Understanding humans in the Anthropocene : finding answers in geoengineering and transition towns

Martindale, Leigh (2015) Understanding humans in the Anthropocene : finding answers in geoengineering and transition towns. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 33 (5). pp. 907-924. ISSN 0263-7758

Abstract

This paper argues that the approaches to global environmental change engendered by conventional environmental discourse have undermined the radical connotations of the Anthropocene. Taking direction from Clark’s (2013, Geoengineering and geologic politics. Environment and Planning A 45(12): 2825–2832; 2014, Geo-politics and the disaster of the Anthropocene. The Sociological Review 62: 19–37) concept of geological politics, this paper attempts to rescue the discourses surrounding geoengineering and Transition Towns from dated environmental understandings. By demonstrating how our understanding of a human being-in-the-world can change in the Anthropocene, this paper argues that an experimental and material form of politics needs to shape the agenda of social scientists. Using this experimental perspective, this paper offers the creative example of how Transition Towns may become concordant with local geoengineering practices. Using this example to highlight how environmental discourse in the Anthropocene needs to encompass cross-societal formation with the more-than-human elements of our planet, this paper argues for material experimentation that concerns community participation and socio-technical innovation.