The asymmetrical anthropocene: resilience and the limits of posthumanism

Abstract

In this article we critique resilience’s oft-celebrated overcoming of modern liberal frameworks. We bring work on resilience in geography and cognate fields into conversation with explorations of the ‘asymmetrical Anthropocene’, an emerging body of thought which emphasizes human-nonhuman relational asymmetry. Despite their resonances, there has been little engagement between these two responses to the human/world binary. This is important for changing the terms of the policy debate: engaging resilience through the asymmetrical Anthropocene framing shines a different light upon policy discourses of adaptive management, locating resilience as a continuation of modernity’s anthropocentric will-to-govern. From this vantage point, resilience is problematic, neglecting the powers of nonhuman worlds that are not accessible or appropriable for governmental use. However, this is not necessarily grounds for pessimism. To conclude, we argue that human political agency is even more vital in an indeterminate world.

Design‐driven resilience and the limits of geographic critique

“…Second-cut critiques of resilience have increasingly focused on the constitutive influence of designerly styles of reasoning on resilience thinking (Chandler, 2018;Grove, 2018;Nelson, 2020;Wakefield et al, 2021). And for good reason.…”

“…Because GCRN seeks to maintain existing relations—not create new, or design‐driven, resilience programming for individual cities—its operations are distinct from those we examine in the 100RC planning process and are beyond our analytical scope. The existence of the GCRN nonetheless speaks to the conceptual persistence of resilience among urban planning, environmental management and international development experts (Wakefield et al, 2021).…”

Critical urban theory in the Anthropocene

“…Their Greater Miami and the Beaches partnership recently released Resilient305, a strategy plan for fielding increasingly frequent shocks and stressors, from sea rise and hurricanes to socioeconomic inequality and traffic jams (Greater Miami and the Beaches [GMB], 2019). Attempts are also underway to restore Everglades freshwater flows to push back saltwater intrusion into the urban drinking water supply (Wakefield et al, 2021). At the community scale, the South Florida Disaster Resilience Initiative seeks to increase the capacities of the city’s poor and vulnerable to prepare for and recover from extreme events (Wakefield, 2020b).…”

“…Municipal resilience projects have been extensively criticised by scholars for failing to include marginalised communities (Grove et al, 2020) or issues like mental health (Camponeschi, 2020). But in urban contexts and beyond, resilience has proven extremely resilient itself due to planners’ and governments’ ability to incorporate critiques and reinvent resilience as the most appropriate management approach for the Anthropocene (Wakefield et al, 2021).…”

“…Drawing on these assessments, in an essay originally titled ‘Goodbye, Miami’, Goodell (2013) envisioned the city’s 21st-century fate. Resilience’s hubris (Wakefield et al, 2021) becomes clear. Saltwater contaminates drinking water supply.…”