ABSTRACT
The Anthropocene, or “Human Epoch,” is a period whose defining feature is the massive anthropogenic disruption of natural systems at a planetary level. The formulation of the Anthropocene is thus made synchronous with a moment of social self-reflexivity in which humans acknowledge their fragility in the face of global environmental threats. The relation between the latter and the Anthropocene is more ambiguous than it seems. Actually, there should be room for a nuanced account of socionatural relations that combines two analytical perspectives: that of the human species whose aggregated impact on the environment causes significant transformations on the latter at a global level; and that which distinguishes the particular contributions of each social group. Due to the aggregation of human activities across time and space, social and natural systems have now become entangled and thus human beings must be reckoned as environmental forces in their own right.
