Pluralizing Debates on the Anthropocene Requires Engaging with the Diversity of Existing Scholarship

A recent article in this journal (Jackson 2021) validly emphasized that debates about the Anthropocene need to recognize a diverse range of perspectives, worldviews, and forms of knowledge. In doing so, however, the author mischaracterized scholarship on earth system governance as being antithetical to a critical and pluralistic stance on the Anthropocene. In this commentary we address key concerns about the article: selective and misleading quotations regarding the earth system governance literature’s diversity; unwarranted insinuations that juxtapose the implications of this literature with those of slavery and holocausts; and neglect of the breadth and diversity of scholarship on earth system governance. We underscore the need for scholarly debates on the Anthropocene to be informed by a balanced and rigorous assessment of existing scholarship, and for a constructive dialogue between global and locally situated ways of understanding the earth.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Pickering, Jonathan, Patterson, James, Biermann, Frank, Burch, Sarah, Elliott, Lorraine, Gupta, Aarti, Inoue, Cristina Yumie Aoki, Ishii, Atsushi, Kalfagianni, Agni, Meadowcroft, James, Okereke, Chukwumerije, Persson, Åsa
Format:	Article/Letter to editor biblioteca
Language:	English
Subjects:	Anthropocene, diversity, earth system governance, inclusion, pluralism,
Online Access:	https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/pluralizing-debates-on-the-anthropocene-requires-engaging-with-th
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