User Tools

Site Tools


davis-todd

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

davis-todd [2017/12/22 18:10] (current)
admin created
Line 1: Line 1:
 +**Heather Davis and Zoe Todd, “On the Importance of a Date, or Decolonizing the Anthropocene”** //ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies//,​ 2017, 16(4): 761-780
  
 +“Since ​ we  are  not  geologists, ​ we  cannot ​ evaluate ​ the  dates  for  their stratigraphic accuracy or scientific merit. However, we would like to propose that this  dating ​ of  the  Anthropocene ​ misses ​ a  valuable ​ opportunity ​ for  evaluating ​ the concept ​ and  opening ​ it  up  beyond ​ its  current ​ Eurocentric ​ framing. ​ Instead, ​ we argue that placing the golden spike at 1610, or from the beginning of the colonial period, ​ names  the  problem ​ of  colonialism ​ as  responsible ​ for  contemporary environmental ​ crisis. ​ If  the  Anthropocene ​ is  already ​ here,  the  question ​ then becomes, ​ what  can  we  do  with  it  as  a  conceptual ​ apparatus ​ that  may  serve  to undermine ​ the  conditions ​ that  it  names? ​ One  could  object ​ that  by  dating ​ the Anthropocene to colonialism we are undoing the critical and creative work that has been done to name the problem of colonialism and its power differentials because the Anthropocene,​ as a term, erases these questions of power. Indeed, many people in the humanities have pointed out the failure of the Anthropocene,​ as a concept, to adequately account for power relations. 4 Instead, all humans are equally implicated under the sign of the ‘anthopos.’ But rather than abandon the term because of these connections, ​ we  feel  that  the  Anthropocene ​ betrays ​ itself ​ in  its  name:  in  its reassertion ​ of  universality, ​ it  implicitly ​ aligns ​ itself ​ with  the  colonial ​ era.  By making ​ the  relations ​ between ​ the  Anthropocene ​ and  colonialism ​ explicit, ​ we  are then  in  a  position ​ to  understand ​ our  current ​ ecological ​ crisis ​ and  to  take  the  steps needed to move away from this ecocidal path.”
davis-todd.txt · Last modified: 2017/12/22 18:10 by admin