Domination in the Anthropocene

The critique of human domination is a tenet of environmental thinking. Now, the rise of the Anthropocene has increased the risk that survivalism obscures nonhuman emancipation as a public and private goal: if the conversation about the Anthropocene keeps focusing on the dangerous disruption of planetary systems, fear of extinction can relegate nonhuman emancipation indefinitely. Furthermore, the language of the Anthropocene privileges terms such as «transformation» or «hybridization», overshadowing how nature has been, and continues to be, colonized by human beings. Unsurprisingly, the name of the new epoch puts humanity at the center of Earth's history, turning the «anthropos» into the main character of the planetary drama. It would thus seem that the Anthropocene's irruption hinders the critique and removal of domination. However, as this paper will argue, that is not necessarily the case. The Anthropocene can provide a more realistic account of socionatural relations and thus put past and present domination into a wider context. In turn, this opens up new possibilities for the critique of domination -possibilities that do not rely on traditional arguments regarding capitalism's rapaciousness or human's lack of empathy. While the complete absence of domination will remain an ideal goal for the time being, an enlightened or managed domination can meaningfully reduce the harm done to nature in a non-ideal world and prepare us for a future where humanity self-consciously overcomes the acquired habit of domination

The future is now! Reframing Environmentalism in the Anthropocene

Este trabajo trata de evaluar el impacto que la noción del Antropoceno tiene sobre la teoría política medioambiental. En especial, se toman en consideración los contenidos que sobre la relación socionatural comunica esa hipótesis geológica: de la cualidad transformadora de la especie a la hibridación de la naturaleza contemporánea. De ahí se deduce la necesidad de que el ecologismo clásico modifique su discurso y su estrategia de comunicación pública, para adaptarse a una realidad socionatural que poco tiene que ver con sus tesis tradicionales. Además, se explora el concepto de habitación medioambiental como nuevo lenguaje para la sostenibilidad.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The politicization of a sociofact: exploring economic inequality in the global age

La comunicación aborda la pregunta acerca de si la desigualdad socioeconómica es no un problema de naturaleza política. Por el camino, se ocupa de las causas de la desigualdad en la era global, así como de atender a los efectos del resentimiento sobre la democracia en lo que a la demanda de igualdad se refiere.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Science or fiction? What the anthropocene means for EPT

How should environmental political theorists deal with environmental science? The question has acquired a new urgency with the rise of the Anthropocene, a geological-cum-ecological concept received with skepticism by many political theorists. In part, this is due to the notion that there is an “oficial” version of the Anthropocene that comes out already linked to a set of normative and policy prescriptions for dealing with climate change and the other manifestations of the new epoch, i.e. a managerial approach that is capitalist-friendly and technologically trigger-happy. However, this in turn reflects deep-seated suspicions about scientific findings and the way in which they are “produced”. This paper will reflect on this topic in the framework provided by the Anthropocene, arguing that a clear demarcation is needed between the scientific and the sociopolitical inquiry, whereupon the former provides the latter with findings to be discussed and processed in a sociopolitical fashion -whereas scientists should refrain from making normative or policy prescriptions or, if any, should make them explicitly. After all, environmental political theory would not exist without environmental sciences. The debate on the beginning of the Anthropocene will help to make this point.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

The sense of an ending? Nature in the Anthropocene

Among the normative questions posed by the supposed advent of the Anthropocene is the following: Does the Anthropocene spell the end of nature? The philosophical answer to that question may determine the political answer to the phenomenon that is described by this geological-cum-historical notion. In this paper, I will argue that, although the signs are mixed, the Anthropocene does indeed confirm that nature has ended in a particular yet important way - but that such ending does not preclude further reflection about the human relation with the environment. In fact, such recognition makes possible another understanding of the task that lie ahead: a reflective re-organization of socionatural relations and a reconceptualization of sustainability.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

An Impossible object? Ecological Democracy after the Anthropocene

El paper se pregunta en qué medida la democracia -o sea, una democracia ecológica- puede ocuparse del Antropoceno, la nueva era geológica que describe una masiva penetración humana en los sistemas naturales.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Andalucía Tec

Rethinking Populism in the Digital Age: Social Networks, Political Affects and Post-Truth Democracies

Although populism is not a new phenomena, its rise in the aftermath of the financial crisis presents some novelties that are worth exploring. Mostly, they refer to the transformation of the public sphere in the digital era, which has changed how political actors and citizens relate to each other and hence the discursive and non-discursive practices chosen by the former. This includes a more direct communication between populist leaders and their base, the creation of channels that sideline those of the mainstream media, as well as the emergence of "post-truth" as a framework that gives new value to narratives as conveyors of political values that disrupt established social conventions. In order to understand these features -which, their novelty notwithstanding, do not change populism's "thin" ideological core- attention is due to the emotional dimension of populist practices. Strictly speaking, they are not new: new are the lens through which we observe them after the affective turn experienced by social sciences in the last decade. Yet social networks are in themselves rather affective technologies, fostering an emotionally charged communication and facilitating the means by which individuals can feel engaged with their "moral tribe" -isolating themselves from other discourses or narratives. This paper will reflect upon these transformations from the vantage point of political theory, emphasizing how the digitization of the public sphere has influenced the way in which populist actors across liberal democracies create their publics and address them, as well as the increasing relevance of affects in explanations about political life.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Will the humble inherit the Earth? Towards a realistic politics of habitation

The related notions of habitation and habitability offer a very promising way for framing the conversation about the issues around which environmental political theory has gravitated from its inception: sustainability, environmental justice, preservation. However, the connection between the two must probably be revised in order to produce an ideal of habitation that is useful in the current sociopolitical context. This paper seeks to clarify their mutual relations and explores the way for the politicization of habitation. Underlining the role of nonintentional actions in the past history of habitation, it will argue that, in order to politicize habitation, the latter must be made salient -so that citizens realize that the socionatural relation is not that 'natural'. Ernesto Laclau's notion of the political as an uncovering of contingencies may be useful, while the Lacanian notion of fantasy may be used to explain the gap between current (instrumental) modes of habitation and pervasive (Arcadian) ideals of it. As to how can the relation between habitation and habitability be effectively politicized, this paper will argue that it is the political, rather than politics, what offers a most promising path for re-imagining habitation in our complex and ambivalent societies. Ecological citizenship and newly created spaces for nature are sketched as strategies for politicizing habitation. Bioregionalism is recovered as a radical politics of habitation whose flaws must be avoided if habitation is to be reframed in a mostly urban, hypertechnological world. In this regard, the paper also develops a particular narrative for a reframed habitation, a 'clever adaptation' understood as a regulatory ideal towards which different actions and discourses can be directed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

La narrativa de la unificación alemana. Presupuestos, temas y tendencias

La unificación alemana ha dado lugar a una época de intensos cambios, al abandono de antiguas utopías y al surgimiento de nuevos valores, que suponen un auténtico desafío para el escritor y la literatura. Los acontecimientos políticos en torno a ese proceso han incidido directamente en la literatura y en las discusiones literarias más recientes, lo que ha motivado la aparición de un nuevo panorama literario en los países de habla alemana. Tras la caída del muro de Berlín ha surgido una narrativa que hace un balance crítico y a veces nostálgico del pasado, pero también del presente, que evidencia las consecuencias sociales, políticas, económicas, culturales y humanas de la unificación alemana. Es objetivo de este estudio analizar los presupuestos, temas y tendencias de la extensa producción narrativa surgida en Alemania entre 1989 y la actualidad con motivo del proceso de unificación.German unification has given rise to a period of far-reaching change, to the setting aside of time-honoured ideals, and to the emergence of new values which constitute an out-and-out challenge to the writer as well as to Literature itself. The political events contained in this process have impinged directly upon Literature and influenced recent literary debate, all of which has stimulated the birth of a new literary scene in Germanspeaking countries. Following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, a kind of narrative has arisen which not only takes stock of the past from a critical as well as, at times, a nostalgic standpoint, but also of the present, throwing into relief the consequences of German Unification in social, political, economic, cultural, and human terms. The aim of this work is to analyse the premises, topics and tendencies of the wide ranging production of narrative works which have materialized in Germany between 1989 and the present moment with regard to the process of unification