Pluralizing Debates on the Anthropocene Requires Engaging with the Diversity of Existing Scholarship
Publication date
2023-02
Authors
Pickering, Jonathan
Patterson, James J.
Biermann, Frank
Burch, Sarah
Gupta, Aarti
Inoue, Cristina Yumie Aoki
Ishii, Atsushi
Kalfagianni, Agni
Meadowcroft, James
Okereke, Chukwumerije
Editors
Advisors
Supervisors
Document Type
Comment
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taverne
Abstract
A recent article in this journal (Jackson 2021) validly emphasized that debates about the Anthropocene need to recognize a diverse range of perspectives, worldviews, and forms of knowledge. In doing so, however, the author mischaracterized scholarship on earth system governance as being antithetical to a critical and pluralistic stance on the Anthropocene. In this commentary we address key concerns about the article: selective and misleading quotations regarding the earth system governance literature’s diversity; unwarranted insinuations that juxtapose the implications of this literature with those of slavery and holocausts; and neglect of the breadth and diversity of scholarship on earth system governance. We underscore the need for scholarly debates on the Anthropocene to be informed by a balanced and rigorous assessment of existing scholarship, and for a constructive dialogue between global and locally situated ways of understanding the earth.
Keywords
Anthropocene, diversity, earth system governance, inclusion, pluralism, Taverne, Geography, Planning and Development, Earth-Surface Processes
Citation
Pickering, J, Patterson, J, Biermann, F, Burch, S, Gupta, A, Inoue, C Y A, Ishii, A, Kalfagianni, A, Meadowcroft, J, Okereke, C & Persson, Å 2023, 'Pluralizing Debates on the Anthropocene Requires Engaging with the Diversity of Existing Scholarship', Annals of the American Association of Geographers, vol. 113, no. 2, pp. e-i-e-vi . https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2105296