Inhabiting the Anthropocene back loop

Infrastructures of liberal life: From modernity and progress to resilience and ruins

“…If we are already living “after” the Anthropocene—or, as I argue elsewhere, in its “back loop’ (Wakefield, )‐ despite its dominant iteration as liberal governance, resilience's design modalities might provide a vector for thinking such positive transformation because they embody a form of situated experimentation (Broto & Bulkeley, ; Edwards & Bulkeley, ; Evans, ; Last, ; Stengers, ) in which the “lab” is not a pristine or sterile space but rather the urban environment itself, an expanded field in which old boundaries and limits are removed and innovation, imagination, and daring are not only considered essential tools for design but also for urban survival. Yet because it is situated “in the world,” in local environments, histories, and metabolisms, resilience is equally reliant and shaped by local legacies.…”

“…While posed as a critically minded new political paradigm for the Anthropocene, “dwelling in the ruins” proponents too often simply make explicit what is implicit in resilience, forwarding damaged images of life as insecure, apolitical, and hostage to volatile earth systems (Evans & Reid, ; Neocleous, ; Wakefield, ; Walker & Cooper, ). In these visions, implicitly or explicitly human existence is conceived as little different from the resilient life criticized above, albeit reduced further as hubris is no longer allowed, ideas of future improvement said to be impossible, and creation and audacity denigrated as outdated artifacts of the 20th century.…”

The Evolution of Resilience

“…In terms of a socio-ecological reading of resilience, the social order of the Anthropocene has moved out of the 'exploitation' and 'conservation' phases where the system can be optimized for those best suited to its current configuration and past the tipping point into the release and reorganization phase -or the 'back loop.' 54 Chandler has suggested that the Anthropocene "is not just another problem or crisis to be 'solved' or 'bounced-back' from or 'recouped' but rather a sign that modernity was a false promise of salvation, one that has brought us to the brink of destruction." 55 Indeed, the concept of "dwelling in the ruins" 56 moves beyond the prediction of a darker side to resilience and instead seeks to explore the contemporary 'ruins,' where by "biopolitical doubling, we now manage other life to secure human life."…”

Islands of relationality and resilience: The shifting stakes of the Anthropocene

“…Rather than regarding resilience as a governance practice that stabilises and extends the present condition and wards off the crisis of climate change, it would be better to accept that the crisis has already occurred. As Stephanie Wakefield (, ) argues, new understandings, which accept that we already live in the Anthropocene, call for an entirely new set of approaches and practices. To assume that we live post‐crisis would mean – taking CS Holling's concept of the “adaptive cycle” – that we are in the “back loop,” i.e., in a period of flux and reorganisation, in contrast to the “front loop” of stability and gradual progress (Gunderson & Holling, ) associated with the Holocene.…”