Who speaks for the future of Earth? How critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene

Loevbrand, Eva, Beck, Silke, Chilvers, Jason ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9238-1653, Forsyth, Tim, Hedren, Johan, Hulme, Mike, Lidskog, Rolf and Vasileiadou, Eleftheria (2015) Who speaks for the future of Earth? How critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene. Global Environmental Change, 32. pp. 211-218. ISSN 0959-3780

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Abstract

This paper asks how the social sciences can engage with the idea of the Anthropocene in productive ways. In response to this question we outline an interpretative research agenda that allows critical engagement with the Anthropocene as a socially and culturally bounded object with many possible meanings and political trajectories. In order to facilitate the kind of political mobilization required to meet the complex environmental challenges of our times, we argue that the social sciences should refrain from adjusting to standardized research agendas and templates. A more urgent analytical challenge lies in exposing, challenging and extending the ontological assumptions that inform how we make sense of and respond to a rapidly changing environment. By cultivating environmental research that opens up multiple interpretations of the Anthropocene, the social sciences can help to extend the realm of the possible for environmental politics.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anthropocence,politics,global environmental change,social science,critical interpretation,ontology
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2016 10:18
Last Modified:	20 Mar 2023 10:42
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/58057
DOI:	10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.012

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