Doctoral Programme Human Rights and Social Justice

Organised by the "(Dis-)entangled Anthropocene reading circle"

The Anthropocene is an increasingly influential concept in research that supposedly heralds a new geological epoch. This concept states that humans (the Anthropos) have profoundly altered the Earth's biochemical and geophysical processes, destabilising the previous ecological stability of the Holocene (e.g. through climate change, pollution, species extinction, deforestation, etc.). So we are not dealing with a set of "external" problems that are separate from humanity (something "out there"), but with a state that "we" are in now. A state defined by the collapse of previously secure binaries: Nature/Culture, inside/outside and subject/object. As such, modern notions of progress, development and markets - the physical and ideological infrastructure that underpins our globalised Western world - no longer seem to function as intended. The positivity of the notion of infrastructures that sustain modern society increasingly evokes fears of side effects, destruction, violence and collapse. Thus, the Anthropocene ultimately challenges our basic assumptions about what we know and how we understand the world.

Starting from this condition, this two-day workshop seeks to use infrastructure in all its aspects (natural, built, cognitive, affective) as a heuristic entry point into the transformations of the Anthropocene and to critically scrutinise its promises of renewal and collapse (political, business, ecological, temporal). What counts as infrastructure in the Anthropocene? What hopes and fears are associated with infrastructural imaginaries and projects? What legacy do they carry? What possibilities for critical intervention do they harbour?

Passing through a series of research presentations, group discussions, a film screening and a field trip to the forests, this course is a multidisciplinary workshop designed to bring students, researchers and practitioners closer to the new 'human' age and open up a space for collaborative discussion and exchange of perspectives.