Laura Ogden assembled a motley crew of colleagues including myself, as well as Ulrich Oslender, Paige West, Karim-Aly Kassam and Paul Robbins, and together we just published this essay in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The main idea was to open up some of the language ecologists are increasingly using to discuss the Anthropocene.
Abstract:
In this paper, we argue that the Anthropocene is an epoch characterized not only by the anthropogenic dominance
of the Earth’s ecosystems but also by new forms of environmental governance and institutions.
Echoing the literature in political ecology, we call these new forms of environmental governance “global
assemblages”. Socioecological changes associated with global assemblages disproportionately impact poorer
nations and communities along the development continuum, or the “Global South”, and others who depend
on natural resources for subsistence. Although global assemblages are powerful mechanisms of socioecological
change, we show how transnational networks of grassroots organizations are able to resist their negative social
and environmental impacts, and thus foster socioecological resilience.
Nik Heynen 