Introduction to Knowledge For The Anthropocene

Abstract

Why 'Knowledge for the Anthropocene'? How is this title relevant? Basically, it refers to how these two terms relate to each other. How we understand each of them on their own and then how a new relationship can be constructed between them. Such relationship can in turn set up new inter-determinacies, co-evolving in their subsequent understanding.The term Anthropocene was introduced to name the proposed geological epoch following the Holocene (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000). It is characterized by an overwhelming mark of human activity on Earth so as to leave a geo-stratigraphical record (Zalasiewicz et al., 2010;Zalasiewicz et al., 2019). While there is ongoing debate regarding the starting date of the Anthropocene, a favoured interpretation is to associate it to the 'Great Acceleration': the surge of human impact on Earth since the mid-20th century (Steffen, Broadgate et al., 2015;McNeill & Engelke, 2016). Given the enormous significance of these facts and the observed and potential consequences for the Biosphere, the term has also been adopted to comprise its wider social, economic and cultural implications (

Park Rangers and Science-Public Expertise: Science as Care in Biosecurity for Kauri Trees in Aotearoa/New Zealand

“…As science itself finds itself more highly politicized around environmental and land management issues, and involves concerns about uncertainty, care, geography and culture, there are important questions about the role of rangers' knowledge in facilitating public engagement and willingness precisely as science becomes more diverse, fragmentated and rich (Giraud and Hollin 2016;Robinson and Wallington 2012). These questions are not only being raised by SES scholars focused on engaging multiple knowledge-systems in successful adaptive management, but instead raise broader issues about the political, affective and nonlinear relationships that exist between science and society, culture and nature, professionals and other kinds of experts more generally (Carrillo 2021). The overall effect is an acknowledgement of the porous and partial nature of knowledge, which becomes evident when intermediary perspectives are involved.…”