DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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Book review: Klimakrise – einfach verstehen! Was kannst Du zur Lösung beitragen? Prentice, Andy, Eddie Reynolds (Autoren), El Primo Ramon (Illustrator). London 2021
No full textAnthropocene – Perspectives from the Environmental Humanities
Full text linkOriginating from the geosciences, the concept of the Anthropocene is also the subject of lively and often controversial discussions in the humanities and social sciences. The aim of this paper is to present particular perspectives on the recently established Environmental Humanities on the Anthropocene, in order to outline the background behind the establishment of the Environmental Humanities, and to explain the central features and intentions of this inter- and transdisciplinary field. The emerging Environmental Humanities can be seen as the humanities seeking to contribute to the study, understanding and management of the ongoing global environmental crisis, i.e. a theme that has long been – and still is – dominated by the natural sciences. Drawing on concepts, theories and methods from not only the humanities, but also from social sciences, Environmental Humanities address “ fundamental questions of meaning, value, responsibility and purpose” (Rose et al. 2012: 1) in relation to the environment and environmental crises in a time of accelerating change. In doing so, environmental problems are seen as inseparable from social, cultural and human factors. At the same time, the Environmental Humanities pursue a normative claim to advance a responsible approach to the environment, in order to preserve a liveable world. Against this backdrop, broader questions open up on the concept of the Anthropocene, which not only go far beyond the question of the beginning and quantifiable extent of human influence on the geosphere, but also include questions on the causes, consequences, perceptions and interpretations, as well as responsibilities and outcomes, of the environmental crisis
The Anthropocene: Thought styles, controversies and their expansions. A review
Full text linkThis review article uses the 2000 appearance of the Anthropocene as a conceptual anchor to further explore and embed thought styles on human-environment relations. In so doing, three main points are made: First, the Anthropocene is nothing new. Pre-ideas of a proto-Anthropocene, i.e. the importance of humans in human-environment relation have been previously explored. Second, while the first half of the 2000s was predominantly of stratigraphic concerns, the second half showed controversies between normative embeddings of good, bad and alternative thought styles on the Anthropocene. Third, with a scientific lag of approximate 15 years, multiplicities of alternative wordings have made their way as thought style expansions on the Anthropocene, re-framing and -branding existing thought styles (in e.g. ecomodernist, critical feminist, political ecologist fashion) in an attempt to achieve virality with other, more concrete wordings of the Anthropocene
Amazon deforestation restrictions likely to be circumvented
Full text linkBrazil’s state of Mato Grosso is part of the “Legal Amazon” region where deforestation is limited by a requirement in the country’s Forest Code, which specifies that 80% of each property must be maintained in native vegetation in areas that were originally Amazon Forest and 35% in areas that were originally Cerrado (central Brazilian savanna). A new bill (PL 377/2022) that is rapidly advancing in the National Congress would remove Mato Grosso from the Legal Amazon, reducing this requirement to 20% in both cases
Amazonia threatened by Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s mining agenda
Full text linkBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has induced a cycle of deforestation and violence in the Amazon, where dismantling environmental agencies and gutting protection policies have become a central strategy in removing barriers to predatory exploitation of natural resources. Mining is a key part of this agenda. Brazil and the international community must struggle to reverse the ongoing destruction of the Amazon
America(n)-Nature, conquestual habitus and the origins of the “Anthropocene”. Mine, Plantation and their geological (and anthropological) impacts
Full text linkSince its irruption, the “Anthropocene” voice has provoked a profound epistemic and political upheaval, revealing the critical radicality of the threats to life on Earth. By placing as a horizon of intellection the devastating balance that the predominant course of human events has printed on the Planet, said concept designates more than a discussion on the nature of the present geological age. It has opened a new dimension in the understanding of the interlinkages between the ecological and the political; a new problematization on the nature of the affections between the anthropological and the geological. On this plane, from our previous research, this article aims to highlight the excluding centrality of America(n)-Nature as the historical-geographical origin and constituent epistemic-political principle of this new Era. After a review of the critical reception that the concept has given rise to in the field of the Social Sciences, the paper invites us to review the “Anthropocene” on the basis of an elementary shift of gaze: from “nature” to history; from the species to social formations; from substances (carbon, uranium, plastics) to practices, ways of life and power relations. By investigating its genealogy from the decolonial critical materialism of the Political Ecology of the South, the environment of the “conquest of America” is explored as a geological-political turning point that gave rise to the emergence of a new geo-sociometabolic regime. This approach visualises the Conquestnot only in terms of its immediate catastrophic impact (Pico Orbis), but also as a geo-historical ground where a new matrix of relationships (conquestual habitus) between humans and non-humans, between the biological and the political, was forged, which would end up disrupting the dynamics of flows and sociometabolic cycles of terrestrial life. It aims to highlight the ontological effects (geological, anthropological and socio-political) of those original practices of extractivist occupation/appropriation of territories and populations. It is postulated that these practices - configured and sedimented through the establishment, expansion and generalization of the Mine and Plantation forms as technologies of power and new means of conception and production of human and terrestrial existence in general – would have most probably been the triggers of the geosocial emergence in which the human species has now become gravely involved
Exploring comparative research on housing policies in German Cities: a literature review and directions for further research
Full text linkIn response to the recurring housing question, municipal decision-makers in German cities developed a variety of local housing policies. In recent years, we correspondingly witness an increase in comparative perspectives which analyze the variation and changes in German urban housing policies and planning instruments. This article, first, reviews research on housing policies in German cities with a particular focus on conceptual debates, comparative methodologies, and case selection. Therefore, the review categorizes academic contributions from geography, policy analysis, and planning studies. The article’s second part revisits approaches from comparative housing studies, comparative urbanism, and policy mobility studies in order to explore the extent to which these perspectives offer complementary lenses for analyzing the geographies of urban housing policies. Thereby, the article proposes new directions for research on inter-urban policy mobility and sites of learning from elsewhere. This entails framing urban policy arenas not as static or isolated, but as embedded in inter-urban processes and networks which contribute to learning processes through knowledge acquisition and best practices
Food waste and shopping behaviour – quantitative household investigations based on local case studies from Germany
Full text linkThe connection between food waste and grocery shopping behaviour is investigated using a regional example from Ger- many. Quantitative surveys apply the food waste related lifestyle concept and multivariate analysis methods to identify four different attitude groups related to dealing with food in private households. The shopping patterns of these groups display a high degree of congruence with the attitude patterns. The retail formats and the food products purchased in them are investigated as the original source of food waste in private households, and waste-prone product types and reasons for disposal are explored. It is possible to identify the particular susceptibility of individual product groups to food waste, and also differences in the handling of food and food waste between the segmented groups of individuals. Originally fresh products dominate food waste. This can be linked to the material origins of these products that are pur- chased in both so-called alternative shops and in conventional retail formats. The identification of the attitude groups and behavioural groups allows relevant demographic structures that are not immediately obvious to be deduced. This can provide target groups for educational measures, for which reliance on a one-dimensional approach is insufficient
The Anthropocene as a challenge for sociological thinking in planetary dimensions
Full text linkIn this article, I argue for the relevance of integrating the planetary dimension, which is at the heart of the Anthropocene debate, into sociological thinking. The argumentation takes place in two steps: first, by sounding out the Anthropocene debate in search of the few sociological considerations that explicitly treat the significance of the Anthropocene for the architecture of sociological theory and theory formation, highlighting the associated desideratum within sociology which concerns the planetary dimension of the Anthropocene and the question of integrating it in sociological thinking; second, by following Dipesh Chakrabarty in outlining initial thoughts on why the planetary dimension should be integrated into sociology as a constitutive of the social and thus as a fundamental category of social theory. For this, I will also refer to Gesa Lindemann’s conceptualization of social theory, which clarifies the systematic function of social theory in the architecture of sociological thinking. The aim of the article is also to sensitize for the possibility of interdisciplinary collaborations of knowledge creation in light of the awareness for the planetary dimension of social life
Thinking the Anthropocene
Full text linkThis editorial gives a short introduction to the different strands of the Anthropocene and ties together the contributions of this Special Issue