Abstract
The Anthropocene concept paved the way to diverse debates across the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts. The range of responses to the Anthropocene at conceptual, theoretical, analytical, and methodological levels has also grown rapidly in the field of anthropology. This entry explores anthropologists' various responses to the Anthropocene with a focus on increasing transdisciplinary collaborations that anthropologists have developed with natural scientists, artists, and activists in conducting multispecies studies. By drawing attention to experimental multispecies studies that break down boundaries among disciplines and between sciences and societies, the entry invites an envisaging of transdisciplinary multispecies science that decenters human exceptionalism as well as uprooting traditional capitalist, imperialist, colonial, and patriarchal relationships.
References and Further Reading
- Benezra , Amber , Joseph Destafano , and Jeffrey I. Gordon . 2012 . “ Anthropology of Microbes .” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 ( 17 ): 6378 – 81 .
- Bennett , John W. 1996 . “ Applied and Action Anthropology: Ideological and Conceptual Aspects .” Current Anthropology 37 ( 1 ): 23 – 53 .
- Crutzen , Paul J. 2002 . “ Geology of Mankind .” Nature 415 ( 6867 ): 23 .
- Crutzen , Paul J. , and Eugene Stoermer . 2000 . “ The Anthropocene .” IGBO Global Change Newsletter 41 : 17 – 18 .
- Da Costa , Beatriz , and Kavita Philip , eds. 2010 . Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience . Cambridge, MA : MIT Press .
- Evans , Meredith . 2020 . “ Becoming Sensor in the Planthroposcene: An Interview with Natasha Myers .” Visual and New Media Review, Fieldsights , July 9. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/becoming-sensor-an-interview-with-natasha-myers
- Felt , Ulrike , Judith Igelsböck , Andrea Schikowitz , and Thomas Völker . 2013 . “ Growing into What? The (Un-)disciplined Socialization of Early Stage Researchers in Transdisciplinary Research .” Higher Education 65 ( 4 ): 511 – 24 .
- Felt , Ulrike , Judith Igelsböck , Andrea Schikowitz , and Thomas Völker . 2016 . “ Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research in Practice: Between Imaginaries of Collective Experimentation and Entrenched Academic Value Orders .” Science, Technology, and Human Values 41 ( 4 ): 732 – 61 .
- Fortun , Kim , James Adams , Tim Schütz , and Scott Gabriel Knowles . 2021 . “ Knowledge Infrastructure and Research Agendas for Quotidian Anthropocenes: Critical Localism with Planetary Scope .” The Anthropocene Review 8 ( 2 ): 169 – 82 .
-
Franklin , Sarah
.
2001
. “
Biologization Revisited: Kinship Theory in the Context of the New Biologies
.” In
Relative Values: Reconfiguring Kinship Studies
, edited by
Sarah Franklin
and
Susan McKinnon
,
302
–
25
,
Durham, NC
:
Duke University Press
.
10.1215/9780822383222-012 Google Scholar
- Funtowicz , Silvio O. , and Jerome R. Ravetz . 1991 . “ A New Scientific Methodology for Global Environmental Issues .” In Ecological Economics: The Science and Management of Sustainability , edited by Robert Constanza , 137 – 52 . New York : Columbia University Press .
- Funtowicz , Silvio O. , and Jerome R. Ravetz . 1992 . “ Risk Management as a Postnormal Science .” Risk Analysis 12 ( 1 ): 95 – 7 .
- Funtowicz , Silvio O. , and Jerome R. Ravetz . 1993 . “ Science for the Post-normal Age .” Futures 25 ( 7 ): 739 – 55 .
- Gibbons , Michael , Camille Limoges , Helga Nowotny , Simon Schwartzman , Peter Scott , and Martin Trow . 1994 . The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies . Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE .
- Giraud , Eva Haifa . 2019 . What Comes After Entanglement? Durham, NC : Duke University Press .
- Hale , Charles R. 2006 . “ Activist Research vs. Cultural Critique: Indigenous Land Rights and the Contradictions of Politically Engaged Anthropology .” Cultural Anthropology 21 ( 1 ): 96 – 120 .
- Haraway , Donna J. 2003 . A Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness . Chicago : Prickly Paradigm .
- Haraway , Donna J. 2006 . “ Encounters with Companion Species: Entangling Dogs, Baboons, Philosophers, and Biologists .” Configurations 14 ( 1 ): 97 – 114 .
- Haraway , Donna J. 2008 . When Species Meet . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press .
- Haraway , Donna J. 2015a . “ Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin .” Environmental Humanities 6 : 159 – 65 .
- Haraway , Donna J. 2015b . “ Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Donna Haraway in Conversation with Martha Kenney .” In Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments, and Epistemologies , edited by Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin , 229 – 44 , London : Open Humanities .
-
Haraway , Donna J.
2016
.
Staying with the Trouble
.
Durham, NC
:
Duke University Press
.
10.1215/9780822373780 Google Scholar
-
Helmreich , Stefan
.
2009
.
Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas
.
Berkeley
:
University of California Press
.
10.2307/j.ctv11hpsjh Google Scholar
- Houston , Donna , Jean Hillier , Diana MacCallum , Wendy Steele , and Jason Byrne . 2018 . “ Make Kin, Not Cities! Multispecies Entanglements and ‘Becoming-World’ in Planning Theory .” Planning Theory 17 ( 2 ): 190 – 212 .
- Hulme , Michael . 2007 . “The Appliance of Science.” Guardian . Accessed August 18, 2022, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/mar/14/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange .
- Ingold , Tim . 2013 . “ Anthropology beyond Humanity .” Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 38 ( 3 ): 5 – 23 .
-
Eben Kirksey
, ed.
2014
.
The Multispecies Salon
.
Durham, NC
:
Duke University Press
.
10.1215/9780822376989 Google Scholar
- Kirksey , Eben , and Stefan Helmreich . 2010 . “ The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography .” Cultural Anthropology 25 ( 4 ): 545 – 76 .
-
Kirksey , Eben
,
Craig Schuetze
, and
Stefan Helmreich
.
2014
. “
Introduction: Tactics of Multispecies Ethnography
.” In
The Multispecies Salon
, edited by
Eben Kirksey
,
1
–
24
.
Durham, NC
:
Duke University Press
.
10.1215/9780822376989-001 Google Scholar
- Klein , Julie Thompson . 2013 . “ The Transdisciplinary Moment(um) .” Integral Review 9 ( 2 ): 189 – 99 .
- Kohn , Eduardo . 2007 . “ How Dogs Dream: Amazonian Natures and the Politics of Transspecies Engagements .” American Ethnologist 34 ( 1 ): 3 – 24 .
-
Kohn , Eduardo
.
2013
.
How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human
.
Berkeley, CA
:
University of California Press
.
10.1525/california/9780520276109.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Lang , Daniel J. , Arming Wiek , Matthias Bergmann , Michael Stauffacher , Pim Martens , Peter Moll , Mark Swilling , and Christopher J. Thomas . 2012 . “ Transdisciplinary Research in Sustainability Science: Practice, Principles, and Challenges .” Sustainability Science. 7 ( Suppl. 1 ): 25 – 43 .
-
Locke , Piers
.
2018
. “
Multispecies Ethnography
.”
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology
, edited by Hilary Callan. New York: Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1491.
10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1491 Google Scholar
- Marcus , George E. 2000 . Para-sites: A Casebook against Cynical Reason . Chicago : University of Chicago Press .
-
Marcus , George E.
2010
. “
Contemporary Fieldwork Aesthetics in Art and Anthropology: Experiments in Collaboration and Intervention
.”
Visual Anthropology
,
23
(
4
):
263
–
77
.
10.1080/08949468.2010.484988 Google Scholar
- Martin , Emily . 1991 . “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male–Female Roles.” Signs 16 ( 3 ): 485 – 501 .
- Mathews , Andrew . S. 2020 . “ Anthropology and the Anthropocene: Criticisms, Experiments, and Collaborations .” Annual Review of Anthropology 49 : 67 – 82 .
- Miller , Thaddeus R. , Timothy D. Baird , Caitlin M. Littlefield , Gary Kofinas , F. Stuart Chapin , III , and Charles L. Redman . 2008 . “ Epistemological Pluralism: Reorganizing Interdisciplinary Research .” Ecology and Society 13 ( 2 ): 46 .
- Moore , Jason W. 2017 . “ The Capitalocene, Part I: On the Nature and Origins of Our Ecological Crisis .” Journal of Peasant Studies 44 ( 3 ): 594 – 630 .
- Myers , Natasha . 2016 . “ Photosynthesis .” Fieldsights , January 21. Society for Cultural Anthropology. Accessed November 1, 2022, https://culanth.org/fieldsights/photosynthesis .
- Myers , Natasha . 2017 . “ From the Anthropocene to the Planthroposcene: Designing Gardens for Plant/People Involution .” History and Anthropology 28 ( 3 ): 297 – 301 .
-
Myers , Natasha
.
2019
. “From Edenic Apocalypse to Gardens against Eden: Plants and People in and after the Anthropocene.” In
Infrastructure, Environment, and Life in the Anthropocene
, edited by
Kregg Hetherington
,
115
–
48
.
Durham, NC
:
Duke University Press
.
10.1215/9781478002567-008 Google Scholar
-
Kelsy Nagy
, and
Philip David Johnson
, eds.
2013
.
Trash Animals: How We Live with Nature's Filthy, Feral, Invasive, and Unwanted Species
.
Minneapolis
:
University of Minnesota Press
.
10.5749/minnesota/9780816680542.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Nowotny , Helga , Peter Scott , and Michael Gibbons . 2003 . “ Introduction: 'Mode 2' Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge .” Minerva 41 ( 3 ): 179 – 94 .
- OECD . 2020 . Addressing Societal Challenges Using Transdisciplinary Research . OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers No. 88 . Paris : OECD Publishing .
- Paxson , Heather . 2008 . “ Post-Pasteurian Cultures: The Microbiopolitics of Raw-Milk Cheese in the United States .” Cultural Anthropology 23 ( 1 ): 15 – 47 .
- Raffles , Hugh . 2010 . Insectopedia . New York : Vintage .
- Rancière , Jacques . 2010 . Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics . London : Bloomsbury .
- Rose , Deborah . 2009 . “ Introduction: Writing in the Anthropocene .” Australian Humanities Review 47 . Accessed November 1, 2022, http://australianhumanitiesreview.org/2009/11/01/introduction-writing-in-the-anthropocene .
- Rupprecht , Christoph D. D. , Joost Vervoort , Chris Berthelsen , Astrid Mangnus , Natalie Osborne , Kyle Thompson , Andrea Y. F. Urushima , et al. 2020 . “ Multispecies Sustainability .” Global Sustainability 3 ( E34 ).
- Satsuka , Shiho . 2019 . “ Rhapsody in the Forest: Wild Mushrooms and the Multispecies Multitude .” In How Nature Works: Rethinking Labor on a Troubled Planet , edited by Sarah Besky and Alex Blanchette , 191 – 209 . Albuquerque, NM : University of New Mexico Press .
- Arnd Schneider , and Christopher Wright , eds. 2005 . Contemporary Art and Anthropology . New York : Routledge .
- Smith , Gavin . 1999 . Confronting the Present: Toward a Politically Engaged Anthropology . New York : Oxford University Press .
- Stoetzer , Bettina . 2018 . “ Ruderal Ecologies: Rethinking Nature, Migration, and the Urban Landscape in Berlin .” Cultural Anthropology 33 ( 2 ): 295 – 323 .
- Strathern , Marilyn . 1992 . Reproducing the Future: Anthropology, Kinship, and the New Reproductive Technologies . New York : Routledge .
-
Strohm , Kiven
.
2012
. “
When Anthropology Meets Contemporary Art: Notes for a Politics of Collaboration
.”
Collaborative Anthropologies
5
(
1
):
98
–
24
.
10.1353/cla.2012.0004 Google Scholar
-
Swanson , Heather Anne
,
Jens-Christian Svenning
,
Alark Saxena
,
Robert Muscarella
,
Janet Franklin
,
Matteo Garbelotto
,
Andrew S. Mathews
, et al.
2021
. “
History as Grounds for Interdisciplinarity: Promoting Sustainable Woodlands via an Integrative Ecological and Socio-cultural Perspective
.”
One Earth
4
(
2
):
226
–
37
.
10.1016/j.oneear.2021.01.006 Google Scholar
- Szymanski , Erika Amethyst , Robert D. J. Smith , and Jane Calvert . 2021 . “ Responsible Research and Innovation Meets Multispecies Studies: Why RRI Needs to be a More-than-human Exercise .” Journal of Responsible Innovation 8 ( 2 ): 261 – 66 .
-
Tsing , Anna L.
2012
. “
Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species
.”
Environmental Humanities
1
(
1
):
141
–
54
.
10.1215/22011919-3610012 Google Scholar
-
Tsing , Anna L.
2015
.
The Mushroom at the End of the World
.
Princeton University Press
.
10.1515/9781400873548 Google Scholar
- Tsing , Anna L. , Jennifer Deger , Alder Keleman Saxena , and Feifei Zhou . 2021 . Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene . Stanford : Stanford University Press .
- Tsing , Anna L. , Andrew S. Mathews , and Nils Bubandt . 2019 . “ Patchy Anthropocene: Landscape Structure, Multispecies History, and the Retooling of Anthropology .” Current Anthropology 60 : S186 – 97 .
- Anna L. Tsing , Heather Anne Swanson , Elaine Gan , and Nils Bubandt , eds. 2017 . Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press .
- Turnpenny , John , Mavis Jones , and Irene Lorenzoni . 2011 . “ Where Now for Post-normal Science? A Critical Review of Its Development, Definitions, and Uses .” Science, Technology, and Human Values 36 ( 3 ): 287 – 306 .
-
Van Dooren
,
Thomas .
2019
.
The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds
.
New York
:
Columbia University Press
.
10.7312/van-18282 Google Scholar
-
Immanuel Wallerstein
, ed.
1996
.
Open the Social Sciences: Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences
.
Stanford
:
Stanford University Press
.
10.1515/9781503616219 Google Scholar
- Whatmore , Sarah J. 2009 . “ Mapping Knowledge Controversies: Science, Democracy and the Redistribution of Expertise .” Progress in Human Geography 33 ( 5 ): 587 – 98 .
