6. A Good Life, In Theory: Thinking and Living with Climate Change
In recent years, an increasing amount of STS and STS-aligned scholarship has used provocative and conceptually creative ways to address the exceptional challenges posed by global climate change. A number of theoretical orientations have emerged within the field of Anthropocene studies, such as new materialism and Gaia-based approaches, offering sophisticated ways for scholars to think through the implications of climate change for both human and more-than-human life. However, these shifts have also inspired backlash from those who argue that the constant search for new theory obfuscates empirical realities and the politics of responsibility (Malm 2018). Particularly in light of the climate crisis, the at-times tenuous and overlapping relationships between theoretical creativity, empirical rigor, and everyday action demand renewed critical attention.
This panel seeks to critically engage these fragile relationships within Anthropocene STS scholarship to illuminate potentials for individual, academic, and political meaning in a warming world. How can scholars hold onto both climate realism and creative conceptualizations of more-than-humans? Does the urgency of global warming demand a more overt level of political engagement in academia? Can we effectively reconcile the conceptual utility of our theoretical methodologies with the pragmatic and embodied risks of ecological justice? We welcome papers which might address these multiscalar gaps, reframing potential discrepancies as constructive spaces of possibility for good relations between fellow earthlings.
