How might one responsibly review a field just coming into being—such as that provoked by the term Anthropocene? In this article, we argue for two strategies. First, working from the premise that the Anthropocene field is best understood within its emergence, we review conferences rather than publications. In conference performances, we glimpse the themes and tensions of a field-to-come. Second, we interpret Anthropocene as a science-fiction concept, that is, one that pulls us out of familiar space and time to view our predicaments differently. This allows us to explore emergent figurations, genres, and practices for the transdisciplinary study of real and imagined worlds framed by human disturbance. In the interplay and variation across modes for constructing this field, Anthropocene scholarship finds its shape.
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Less Than One But More Than Many
Anthropocene as Science Fiction and Scholarship-in-the-Making
Heather Anne Swanson, Nils Bubandt, and Anna Tsing
Decoupling Seascapes
An Anthropology of Marine Stock Enhancement Science in Japan
Shingo Hamada
; Lien and Law 2011 ). “Performance,” then, refers to the embodiment of an idea of fish but not the fish or a thing in itself. The practice of italicizing Clupea pallasii means the words themselves look more sacred than secular, inferring on science an
Environmental Expertise as Group Belonging
Environmental Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies
Rolf Lidskog and Göran Sundqvist
proactive measures ( Mol 1996 ). Not only policies but also practices have changed, and environmental performance has been boosted in many areas, such as air pollution and CFC emissions. Ecological rationality is slowly catching up with economic rationality
A Crystal Ball for Forests?
Analyzing the Social-Ecological Impacts of Forest Conservation and Management over the Long Term
Daniel C. Miller, Pushpendra Rana, and Catherine Benson Wahlén
numerical, representations that can be used to compare, evaluate, and rank performance, as well as set standards against which to measure performance. Indicators can be used at multiple spatial and temporal scales, from national indicators like gross
Plastic Packaging, Food Supply, and Everyday Life
Adopting a Social Practice Perspective in Social-Ecological Research
Lukas Sattlegger, Immanuel Stieß, Luca Raschewski, and Katharina Reindl
. Machines can take over human work and displace practices, or they can influence the way in which practices persist or change without directly participating as elements within their performance. For Morley (2017: 83 ), the inclusion of these more indirect
New Materialist Approaches to Fisheries
The Birth of “Bycatch”
Lauren Drakopulos
tend to hang together” (2002: 5) and the “performances of an object may collaborate and even depend on one another” (1999: 83). In other words, objects and practices exist in relation to one another, but tensions arise when their material realities
Appropriate Targets
Global Patterns in Interaction and Conflict Surrounding Cetacean Conservation and Traditional Marine Hunting Communities
Florence Durney
, many Lamalerans are keenly aware of the connection between how the outside world sees their performance of culture and their lifeway's future. Determining Need: Nutrition, Culture, and Cosmology Moving back across the Pacific, the legal and
Green Out of the Blue, or How (Not) to Deal with Overfed Oceans
An Analytical Review of Coastal Eutrophication and Social Conflict
Alix Levain, Carole Barthélémy, Magalie Bourblanc, Jean-Marc Douguet, Agathe Euzen, and Yves Souchon
( Hänninen 1992 ). The water supply and sewer systems had reached a certain level of performance for the era, with direct effect that had decreased mortality from typhus and cholera. Nonetheless, like in other urban areas in early industrialized Northern and