ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how different narratives and framings of the Anthropocene shape the democratic underpinning of sustainability discourses and thus transformative action towards sustainability. We synthesize the debates around democracy-related challenges of the Anthropocene, which allows us to develop implications for the field of sustainability. As the Anthropocene blurs the lines between human activity and environmental degradation on a global scale, the concept has become an indispensable source of legitimacy for action towards green transformations and decarbonization, while hiding the term’s inherently contested nature. Taking a social constructivist perspective, we argue that the democratic implications of the Anthropocene largely depend on how we frame the concept and which meanings we attach to it. While a science-driven, eco-modernist and techno-deterministic perception is likely to narrow down the room for democratic interventions, a more open, inclusive and reflexive use of the concept holds the chance to enhance democratic debates around the means and ends of sustainability. While we sketch out how opposing Anthropocene narratives frame these critical elements of democratic decision-making fundamentally differently, we also offer a deconstructivist frame of the Anthropocene which holds the potential to reclaim sustainability discourses, re-politicize sustainability action, and rethink the democratic underpinning of sustainability governance.
