Ecocene PoliticsEcocene Politics is available in Open Access as well as more traditional formats. It is a work of environmental political theory, offering several concepts that can help navigate the ecological loss that is becoming a generalised condition. It develops the idea of Ecocene as a political variant of the Anthropocene, and builds political concepts rooted in ecological science. Anchored in the diverse ecological practices of communities in southern Italy and Aotearoa/New Zealand, this book proposes a restorative ethics of mutualism, an emancipatory theory intended to re-invigorate human agency in the face of contemporary ecological challenges. Using ecology alongside European moral and Māori philosophies to re-conceptualise the ecological remit of politics, this book’s granular approach questions the role played by contemporary political ontologies in the separation of humans and environments, offering an in-depth view of their renewed interrelation under mutualism. Ecocene Politics will be essential to researchers and students in the fields of politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and geography. It will be of further interest to those working in the fields of political ecology, environmental humanities, and Anthropocene studies, as well as to general readers seeking a theoretical approach to the political issues posed by current ecological crises.
The author, Dr Mihnea Tanasescu is Research Fellow at the Political Science Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).