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The Anthropocene: A Narrative in the Making

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Environment and Society

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Environmental Sociology and Policy ((PASTESP))

Abstract

The narrative of the Anthropocene is shaping environmental debates as well as discussions within the environmental sciences. According to this narrative, humankind is facing its greatest challenge ever. This chapter discusses the current meanings of the concept of The Anthropocene in a critical but constructive manner. Approaching the Anthropocene as a multi-layered narrative, it discusses the promises and risks of adopting this concept and of making it central for understanding current global environmental challenges. We find that the narrative provides interesting scope for thinking sociologically about environmental challenges, but at the same time it involves some risks, which makes it important to reflect upon the conceptual usage of Anthropocene.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The origin of the Anthropocene concept can be traced back to a conference organised the year 2000 by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). The session organizer focussed his contribution on the Holocene (the current geological epoch that began 12,000 years ago). Finally one of the participants, the chemist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen lost his patience, effectively announcing the end of this current era. As he later recalled: ‘I said we no longer live in the Holocene, but in the Anthropocene. After that, it suddenly went very quiet in the hall. In the coffee break the only issue discussed was the Anthropocene’ (Crutzen 2013, our translation).

  2. 2.

    Planetary boundaries was originally presented in an article in in Nature (Rockström et al. 2009), where nine planetary boundaries were presented with nine thresholds for various biophysical subsystems and processes. The article was updated, developed and revised in an article in Science 2015 (Steffen et al. 2015b).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    Rolf Lidskog

  2. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Claire Waterton

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  1. Rolf Lidskog
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  2. Claire Waterton
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Correspondence to Rolf Lidskog .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    Magnus Boström

  2. Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Debra J. Davidson

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Lidskog, R., Waterton, C. (2018). The Anthropocene: A Narrative in the Making. In: Boström, M., Davidson, D. (eds) Environment and Society. Palgrave Studies in Environmental Sociology and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76415-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76415-3_2

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