Conclusions: Towards a ‘Deep Debate’ on the Anthropocene

Abstract

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book provides rich insights into the question of what the contributions of a political science perspective to the Anthropocene debate could be. It describes the Anthropocene as a scientific description of ongoing Earth system transformations. The book outlines the dichotomisation of the scientific descriptions of the Anthropocene as 'crisis' or 'opportunity' which opens up the different normative logics underpinning the representations and enables scrutiny of the complex co-constitution of scientific and normative statements. It focuses on the relationship between the concept of governance and the Anthropocene and demonstrates that the Anthropocene invokes a co-evolutionary, transformation-oriented and temporally extended understanding of governance. The book analyses how the field of security studies has dealt with the concept of the Anthropocene and discusses the contribution of environmental security studies to the Anthropocene debate.