Young People and Stories for the Anthropocene


Book Description

This edited collection presents stories of children and young people’s entanglements with times of ongoing crisis in the Anthropocene. The authors use biographical narratives and arts-based methodologies to further the discussion surrounding young people’s well-being, resilience, and enterprise. Through these stories, they seek to critically engage with the literature on the Anthropocene and interrogate concepts such as agency, structure, and belonging.




Young People and Stories for the Anthropocene


Book Description

This book presents stories of children and young people's entanglements with times of ongoing crisis in the Anthropocene.




The Children of the Anthropocene


Book Description

'An inspirational manifesto for change' Caroline Lucas, former leader of The Green Party 'A remarkable and important book' Steve Backshall, Naturalist, Broadcaster, and Author 'Astute, erudite and crystalline, Bella writes with visionary clarity and passion [...] It's a wonderful book' Dara McAnulty, award-winning author of Diary of a Young Naturalist ____________________________ Across the planet, the futures of young people hang in the balance as they face the harsh realities of the environmental crisis. Isn't it time we made their voices heard? The Children of the Anthropocene, by conservationist and activist Bella Lack, chronicles the lives of the diverse young people on the frontlines of the environmental crisis around the world, amplifying the voices of those living at the heart of the crisis. Advocating for the protection of both people and the planet, Bella restores the beating heart to global environmental issues, from air pollution to deforestation and overconsumption, by telling the stories of those most directly affected. Transporting us from the humming bounty of Ecuador's Choco Rainforest and the graceful arcs of the Himalayan Mountains, to the windswept plains and vibrant vistas of life in Altiplano, Bella speaks to young activists from around the world including Dara McAnulty, Afroz Shah and Artemisa Xakriabá, and brings the crisis vividly to life. It's time we passed the mic and listened to different perspectives. Bella's manifestos for change will inspire and mobilize you to rediscover the wonders and wilds of nature and, ultimately, change the way you think about our planet in crisis. This is your chance to hear the urgent stories of an endangered species too often overlooked: the children of the Anthropocene. ____________________________ 'Extraordinarily moving, wild and engaging - the book of the moment' Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and author of Climate Justice 'A visionary statement for the future [...] Pragmatic, positive & beautifully written' Ben Macdonald, Award-Winning Conservation Writer, Wildlife TV Producer and Naturalist




Young People and Thinking Technologies for the Anthropocene


Book Description

This collection, which is a companion volume to Young People and Stories for the Anthropocene (Kelly et al., 2022), aims to find, to explore, and to co-produce ways of ‘staying with the trouble’ (Haraway 2016) that are disruptive of orthodoxies in childhood and youth studies, and productive of new ways of thinking, and of being and becoming, in the circumstances that we (young and old) find ourselves in. Circumstances that have, problematically, been identified as the Anthropocene, and which have been characterised as being situated at the convergence of the climate crisis, the 6th mass extinction, and the ongoing crises of global capitalism as ‘earth system’ (Braidotti 2019, Moore 2015). The collection emerges, in part, and among other things, around three key challenges. First, how can childhood and youth studies tell stories about the less obviously-bounded, obviously-crafted, obviously-engineered material stuff that humans create and that circulates – stuff like plastics, chemicals, and the scattered remnants of past industrial endeavour. Second, the need to experiment with diverse modes of representation: with differently-mediated technologies and modes of telling that, from digital film platforms to children’s non-fiction writing, expand our lexicon in terms of how it might become possible to narrate young people in/and the Anthropocene. Third, the need to articulate different ‘tools’ for working with young people in the Anthropocene. ‘Tools’ and ‘technologies’, understood in this manner, are modes of becoming-attuned to, and of making, new configurations of human and non-human, new and pressing threats that weigh upon young people in visceral, affective ways, and new modes of speculating about and becoming-responsible for futures – human and more-than-human. In this sense, the contributions to the collection, from scholars from the Anglo and non-Anglosphere, are framed by an urgency to develop and deploy innovative, critical and disruptive theoretical and methodological tools and technologies to identify and explore the material, temporal and conceptual challenges for children and young people, and those who research in childhood and youth studies, at this convergence.




The Anthropocene Reviewed


Book Description

Goodreads Choice winner for Nonfiction 2021 and instant #1 bestseller! A deeply moving collection of personal essays from John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. “The perfect book for right now.” –People “The Anthropocene Reviewed is essential to the human conversation.” –Library Journal, starred review The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar. Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together. John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. The Anthropocene Reviewed is an open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.




Childhood, Citizenship, and the Anthropocene


Book Description

The planet is dying. Our earth’s climate has reached a point where it can no longer regulate itself. Fires, floods, and natural disasters are sweeping countries across the world. What does it mean to be a child citizen in the Anthropocene? Can we teach children a posthuman civics that can care for the more-than-human world? Extending on the concepts of ‘little publics’ and ‘posthuman citizenships’, this book progresses these notions with a view to modelling, and better understanding, posthuman publics and civics. Using experimental methodologies, the authors develop original, robust ways of understanding children's subcultural civic practices founded on care for the more than human.




Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene


Book Description

The first study to look at the intersection of the discourse of the Anthropocene within the two highly influential storytelling modes of fantasy and myth, this book shows the need for stories that articulate visions of a biocentric, ecological civilization. Fantasy and myth have long been humanity's most advanced technologies for collective dreaming. Today they are helping us adopt a biocentric lens, re-kin us with other forms of life, and assist us in the transition to an ecological civilization. Deliberately moving away from dystopian narratives toward anticipatory imaginations of sustainable futures, this volume blends chapters by top scholars in the fields of fantasy, myth, and Young Adult literature with personal reflections by award-winning authors and illustrators of books for young audiences, including Shaun Tan, Jane Yolen, Katherine Applegate and Joseph Bruchac. Chapters cover the works of major fantasy authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Terry Prachett, J. K. Rowling, China Miéville, Barbara Henderson, Jeanette Winterson, John Crowley, Richard Powers, George R. R. Martin and Kim Stanley Robinson. They range through narratives set in the UK, USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Across the chapters, fantasy and myth are framed as spaces where visions of sustainable futures can be designed with most detail and nuance. Rather than merely criticizing the ecocidal status quo, the book asks how mythic narratives and fantastic stories can mobilize resistance around ideas necessary for the emergence of an ecological civilization.




Love in the Anthropocene


Book Description

“Dale Jamieson and Bonnie Nadzam cause us to think—and to feel—what life will be like in a future where nothing is left that is spontaneous, accidental, or uncontrolled. A beautiful—and frightening—book.” —Naomi Oreskes, professor, history of science, Harvard; author, Merchants of Doubt “Nadzam's prose is just gorgeous—she writes about people and skies and mountains and landscapes with incredible precision and appreciation of beauty. A reader can swim in these sentences and soak up the landscape via the prose with great pleasure.” —Aimee Bender on Bonnie Nadzam's Lamb “I started reading [Jamieson's prose] and couldn't stop... Part of what’s mesmerizing about climate change is its vastness across both space and time. Jamieson, by elucidating our past failures and casting doubt on whether we’ll ever do any better, situates it within a humanely scaled context.” —Jonathan Franzen on Dale Jamieson's Reason in a Dark Time An audacious collaboration between an award-winning novelist and a leading environmental philosopher, Love in the Anthropocene taps into one of the hottest topics of the day, literally and figuratively—our corrupted environment—to deliver five related stories (“Flyfishing,” “Carbon,” “Holiday,” “Shanghai,” and “Zoo”) that investigate a future bereft of natural environments, introduced with a discussion on the Anthropocene—the Age of Humanity—and concluding with an essay on love. The “love” these writer/philosophers investigate and celebrate is as much a constant as is human despoliation of the planet; it is what defines us, and it is what may save us. Science fiction, literary fiction, philosophical meditation, manifesto? All the above. This unique work is destined to become an essential companion—a primer, really—to life in the 21st century.




Children in the Anthropocene


Book Description

This book elaborates the need, in a rapidly urbanizing world, for recognition of the ecological communities we inhabit in cities and for the development of an ethics for all entities (human and non-human) in this context. Children and their entangled relations with the human and more-than-human world are located centrally to the research on cities in Bolivia and Kazakhstan, which investigates the future challenges of the Anthropocene. The author explores these relations by employing techniques of intra-action, diffraction and onto-ethnography in order to reveal the complexities of children’s lives. These tools are supported by a theoretical framing that draws on posthumanist and new materialist literature. Through rich and complex stories of space-time-mattering in cities, this work connects children’s voices with a host of others to address the question of what it means to be a child in the Anthropocene.




Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene


Book Description

In this era of climate crisis, in which our very futures are at stake, sustainability is a global imperative. Yet we tend to associate sustainability, nature, and the environment with distant places, science, and policy. The truth is that everything is environmental, from transportation to taxes, work to love, cities to cuisine. This book is the first to examine contemporary Singapore from an ecocultural lens, looking at the ways that Singaporean life and culture is deeply entangled with the nonhuman lives that flourish all around us. The authors represent a new generation of cultural critics and environmental thinkers, who will inherit the future we are creating today. From chilli crab to Tiger Beer, Changi Airport to Pulau Semakau, O-levels to orang minyak films, these essays offer fresh perspectives on familiar subjects, prompting us to recognise the incredible urgency of climate change and the need to transform our ways of thinking, acting, learning, living, and governing so as to maintain a stable planet and a decent future.