ABSTRACT
The rise of the Anthropocene has created confusion in environmental politics, a field traditionally hopeful that a return to some socionatural stability was both possible and desirable. Paradoxically, while life in a warmer planet promises to be as dynamic as it is unstable, ecopolitical discussions of our post-Holocene future has become stuck. This chapter will explore this paradox, arguing for a political imaginary that goes beyond the simple dichotomy between a technocratic “good Anthropocene” and an “apocalyptic Anthropocene”. Political space should be opened up to other kinds of imaginaries. To such end, this chapter will pose three main arguments. First, the need to provincialize and pluralize the field of possible post-Holocene scenarios in order to avoid both conformity and despair. I will argue ecological modernities are plural. Second, that spaces emerging between critical design and the critical social sciences are, despite their limitations, an interesting place to look at in search for new ideas and scenarios. Finally, it will be argued that modes of critical design futuring need to more carefully attend to the labor point of view, so that a just transition to a post-Holocene future expands its range and appeal. This conversation will also show the ineradicable hybridity of the worlds we are going to make and the complexity of the transition. After all, a just transition is not simply about energy transition: it has to address much broader political matters and will require the deployment of new sources of political energy.
