The Anthropocene is a controversial word describing our current era. Though not a formally adopted scientific term, it points to how globally dominant, human-centered economic and political systems have had significant ecological effects so as to alter the course of earth history. In just a few centuries, a small subset of humans, beginning in Europe and North America, have become ever more successful at converting nature into capital through colonization, industrialization, imperialism, and financialization of climate risk and resilience. The costs have been great: exponential decreases in biodiversity, unpredictable and extreme weather, the degradation of entire ecosystems and the human and more-than-human lifeways they support. The accelerated conversion of “nature” into “resource” is not consistent with the long-term survival, let alone flourishing, of humanity – or anything else. The present course invites despair, which can lead to inaction. But other visions of how humans should relate to the world have always existed, and audacious new imaginaries are still being born. They chart a future in which humans are integrated with the world, rather than in control of it.
This issue seeks submissions that explore the world after the Anthropocene, to materialize and make possible future-thinking in the present, to demonstrate that paradigm shifts and radical actions will come from imagining the futures we want and need. Tsing et al. have argued that, “Somehow, in the midst of ruins, we must maintain enough curiosity to notice the strange and wonderful as well as the terrible and terrifying” (2017: M7). We are looking for works that grapple with these strange and wonderful aspects of the Anthropocene, as well as the terrible and terrifying. These ideas will show recognition, support, and appreciation for post-Anthropocene ecological webs, integrate knowledges that collapse perceived divides between nature and culture, and think about scales outside of human time and place. We hope to gain and share insights from diverse perspectives, such as Indigenous thought, grassroots activism, public policy, alternative economies, and experimental living. We also seek diverse forms, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, theoretical or critical essays, ethnographic or autoethnographic accounts, case studies, empirical works, artworks, graphic narratives, etc.