Search

This paper emerged from a workshop presented at the ANZTSR conference in Sydney 2016, and from a series of workshops leading to that conference. The purpose of the paper is to adopt a transdisciplinary perspective, and so encourage a broader discussion of where the third sector fits within current political and economic trends, and within the even broader environmental crisis in which we find ourselves, often identified as the Anthropocene,'the Age of Humans'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global species extinction rates are orders of magnitude above the background rate documented in the fossil record. However, recent data syntheses have found mixed evidence for patterns of net species loss at local spatial scales. For example, two recent data meta-analyses have found that species richness is decreasing in some locations and is increasing in others. When these trends are combined, these papers argued there has been no net change in species richness, and suggested this pattern is globally representative of biodiversity change at local scales. Here we reanalyze results of these data syntheses and outline why this conclusion is unfounded. First, we show the datasets collated for these syntheses are spatially biased and not representative of the spatial distribution of species richness or the distribution of many primary drivers of biodiversity change. This casts doubt that their results are representative of global patterns. Second, we argue that detecting the trend in local species richness is very difficult with short time series and can lead to biased estimates of change. Reanalyses of the data detected a signal of study duration on biodiversity change, indicating net biodiversity loss is most apparent in studies of longer duration. Third, estimates of species richness change can be biased if species gains during post-disturbance recovery are included without also including species losses that occurred during the disturbance. Net species gains or losses should be assessed with respect to common baselines or reference communities. Ultimately, we need a globally coordinated effort to monitor biodiversity so that we can estimate and attribute human impacts as causes of biodiversity change. A combination of technologies will be needed to produce regularly updated global datasets of local biodiversity change to guide future policy. At this time the conclusion that there is no net change in local species richness is not the consensus state of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African totem regimes enact a holistic pre-Newtonian ontology and hence are bound to be dismissed as "unscientific". As such they have not been accorded the same level of epistemic importance as scientific conceptualisations in the quest for the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are dominantly framed by a Cartesian methodology and plot methods that do not easily accommodate mysterious and ambiguous worldviews. Nevertheless, this paper demonstrates that African totems are an advanced form of social organisation in that they maintain a balance between human and natural systems through their regulatory efficacy and habitual compliance. Furthermore, the SDGs, unlike the regimes of African totems, are often operationalised in economistic terms and hence tend to be subject to budgetary constraints. African totems are not hampered in the same way. It can be argued that the aspirations of the SDGs have been the norm in Africa for centuries through the regulatory effects of totem meta-governance. This paper therefore makes a case for a rethink of the ontology of (social) science. Doing so, it is argued, would accommodate the worldview of African totems in the worldview that is implicit in the aspirations expressed by SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Education History / Historia Social y de la Educación is the property of Social & Education History / Historia Social y de la Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The February 2022 UNDP Special Report (SR) on Human Security, "New threats to human security in the Anthropocene: Demanding greater solidarity" marked a welcome return by the UN body to the field in which, in 1994, it had provided the seminal text. The SR stimulated a great deal of academic and policy debate, featuring prominently in the HDCA Human Security Thematic Group's sessions at the 2022 HDCA Antwerp conference. Conversations between the UNDP HDRO and HDCA led to the 2023 Human Security Policy Forum published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. The papers produced in this forum have emphasised a broadening of the human security discourse and policy prescription to consider the SR's additional focus on the Anthropocene, agency, and solidarity. Several of the papers have also drawn attention to the interconnectivity of threats and spillover between them. While there is consensus among the papers on these issues, they are limited in the extent to which they address how such foci also lead to contestation, how they are situated in the wider policy discourse, and how they might best be operationalised. This paper revisits these discussions, adding additional insight on these points of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how indigenous African communities have become critical for developing epistemologies of relation and entanglement in the dominant problem of contemporary resilience understandings of adaptation in the Anthropocene imaginary. Grounded in the indigenous African epistemological philosophies, this paper explores critical alternative futural framings that directly oppose the modernist epistemological understandings of resilience imaginaries in the Anthropocene. The analysis presented here is based on understanding indigenous non-modern ways of knowing as key in the context of ecological crisis in the Anthropocene resilience. This paper argues that reductionist modernist epistemology fails to fully acknowledge how alternative futural imaginaries of indigenous non-modern ways of knowing have become central to critical Anthropocene resilience approaches in the discipline of International Relations. In contrast, this paper explores indigenous African epistemologies of relation and entanglement as alternative futural imaginaries that better capture resilience climate adaptation in the Anthropocene. The paper concludes that focusing on resilience and understandings of adaptation in the Anthropocene opens other possibilities for the development of indigenous non-modern ways of knowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rereads a few of the notable writer Amitav Ghosh's works to examine the relationship between the Anthropocene and climate fiction, or Cli-Fi. After providing a brief overview of Cli-Fi and its formation in the Anthropocene, the paper explores Ghosh's influence as a writer in environmental discourse, highlighting the evolution of green consciousness in his writing. Examining storytelling devices and natural imagery, the article draws attention to Ghosh's literary works' rich symbolic tapestry and symbolic potency. The study of the link between humans and nature reveals more about this symbiotic relationship while also highlighting the detrimental effects of human activity on ecosystems. The idea of the 'Great Derangement' takes center stage, analyzing how the modern worldview is disconnected from nature and from the seriousness of environmental destruction. Ghosh examines historical backgrounds in his writing, highlighting their effects on the environment by examining eco-historical viewpoints and colonial legacies. Beyond defining environmental benefits and burdens, the essay explores environmental justice and social fairness, arguing that Ghosh's story should serve as a vehicle for promoting both communal responsibility and climate justice. The conclusion, which emphasizes the value of integrating the past and present in the pursuit of environmental sustainability, concludes with a reflection on the interaction of history, culture, and ecology. All things considered, it highlights Amitav Ghosh's significant contribution--made possible by his literary pursuits--to strengthening environmental consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores hope as a dominant framing for critical social theory in the era of the Anthropocene. It suggests that with the dissolution of modernist assumptions of human exceptionality, universal causality and temporal progress, critical social theory can be understood as having shifted fields. This shift is from the field of the seen – the field of appearances (i.e. the world of politics, of rational subjects, instrumental rationality and aspirations of progress) – to the field of the unseen (towards approaches which can be understood as working with or drawing upon a world which is beyond or below appearances). It will be argued that the Anthropocene is central to this shift from the centrality of questions of transparency and of politics to those of opacity and hope. This is in part because the Anthropocene is seen to have emerged behind the backs of political reason, unseen and unintended. If the Anthropocene as a condition is the product of taking a narrow reductive approach to the world, as framed in the modern ontology, then access to the unseen world becomes a necessity. The different forms of hope engaged with in this paper articulate distinct understandings of this 'other world' beyond appearances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]