The Anthropocene has emerged as perhaps the scientific concept of the
new millennium. Going further than earlier conceptions of the
human-environment relationship, Anthropocene science proposes that human
activity is tipping the whole Earth system into a new state, with
unpredictable consequences. Social life has become a central ingredient
in the dynamics of the planet itself.
How should the social sciences respond to the opportunities and
challenges posed by this development? In this innovative book, Clark and
Szerszynski argue that social thinkers need to revise their own
presuppositions about the social: to understand it as the product of a
dynamic planet, self-organizing over deep time. They outline 'planetary
social thought' a transdisciplinary way of thinking social life with and
through the Earth. Using a range of case studies, they show how familiar
social processes can be radically recast when looked at through a
planetary lens, revealing how the world-transforming powers of human
social life have always depended on the forging of relations with the
inhuman potentialities of our home planet.
Presenting a social theory of the planetary, this book will be essential
reading for students and scholars interested in humanity's relation to
the changing Earth.