Beyond “Geological Nature” and Fatalistic Determinism: The
Socio-cultural Faces of the Anthropocene and the Political Space to
Avoid Ecological Catastrophe
Abstract
The commentary encourages supplementing the geological and natural
concept of the Anthropocene with a cultural and political aspect. These
two perspectives are not mutually exclusive but are complementary. This
approach can facilitate its transition from the language of academic
debate to practical and necessary actions at the societal level.
According to the authors, the slightly abstract and impersonal
Anthropocene should be shown in the context of cultural, economic and
political dependencies and choices that created it and continue to
reproduce its logic. This turn also opens up a new area for analysing
the Anthropocene from the perspective of a critique of political economy
(an analysis of the costs of economic policies that reproduce and
accelerate successive stages of the ecological catastrophe) as well as
of civic culture (research ‘anthropocentric awareness’ or
‘anthropocentric citizenship’ in entire societies). Thus, the authors
suggest rejecting the fatalistic determinism of the Anthropocene as a
process that, although originally caused by humans, is now often treated
as a phenomenon beyond the reach of social action