ABSTRACT
The term Anthropocene was first introduced as a purely scientific geological concept – yet, it has been framed as a normative narrative from the very beginning. In a first step, Maike Weißpflug analyses the Anthropocene narrative as ‘grand’ storytelling, detached from everyday actions and real-world experiences – making it difficult rethink our relation to and responsibility for the natural world. In a second step, she proposes to rethink the Anthropocene with Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno. Both offer a critique of abstract ‘grand’ narratives and call for more complex, decentralised human-nature relations. Acknowledging the complexity, diversity and local dimensions of how societies relate to nature opens up ways to redefine and reshape these relations and a shared responsibility towards humanity and the natural world we live in.
