Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:28:27.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Social Theory in the Anthropocene: Ecological Crisis and Renewal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

By
Robert J. Antonio  and
Brett Clark
Edited by
Peter Kivisto
Peter Kivisto
Affiliation:
Augustana College, Illinois
Get access

Summary

This essay argues that social theory, and social science per se, must be reconstructed to address a rapidly emergent planetary crisis characterized by exceptional ecological degradation and extreme economic inequality. The task requires re-envisioning society as part of the interdependent “web of nature,” acknowledging that humans face ecological constraints like all other living things with which we share the planet, grasping the growth imperative for capital accumulation as the primary driver of the socioecological crisis, and coming to terms with the need to radically transform capitalism as we have known it to escape catastrophe.

Anthropocene, exemptionalism, growth imperative, neoliberalism, planetary boundaries

Robert J. Antonio teaches sociology at the University of Kansas.He specializes in social theory, but also works on globalization, political economy, and the environment.Currently he is working on projects related to capitalism’s crisis tendencies, especially concerning the intersection of increased economic inequality, ecological risk, and democratic and authoritarian responses.

Brett Clark is Professor of Sociology, Environmental Humanities, and Environmental and Sustainability Studies at the University of Utah. His research interests include social theory, political economy, and ecology.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory , pp. 227 - 248
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alder, Johnathan H. 2013. “Conservative Principles for Environmental Reform.” Duke Environmental Law and Policy Review 23 (2/3): 253–280.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kevin. 2015a. “Duality in Climate Change.” Nature Climate Change 8 (December): 898–900.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kevin. 2015b. “Talks in City of Light Generate More Heat.” Nature 528 (December 24/31): 437.Google Scholar
Kevin, Anderson, and Bows, Alice. 2012. “A New Paradigm for Climate Change.” Nature Climate Change 2 (September): 639–640.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kevin, and Peters, Glen. 2016. “The Trouble with Negative Emissions.” Science (October): 182–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antonio, Robert J. 2005. “For Social Theory, Alvin Gouldner’s Last Project and Beyond.” In Lehmann, Jennifer (ed.), Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Questioning Social Change, vol. 23 (pp. 71–129). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Antonio, Robert. 2012. “After Neoliberalism, Whither Capitalism?” In Ritzer, George (ed.), New Blackwell Companion to Sociology (pp. 588–612). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Antonio, Robert J., and Clark, Brett. 2015. “The Climate Divide in Social Theory.” In Dunlap, Riley E. and Brulle, Robert J. (eds.), Climate Change and Society, Sociological Perspectives (pp. 333–368). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Asafu-Adjaye, John, Blomqvist, Linus, Brand, Stewart, et al. 2015. An Ecomodernist Manifesto. Available at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5515d9f9e4b04d5c3198b7bb/t/552d37bbe4b07a7dd69fcdbb/1429026747046/An+Ecomodernist+Manifesto.pdfGoogle Scholar
Barnosky, Anthony D, Hadly, Elizabeth A., Bascompte, Jordi, et al. 2012. “Approaching a State Shift in the Earth’s Biosphere.” Nature 486 (June 7): 52–58.Google Scholar
Brulle, Robert J. 2014. “Institutionalizing Delay, Foundation Founding and the Creation of US Climate Change Countermovement Organizations.” Climatic Change 114: 169–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brysse, Keynyn, Oreskes, Naomi, O’Reilly, Jessica, and Oppenheimer, Martin. 2013. “Climate Change Prediction, Erring on the Side of the Least Drama?” Global Environmental Change 23: 327–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkett, Paul. 1999. Marx and Nature. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Carolan, Michael S. 2005. “Realism without Reductionism.” Human Ecology Review 20(1): 1–20.Google Scholar
Carrington, Damian. 2016. “The Anthropocene Epoch, Scientists Declare Dawn of Human-Influenced Age.” The Guardian (August 29). www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth.Google Scholar
Carson, Rachel. 1962. Silent Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Catton, William R., Jr., and Dunlap, Riley E.. 1978. “Environmental Sociology, a New Paradigm.” The American Sociologist 13: 41–49.Google Scholar
Catton, William R., Jr., and Dunlap, Riley E.. 1980. “A New Ecological Paradigm for Post-Exuberant Sociology.” American Behavioral Scientist 24(1): 15–47.Google Scholar
Ceballos, Gerardo, Ehrlich, Paul R., Barnosky, Anthony D., et al. 2015. “Accelerated Modern Human-Induced Species Losses, Entering the Sixth Great Extinction.” Science Advances (June 19). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1400253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christoff, Peter, and Eckersley, Robyn. 2013. Globalization and the Environment. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Daly, Herman E. 2005. “Economics in a Full World.” Scientific American (September): 100–107.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1983a [1904]. “The Philosophical Work of Herbert Spencer.” In Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Middle Works, 1899–1924, vol. 3 (pp. 193–209). Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1983b [1909]. “The Influence of Darwinism on Philosophy.” In Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Middle Works, 1899–1924, vol. 4 (pp. 3–14). Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1985 [1916]. “Progress.” in Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Middle Works, 1899–1924, vol. 10 (pp. 234–243). Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1986 [1938]. Logic, the Theory of Inquiry. In Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Later Works 1925–1953, vol. 5–12, 1938 (pp. 41–123). Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1988a [1925]. Experience and Nature, vol. 1 (1925) in Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Later Works 1925–1953. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1988b [1927]. The Public and Its Problems. In Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, The Later Works 1925–1953, vol. 2, 1925–1927 (pp. 235–372). Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1988c [1929]. The Quest for Certainty, vol. 4 (1929) in Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Later Works, 1925–1953. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1988d [1929]. Individualism, Old and New. In Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, The Later Works 1925–1953, vol. 5, 1929–1930 (pp. 41–123). Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1989a [1934]. Art as Experience, vol. 10 (1929–1930) in Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Later Works 1925–1953. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1989b [1939]. Freedom and Culture. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 2012 [1941–1942]. Unmodern and Modern Philosophy, edited by Deen, Phillip. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John, and Tufts, James Hayden. 1985 [1932]. Ethics, vol. 7 in Boydston, Jo Ann (ed.), John Dewey, the Later Works, 1925–1953. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Dunlap, Riley E., and McCright, Aaron M.. 2015. “Challenging Climate Change, the Denial Countermovement.” In Dunlap, Riley E. and Brulle, Robert J. (eds.), Climate Change and Society, Sociological Perspectives (pp. 330–332). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dunlap, Riley E., McCright, Aaron M., and Yarosh, Jerrod H.. 2016. “The Political Divide on Climate Change, Partisan Polarization Widens in the U.S.” Environment 58(5): 4–23.Google Scholar
Feine, Paul. 2012. “Green on the Outside, Red on the Inside.” Reason.com. January. http://reason.com/archives/2011/11/20/green-on-the-outside-red-on-the-inside.Google Scholar
Foster, John Bellamy. 2000. Marx’s Ecology. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Foster, John Bellamy. 2013. “Marx and the Rift in the Universal Metabolism of Nature.” Monthly Review 65(7): 1–19.Google Scholar
Foster, John Bellamy, and Burkett, Paul. 2016. Marx and the Earth. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Thomas L. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York: Anchor.Google Scholar
Funk, Cary, and Kennedy, Brian. 2016. “The Politics of Climate.” Pew Research Center (October 4). www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/.Google Scholar
Ghosh, Amitav. 2016. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Robert J. 2016. The Rise and Fall of American Growth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay. 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Clive. 2013. Earthmasters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Clive. 2015. “The Theodicy of the Good Anthropocene.” Environmental Humanities 7: 233–38.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Clive, and Grinevald, Jacques. 2015. “Was the Anthropocene Anticipated?” The Anthropocene Review 2(1): 59–72.Google Scholar
Hansen, James, Kharecha, Pushker, and Sato, Makiko. 2013. “Assessing Dangerous Climate Change, Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature.” Plos One. 8(12). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0081648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrington, Brook. 2016. Capital without Borders. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. 1944. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heede, Richard. 2014. “Tracing Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide and Methane Emissions to Fossil Fuel and Cement Producers, 1854–2010.” Climate Change 122: 229–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilbroner, Robert. 1985. The Nature and Logic of Capitalism. New York, Norton.Google Scholar
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree about Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Tim. 2011. Prosperity without Growth. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Jacques, Peter, J., Dunlap, Riley E., and Freeman, Mark. 2008. “The Organization of Denial, Conservative Think Tanks and Environmental Skepticism.” Environmental Politics 17(3): 349–385.Google Scholar
Klare, Michael T. 2017. “Climate Change as Genocide.” Common Dreams, April 20. www.commondreams.org/views/2017/04/20/climate-change-genocide.Google Scholar
Leiserowitz, Anthony, Maibach, Edward, and Roser-Renouf, Connie. 2008. Global Warming’s “Six Americas.” New Haven, CT, and Fairfax, VA: Yale University and Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University.Google Scholar
Lenton, Timothy M., Held, Hermann, Kriegler, Elmar, et al. 2008. “Tipping Elements in the Earth’s Climate System.” PNAS 105(6): 1786–1793.Google Scholar
Levins, Richard, and Lewontin, Richard. 1985. The Dialectical Biologist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Simon L., and Maslin, Mark A.. 2015. “Defining the Anthropocene.” Nature 519 (March 12): 171–179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lippmann, Walter. 1937. The Good Society. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Co.Google Scholar
Longo, Stefano B., Clark, Brett, Shriver, Thomas E., and Clausen, Rebecca. 2016. “Sustainability and Environmental Sociology, Putting the Economy In Its Place and Moving Toward an Integrative Socio-Ecology.” Sustainability 8(5): 437, DOI:dx.doi.org/10.3390/su8050437.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael. 2013. The Sources of Social Power (Vol. 4), Globalizations, 1945–2011. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. 1975. Texts on Method. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. 1976 [1868]. Capital, vol. 1. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl, and Engels, Frederick. 1948 [1848]. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl, and Engels, Frederick. 1988. Collected Works, vol. 30. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert. 1962 [1934]. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert. 1964a [1927]. “The Objective Reality of Perspectives.” In Reck, Andrew J. (ed.), Selected Writings (pp. 306–319). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert. 1964b [1929–1930]. “The Philosophies of Royce, James, and Dewey in their American Setting.” In Reck, Andrew J. (ed.), Selected Writings (pp. 371–391). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company.Google Scholar
Meadows, Donella, Meadows, Dennis L., Randers, Jørgen, and Behrans III, William W.. 1972. The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe Books.Google Scholar
Meadows, Donella, Randers, Jørgen, and Meadows, Dennis L.. 2004. Limits to Growth. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.Google Scholar
Milanovic, Barnko. 2016. Global Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.Google Scholar
Millennium Ecological Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being, Synthesis Washington, DC: Island Press. www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.356.aspx.pdf.Google Scholar
Milman, Oliver. 2015. “James Hansen, Father of Climate Change Awareness, Calls Paris Talks ‘A Fraud.’” The Guardian (December 13). www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud.Google Scholar
Norgaard, Kari Marie. 2011. Living in Denial. Cambridge, MA: MIT.Google Scholar
Oreskes, Naomi, and Conway, Erik M.. 2010. Merchants of Doubt. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. 2016. “We Must Rethink Globalization, or Trumpism Will Prevail.” The Guardian (November 16). www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/16/globalization-trump-inequality-thomas-piketty.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 1957 [1944]. The Great Transformation, the Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon.Google Scholar
Powell, Lewis F. 1971. “Powell Memorandum, Attack on the American Free Enterprise System.” Powell Archives, Washington and Lee University School of Law. https://law.wlu.edu/powell-archivesGoogle Scholar
Prins, Gwyn, Galiana, Isabel, Green, Christopher, et al. 2010. “The Hartwell Paper.” Institute for Science Innovation and Society, University of Oxford and LSE MacKinder Programme May. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27939/1/HartwellPaper_English_version.pdf.Google Scholar
Rayner, Steve. 2013. “Planetary Boundaries as Millenarian Prophesies, Malthusian Echoes.” Oxford Martin School (April 10). www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/opinion/view/206.Google Scholar
Rockström, Johan, Steffen, Will, Noone, Kevin, et al. 2009. “A Safe Operating Space for Humanity.” Nature 461(24): 472–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1962 [1942]. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York & Evanston, IL: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Simon, Julian L. 1981. The Ultimate Resource. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Solow, Robert M. 1974. “The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics.” American Economic Review 64(2): 1–14.Google Scholar
Steffen, Will, Broadgate, Wendy, Deutsch, Lisa, Gaffney, Owen, and Ludwig, Cornelia. 2015. “The Trajectory of the Anthropocene, the Great Acceleration.” Anthropocene Review 2(1): 81–98.Google Scholar
Steffen, Will, Crutzen, Paul. J., and McNeill, John R.. 2007. “The Anthropocene, Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?” Ambio 36(8): 614–621.Google Scholar
Steffen, Will, Persson, Åsa, Deutsch, Lisa, et al. 2011. “The Anthropocene, From Global Change to Planetary Change.” Ambio 40: 739–761.Google Scholar
Steffen, Will, Richardson, Katherine, Johan Rockström, et al. 2015. “Planetary Boundaries, Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet.” Science 347(6232): 1259855–1-10.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang. 2016. How Will Capitalism End? London: Verso.Google Scholar
UN World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future. www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1949 [1904]. “Objectivity in the Social Sciences.” In Shils, Edward A. and Finch, Henry A. (eds. and trans.), The Methodology of the Social Sciences (pp. 49–112). New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 2011 [1920]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wike, Richard. 2016. “What the World Thinks about Climate Change in 7 Charts.” Pew Research Center (April 18). www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/18/what-the-world-thinks-about-climate-change-in-7-charts/.Google Scholar
WWF. 2016. Living Planet Report 2016. Gland, Switzerland: WWF International. www.worldwildlife.org/pages/living-planet-report-2016.Google Scholar
Zalasiewicz, Jan, Waters, Colin N., Williams, Mark, et al. 2015. “When Did the Anthropocene Begin? A Mid-Twentieth Century Boundary Level Is Stratigraphically Optimal.” Quaternary International 383: 196–203.Google Scholar
Zucman, Gabriel. 2016. “Wealth Inequality.” The Stanford Center on Poverty. https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways-SOTU-2016-Wealth-Inequality-3.pdfGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×