Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism edited by Jason W. Moore

Review of Jason W. Moore\u27s Capitalocene or Anthropocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalis

Worldhood Competence and Performance:\ud The Site for Wittgenstein"s Religious Language

It is common knowledge that Wittgenstein cannot be called\ud fundamentally a religious writer. All the same, he did not\ud dismiss the reality 'religion' as nonsense. It is opined here\ud that, Wittgenstein was very consistent in his references to\ud it. We strongly claim that religion was a subject of his\ud philosophical preoccupation positioned among his general\ud striking similes, arresting moments and connections of his\ud general methods. Religion gained occasional and/or\ud scattered referencing in his works (e.g. the notes of 1938,\ud the positioning of religion and/or theology as grammar in\ud the 'Philosophical Investigations (PI: 373; p.283), Zettel\ud and the later work 'Culture and Value). Despite the above,\ud we have to agree, with Wittgenstein, that his poetic\ud compositions are to be understood and seen in consistent\ud connections (PI: 122) even when they look disconnected

Environmentality judiciously fired:Burning questions of forest conservation and subject transformation in the Himalayan foothills

‘Environmentality’ is a term used to describe the means by which regulatory processes simultaneously redefine both the environment and the subjectivity of those whose environment is being governed by regulation. Today it is considered a key concept of political ecology. Its most comprehensive and influential articulation is by way of a case-study of the development of community forestry in Kumaon in north India. The case-study argues that the decentralised regulatory system created by the British colonial regime in 1931 created an ‘environmental subjectivity’ among forest users which had not previously existed. However, this article presents evidence that suggests that concern for forest protection – and, thus, ‘environmental subjectivity’ – can be found in Kumaon before the creation of local forest governance; in addition, the article questions the case-study’s interpretation of evidence adduced for ‘environmental subjectivity’ in Kumaon today. Following a discussion on methodology, the article concludes that the case-study’s Euro-centric conception of ‘environmentality’ as an ‘analytical optic’ – derived from the narrow meaning of ‘governmentality’ proposed in the work of Michel Foucault – has resulted in an analysis which systematically elides the agency and beliefs of local people. This optical limitation has implications for other ‘environmentality’ studies. Other forms of analysis, which seek to disclose and decentre features of Western theoretical perspectives on political processes that are internally related to imperialism, are said to offer the potential for outcomes that constitute a non-imperial alternative based on dialogue and mutual understanding

Anthropological Encounters with Economic Development and Biodiversity Conservation

Current debates on the ecological crisis and on shared responsibilities for the maintenance of the earth's commons raise fundamental anthropological questions, but anthropologists have yet to engage fully with them, or with the paradigm of sustainable development. This chapter offers a personal account of encounters between anthropology, biodiversity conservation, and economic development. Authors examining the links between biological and cultural diversity are reviewed, and recent studies of conservation and development policies critically assessed.

What explains the uneven take-up of ISO 14001 at the global level?: a panel-data analysis

Since its release in the mid-1990s, close to 37 000 facilities have been certified to ISO 14001, the international voluntary standard for environmental management systems. Yet, despite claims that the standard can be readily adapted to very different corporate and geographic settings, its take-up has been highly geographically variable. This paper contributes to a growing body of work concerned with explaining the uneven diffusion of ISO 14001 at the global level. Drawing from the existing theoretical and empirical literature we develop a series of hypotheses about how various economic, market, and regulatory factors influence the national count of ISO 14001 certifications. These hypotheses are then tested using econometric estimation techniques with data for a panel of 142 developed and developing countries. We find that per capita ISO 14001 counts are positively correlated with income per capita, stock of foreign direct investment, exports of goods and services to Europe and Japan, and pressure from civil society. Conversely, productivity and levels of state intervention are negatively correlated. The paper finishes by offering a number of recommendations to policymakers concerned with accelerating the diffusion of voluntary environmental standards

Living Through The End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism by Paul Wapner

Review of Living Through The End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism by Paul Wapner

Connected seeds and sensors: co-designing internet of things for sustainable smart cities with urban food-growing communities.

We present a case study of a participatory design project in the space of sustainable smart cities and Internet of Things. We describe our design process that led to the development of an interactive seed library that tells the stories of culturally diverse urban food growers, and networked environmental sensors from their gardens, as a way to support more sustainable food practices in the city. This paper contributes to an emerging body of empirical work within participatory design that seeks to involve citizens in the design of smart cities and Internet of Things, particularly in the context of marginalised and culturally diverse urban communities. It also contributes empirical work towards non-utilitarian approaches to sustainable smart cities through a discussion of designing for urban diversity and slowness

Affective Dissent

This article identifies a form of affective bio-politics more intimate, engrained and corporeally enacted than that identified in recent work emphasising the affective qualities of activism and labour. While these latter reinforce and bolster existing analyses through the identification of further affective concerns, affective bio-politics suggests that neoliberalism supports and sustains itself quite fundamentally through, what have generally been, unrecognised affective means. While such affective regulation can only ever be partial and imprecise its unrecognised, and thus implicitly concealed, character lends it a particular cogency. Illuminating the mechanisms through which such affective regulatory modulation is achieved thus has a powerful potential to clarify further opportunities to disrupt and counter neoliberalism. This account juxtaposes an analysis of affective bio-politics with existing analyses of the affective, and performative, dimensions to activist politics, in order to facilitate the identification of specific opportunities for further affective contestationary strategies