ABSTRACT
More-than-humanism is subject to internal debate and external criticism. This final chapter focuses on the critiques of more-than-humanism offered by four proximal fields of academic enquiry: Marxist political ecology, indigenous and black studies, critical animal studies, and science studies. It identifies three main categories of critique. First, that ‘flat ontologies’ (theories that emphasise the ability of nonhumans and things, as well as humans, to shape worlds) are inadequate for tracing how specific humans are responsible for shaping (and harming) the lives of other people and the environments in which they live. Second, that more-than-human knowledge practices have either suspended critical attention to how some types of scientific knowledge are generated, or by contrast have given up on science, reason, and the humanist ideal of progress. Third, that more-than-humanism pays insufficient attention to historical and contemporary forms of capitalism, colonialism, racism, and patriarchy. These various criticisms are not without merit. The chapter situates and explains how each of the four fields has developed these and related criticisms of more-than-humanism. It then identifies how a range of more-than-human geographers have sought to respond and engage with such concerns. More-than-humanism is shown to offer a ‘sharper’ form of critical analysis through engagement with its critics.
