries interact with societal and individual agency historically and in the current political moment. Exploring their own empirical and philosophical contexts, the authors examine the forms of political acting found in apocalyptic imaginaries and reflect on what this means for contemporary society. By framing their arguments around either pre-apocalyptic, peri-apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic narratives and events, a timeline emerges throughout the volume which shows the different opportunities for political agency the anthropocenic subject can enact at the various stages of apocalyptic moments. Featuring a number of creative interventions exclusively produced for the work from artists and fiction writers who engage with the themes of apocalypse, decline, catastrophe and disaster, this innovative book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the politics of climate change, the environmental humanities, literary criticism and eco-criticism.

New Earth Histories

New Earth Histories

Author: Alison Bashford

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0226828603

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"This book brings the history of the geosciences and world cosmologies together, exploring many traditions, including Chinese, South and Southeast Asian, Pacific, Islamic, and Indigenous conceptions of earth's origin and makeup. Together the chapters ask: How have different ideas about the sacred, animate, and earthly changed modern environmental science? How have different world traditions understood human and geological origins? How does the inclusion of multiple cosmologies change the meaning of the Anthropocene and the ongoing global climate crisis? By thinking carefully through and with other cosmologies, New Earth Histories sets a new agenda for history. The chapters consider debates about the age and structure of the earth, how humans and earth systems interact, and empire is conceived in multiple traditions. The methods the authors deploy are diverse-from cultural history, visual and material studies, and ethnography, to name a few-and the effect is to highlight how earth knowledge emerged from historically specific situations. New Earth Histories provides both a framework for studying science at a global scale and fascinating examples to educate as well as inspire future work. Essential reading for students and scholars of earth science history, environmental humanities, history of science and religion, and science and empire"--


Book Synopsis New Earth Histories by : Alison Bashford

Download or read book New Earth Histories written by Alison Bashford and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book brings the history of the geosciences and world cosmologies together, exploring many traditions, including Chinese, South and Southeast Asian, Pacific, Islamic, and Indigenous conceptions of earth's origin and makeup. Together the chapters ask: How have different ideas about the sacred, animate, and earthly changed modern environmental science? How have different world traditions understood human and geological origins? How does the inclusion of multiple cosmologies change the meaning of the Anthropocene and the ongoing global climate crisis? By thinking carefully through and with other cosmologies, New Earth Histories sets a new agenda for history. The chapters consider debates about the age and structure of the earth, how humans and earth systems interact, and empire is conceived in multiple traditions. The methods the authors deploy are diverse-from cultural history, visual and material studies, and ethnography, to name a few-and the effect is to highlight how earth knowledge emerged from historically specific situations. New Earth Histories provides both a framework for studying science at a global scale and fascinating examples to educate as well as inspire future work. Essential reading for students and scholars of earth science history, environmental humanities, history of science and religion, and science and empire"--

Cosmotechnics

Cosmotechnics

Author: Yuk Hui

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-05-18

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1000396363

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This volume is initial reflections on the meaning and the implications of Yuk Hui’s notion of cosmotechnics, which opens up an anti-universalist and pluralist perspective on technology beyond the West. Martin Heidegger’s famous analysis of the essence of technology as enframing and as rooted in ancient Greek techne has had a crucial influence on the understanding and critique of technological society and culture in the twentieth century. However, it is still unclear to what extent his analysis can also be applied to the development of technology outside of ‘the West’, e.g. in China, Africa, and Latin America, particularly against the backdrop of receding Western domination and impending global ecological disaster. Acknowledging the planetary expansion of Western technology already observed by Heidegger, yet also recognizing the existence of non-Western origins of technical relationships to the cosmos, Yuk Hui’s notion of cosmotechnics calls for a rethinking – in dialogue with decolonial studies and the so-called ontological turn in contemporary anthropology – of the question concerning technology which challenges the universality still present in Heidegger (as well as in Simondon and Stiegler) and proposes a radical technological or rather cosmotechnical pluralism or technodiversity. The contributors to this volume critically engage with this proposal and examine the possible implications of Hui’s cosmotechnical turn in thinking about technology as it becomes a planetary force in our current age of the Anthropocene. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Angelaki.


Book Synopsis Cosmotechnics by : Yuk Hui

Download or read book Cosmotechnics written by Yuk Hui and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is initial reflections on the meaning and the implications of Yuk Hui’s notion of cosmotechnics, which opens up an anti-universalist and pluralist perspective on technology beyond the West. Martin Heidegger’s famous analysis of the essence of technology as enframing and as rooted in ancient Greek techne has had a crucial influence on the understanding and critique of technological society and culture in the twentieth century. However, it is still unclear to what extent his analysis can also be applied to the development of technology outside of ‘the West’, e.g. in China, Africa, and Latin America, particularly against the backdrop of receding Western domination and impending global ecological disaster. Acknowledging the planetary expansion of Western technology already observed by Heidegger, yet also recognizing the existence of non-Western origins of technical relationships to the cosmos, Yuk Hui’s notion of cosmotechnics calls for a rethinking – in dialogue with decolonial studies and the so-called ontological turn in contemporary anthropology – of the question concerning technology which challenges the universality still present in Heidegger (as well as in Simondon and Stiegler) and proposes a radical technological or rather cosmotechnical pluralism or technodiversity. The contributors to this volume critically engage with this proposal and examine the possible implications of Hui’s cosmotechnical turn in thinking about technology as it becomes a planetary force in our current age of the Anthropocene. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Angelaki.

Narratives of Scale in the Anthropocene

Narratives of Scale in the Anthropocene

Author: Gabriele Dürbeck

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-07-26

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1000432483

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The Anthropocene concept draws attention to the various forms of entanglement of social, political, ecological, biological and geological processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The ensuing complexity and ambiguity create manifold challenges to widely established theories, methodologies, epistemologies and ontologies. The contributions to this volume engage with conceptual issues of scale in the Anthropocene with a focus on mediated representation and narrative. They are centered around the themes of scale and time, scale and the nonhuman and scale and space. The volume presents an interdisciplinary dialogue between sociology, geography, political sciences, history and literary, cultural and media studies. Together, they contribute to current debates on the (re-)imagining of forms of human responsibility that meet the challenges created by humanity entering an age of scalar complexity. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003136989


Book Synopsis Narratives of Scale in the Anthropocene by : Gabriele Dürbeck

Download or read book Narratives of Scale in the Anthropocene written by Gabriele Dürbeck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-26 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anthropocene concept draws attention to the various forms of entanglement of social, political, ecological, biological and geological processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The ensuing complexity and ambiguity create manifold challenges to widely established theories, methodologies, epistemologies and ontologies. The contributions to this volume engage with conceptual issues of scale in the Anthropocene with a focus on mediated representation and narrative. They are centered around the themes of scale and time, scale and the nonhuman and scale and space. The volume presents an interdisciplinary dialogue between sociology, geography, political sciences, history and literary, cultural and media studies. Together, they contribute to current debates on the (re-)imagining of forms of human responsibility that meet the challenges created by humanity entering an age of scalar complexity. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003136989

Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature

Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature

Author: Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-22

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1003815952

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This book presents an innovative and imaginative reading of contemporary Australian literature in the context of unprecedented ecological crisis. The Australian continent has seen significant, rapid changes to its cultures and land-use from the impact of British colonial rule, yet there is a rich history of Indigenous land-ethics and cosmological thought. By using the age-old idea of ‘cosmos’—the order of the world—to foreground ideas of a good order and chaos, reciprocity and more-than-human agency, this book interrogates the Anthropocene in Australia, focusing on notions of colonisation, farming, mining, bioethics, technology, environmental justice and sovereignty. It offers ‘cosmological readings’ of a diverse range of authors—Indigenous and non-Indigenous—as a challenge to the Anthropocene’s decline-narrative. As a result, it reactivates ‘cosmos’ as an ethical vision and a transculturally important counter-concept to the Anthropocene. Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell argues that the arts can help us envision radical cosmologies of being in and with the planet, and to address the very real social and environmental problems of our era. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Ecocriticism, Environmental Humanities, and postcolonial, transcultural and Indigenous studies, with a primary focus on Australian, New Zealand, Oceanic and Pacific area studies.


Book Synopsis Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature by : Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell

Download or read book Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature written by Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an innovative and imaginative reading of contemporary Australian literature in the context of unprecedented ecological crisis. The Australian continent has seen significant, rapid changes to its cultures and land-use from the impact of British colonial rule, yet there is a rich history of Indigenous land-ethics and cosmological thought. By using the age-old idea of ‘cosmos’—the order of the world—to foreground ideas of a good order and chaos, reciprocity and more-than-human agency, this book interrogates the Anthropocene in Australia, focusing on notions of colonisation, farming, mining, bioethics, technology, environmental justice and sovereignty. It offers ‘cosmological readings’ of a diverse range of authors—Indigenous and non-Indigenous—as a challenge to the Anthropocene’s decline-narrative. As a result, it reactivates ‘cosmos’ as an ethical vision and a transculturally important counter-concept to the Anthropocene. Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell argues that the arts can help us envision radical cosmologies of being in and with the planet, and to address the very real social and environmental problems of our era. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Ecocriticism, Environmental Humanities, and postcolonial, transcultural and Indigenous studies, with a primary focus on Australian, New Zealand, Oceanic and Pacific area studies.