Science, Politics, and the Anthropocene Working Group

What was the Anthropocene?
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-99004-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 526 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Between 2009 and 2024, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), an interdisciplinary team of geologists, archaeologists, Earth systems scientists, historians of science, and one lawyer, sought to formalise the Anthropocene as a formal unit of the Geologic Time Scale. Science, Politics, and the Anthropocene Working Group: What Was the Anthropocene? presents the first comprehensive, ethnographic and history of science study of the AWG’s formalisation effort. Drawing on original archival research, this book provides a history of the formalisation procedure, as well as the practices of measurement and correlation, particularly to the amendment of the Geologic Time Scale.

Through participant observation, this book explains how the AWG applied geological methods and practices to situate contemporary society within the context of 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history. Positioning contemporary debates concerning the Anthropocene within a historical appraisal of geoscience, Science, Politics, and the Anthropocene Working Group: What Was the Anthropocene? offers a unique, multidisciplinary perspective on how scientific knowledge is shaped and legitimised under conditions of the climate crisis. Science, Politics, and the Anthropocene Working Group: What Was the Anthropocene? provides an invaluable resource for scholars of all levels studying geosciences, the history of science, social studies of science, and the Anthropocene.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Damianos, Alexander

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

1. What Was the Anthropocene?

2. The Original Forensic Science

3. An Evaluative Framework

4. Biography of the GSSP

5. The AWG Meeting of Mainz, September 2018

6. Exhibiting the Anthropocene

Über Autor(innen)

Alexander Damianos is lecturer at Kent Law School, University of Kent. He researches the historical significance of science and technology. He regularly publishes in leading journals across law, aesthetics, and sociology of science. He holds a PhD in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.