300453 Politics of Nature (MA: Politische Soziologie) (S) (SoSe 2024)

In the age of the so-called “Anthropocene” the concept of nature has become precarious. While the term “Anthropocene” claims to depict the human capabilities of changing global geological, atmospheric, and environmental processes, the thus named period at the same time proves the opposite: Having caused multiple simultaneous ecological crises like global warming, environmental pollution, and biological mass extinction, modern societies suddenly experience their often neglected entanglement with and dependence on natural entities like non-human life forms, ecosystems, and geological forces.

In view of these developments, the political character of “nature” and the urgent need to rethink social relationships and practices of nature have become obvious. In this seminar, we will therefore engage with three theoretical approaches from the social sciences that aim to re-articulate social relations to nature: 1) eco-socialist approaches which focus on capitalist societies’ economic and ecological entanglements and their extractivist logics (e.g., Moore, Fraser, Saito); 2) neo-materialist approaches which emphasize the materiality of human and more-than-human relations as basis for a new “ethico-onto-epistem-ology” (e.g., Haraway, Stengers, Barad); 3) decolonial approaches which put into question unifying scientific epistemologies of nature to argue for a “pluriversal cosmopolitics” (e.g., Escobar, Mignolo, Viveiros de Castro).

Requirements for participation, required level

Previous knowledge of the subject is not necessary. However, general prior knowledge and experience in dealing with texts of political theory and/or social theory as well as the willingness to read complex English-language texts are required.