Ending the Anthropocene: Essays on Activism in the Age of Collapse

Activist essays on ending the Anthropocene, from Belgian theorist Lieven De Cauter, author of Entropic Empire and The Dwarf in the Chess Machine

In this book, activist philosopher and philosophical activist Lieven De Cauter (born 1959) investigates the idea that if we want to avoid collapse, we have to end the Anthropocene era. It might even be, he argues, that the collapse of our current, growth-maximizing system is the only hope for the biosphere. Offering case studies on urban activism alongside reflections on civic action, De Cauter moves from the political melancholy caused by the prospect of climate disaster toward reflections on more hopeful events of our times, such as the resurgence of the commons. From this new perspective identity and heterotopia, other spaces as places for otherness, can be read in a new light. This collection of writings closes with texts on the COVID-19 crisis and biopolitics. This accessible, exciting book of "activist essays" expresses the author's creed: "pessimism in theory, optimism in practice."