The Anthropocene Debate and Political Science
Routledge Research in Global Environmental Governance Series

Anthropocene has become an environmental buzzword. It denotes a new geological epoch that is human?dominated. As mounting scientific evidence reveals, humankind has fundamentally altered atmospheric, geological, hydrological, biospheric, and other Earth system processes to an extent that the risk of an irreversible system change emerges. Human societies must therefore change direction and navigate away from critical tipping points in the various ecosystems of our planet. This hypothesis has kicked off a debate not only on the geoscientific definition of the Anthropocene era, but increasingly also in the social sciences. However, the specific contribution of the social sciences disciplines and in particular that of political science still needs to be fully established.

This edited volume analyzes, from a political science perspective, the wider social dynamics underlying the ecological and geological changes, as well as their implications for governance and politics in the Anthropocene. The focus is on two questions: (1) What is the contribution of political science to the Anthropocene debate, e.g. in terms of identified problems, answers, and solutions? (2) What are the conceptual and practical implications of the Anthropocene debate for the discipline of political science?

Overall, this book contributes to the Anthropocene debate by providing novel theoretical and conceptual accounts of the Anthropocene, engaging with contemporary politics and policy-making in the Anthropocene, and offering a critical reflection on the Anthropocene debate as such. The volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: A Political Science Perspective on the Anthropocene

Thomas Hickmann, Lena Partzsch, Philipp Pattberg and Sabine Weiland

I Theories and Concepts

2. A Natural History for the 21st century: Rethinking the Anthropocene Narrative with Arendt and Adorno

Maike Weißpflug

3. Disentangling Descriptions and Responses to the Anthropocene: Norms and Implications of Scientific Representations of the Earth System

Johannes Lundershausen

4. The Anthropocene and Governance: Critical Reflections on Conceptual Relations

Basil Bornemann

5. International Theory in the Anthropocene: Moving beyond Species, State, and Governance

Franziska Müller

II Governance and Practices

6. Security Studies and the Discourse on the Anthropocene: Shortcomings, Challenges, and Opportunities

Judith Nora Hardt

7. Global Climate Governance as Boundary Object: Making the Meaning of the Anthropocene

Lukas Hermwille

8. From ‘Talking the Talk" to "Walking the Walk"? Multi-Level Global Governance of the Anthropocene in Indonesia

Chris Höhne

9. Agricultural Governance in the Anthropocene: A Research Agenda

Sandra Schwindenhammer

III Critical Perspectives and Implications

10. Sustainability Impact Assessment of Land Use Changes in the Anthropocene

Till Hermanns and Qirui Li

11. The Nuclear Legacy in the Anthropocene: Interrelations between Nature, Technology, and Society

Dörte Themann and Achim Brunnengräber

12. Worlds Apart? The Global South and the Anthropocene

Jens Marquardt

13. The Anthropocene Concept as a Wake-Up Call for Reforming Democracy

Jörg Tremmel

14. Conclusions: Towards a ‘Deep Debate’ on the Anthropocene

Thomas Hickmann, Lena Partzsch, Philipp Pattberg and Sabine Weiland

Index

Thomas Hickmann is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Lena Partzsch is a Professor of Environmental and Development Policy at the University of Freiburg in Germany.

Philipp Pattberg is a Professor of Transnational Environmental Governance and Policy at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Sabine Weiland is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Lille Catholic University, affiliated with the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL) in France.