Contesting the Anthropocene

This book provides refreshing and critical conceptualizations of the Anthropocene from Latin American perspectives, addressing questions of coloniality and capitalism. Researchers from different disciplines introduce a variety of new concepts and approaches to explore the social, political, and epistemological causes of the multiple socio-ecological crises and showcase alternative foci to cope with them.

The first key issue at the heart of the crisis of the Anthropocene is a reflection on life on Earth. This dimension includes biodiversity, the web of life, bio-centered cosmovisions, and the politics and ethics of care. Then, the focus shifts to mining and related extractivist development schemes. These perspectives place significant emphasis on Latin America’s colonial history and its enduring legacies as well on the fundamental metabolic rupture. Technology, science, and infrastructure are also crucial to the Anthropocene. The contributions examine the question of agency related to infrastructure arguing that ideas of development and growth manifest in infrastructure and alternatives or change and that they must always be considered in relation to existing structures. The volume concludes with a discussion on urban spaces.

By offering a rich array of contributors from Latin America, the book provides students and researchers with new perspectives from the Global South on the new era of the Anthropocene.