ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter to the volume is “The Anthropocenic Turn.” Interplay between Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Responses to a New Age addresses the overarching question of this book: to provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary assessment whether the increasing salience of the Anthropocene concept in the humanities and the social sciences constitutes an “Anthropocenic turn.” Rather than proclaiming such a turn, the chapter adopts a reflexive perspective on the different uses of the Anthropocene concept and the ensuing effects on disciplinary and interdisciplinary engagements with the relationship between humans and the Earth. Within the Anthropocene discourse are existing paradigms, premises, theories and methodologies re-negotiated and re-embedded into novel conceptual configurations. Discussing several potential arguments against the desirability and necessity of an “Anthropocenic turn,” we argue that the Anthropocenic turn is currently a turn in the making. Nevertheless, the Anthropocene concept already functions (1) as a large-scale framework; (2) as an ontological shift; (3) and as driver of (inter- and trans-) disciplinary engagements with human-Earth relationships. Reviewing the contributions to the volume around the practices of “creating knowledge” and “narrating” and “sensing” the Anthropocene, we conclude that the ‘Anthropocene’ provides a useful bridging concept but requires deliberate efforts at interdisciplinary dialogue.
