The social science, cultural studies and humanities debate on the Anthropocene - the new earth age proclaimed by geologists in which humans (Greek anthropos) become a planetary force of nature - has led to an unexpected return of anthropological statements. Crosswise to the dominant social constructivism and endowed with political relevance by the phenomenon of the Anthropocene, posthuman, relational and post-anthropocentric anthropologies in particular are enjoying increasing popularity.

The intended doctoral project reads these posthumanist debates, whose central commonality lies in the decentering of the human being - analogous to Foucault's analysis of the human and life sciences - as a biopolitical discourse of truth, whose body of knowledge represents a knowledge of power on demand. The cognitive interest here consists in exploring emancipatory potentials of a posthumanist biopolitics in the Anthropocene, which, while still far from occupying the spaces of power, sets out to transform its mode of operation.

From this objective and from the preoccupation with theoretical debates as discourses of truth follows the methodological procedure of this thesis, which consists in a discourse analysis of this precarious knowledge of power. The aim is to identify both emancipative potentials and dangers for regressive relapses.

This work thus not only opens up a self-reflexive perspective on social and cultural science knowledge production, but also a starting point for an exploratory analysis of alternative futures of an art of governance in the Anthropocene. In this sense, this work asks neither present-diagnostic "what is?" nor prophetic "what will be?" but "what if?" and thus counters the omnipresent closure of futures - whether imagined as apocalypse or world salvation.

Thematic focus: Globalisation