Liberty and the Ecological Crisis: Freedom on a Finite Planet (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)

La 4e de couv. indique : "This book examines the concept of liberty in relation to civilization's ability to live within ecological limits. Freedom, in all its renditions - choice, thought, action - has become inextricably linked to our understanding of what it means to be modern citizens. And yet, it is our relatively unbounded freedom that has resulted in so much ecological devastation. Liberty has piggy-backed on transformations in human-nature relationships that characterize the Anthropocene: increasing extraction of resources, industrialization, technological development, ecological destruction, and mass production linked to global consumerism. This volume provides a deeply critical examination of the concept of liberty as it relates to environmental politics and ethics in the long view. Contributions explore this entanglement of freedom and the ecological crisis, as well as investigate alternative modernities and more ecologically benign ways of living on Earth. The overarching framework for this collection is that liberty and agency need to be rethought before these strongly held ideals of our age are forced out. On a finite planet, our choices will become limited if we hope to survive the climatic transitions set in motion by uncontrolled consumption of resources and energy over the past 150 years. This volume suggests concrete political and philosophical approaches and governance strategies for learning how to flourish in new ways within the ecological constraints of the planet. Mapping out new ways forward for long-term ecological well-being, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of ecology, environmental ethics, politics and sociology, and for the wider audience interested in the human-Earth relationship and global sustainability." Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of contributors 1 Introduction The crossroads of progress The twilight of liberal rationalism Freedom and responsibility Redefining human liberation Overview of the book Conclusion References Part I Navigating wicked dilemmas of liberty and agency in the Anthropocene 2 Liberty in the near Anthropocene: State, market, and livelihood Introduction Energy, complexity, society, psychology Nation-state formation Modern liberties, individualism, and the nation-state End of growth: Politics in the context of declining prosperity Conservatism Socialism and social democracy Nationalism and the imagined community of the ‘nation’ Liberty in the Anthropocene: The politics of livelihood Notes References 3 Nations and nationalism in the Anthropocene Nationalism and the global growth economy The degrowth of nations Giving the Tea Party their due Notes References 4 Reclaiming freedom through prefigurative politics A brief introduction to complexity and resilience Socio-ecological complexity and the adaptive cycle: Modern capitalism on the brink The potential of prefigurative politics Freedom from a complex systems perspective Women as strategic self-organizing prefigurative activists Conclusion References Part II Seeds of freedom and nature in modern traditions 5 Are freedom and interdependency compatible? Lessons from classical liberal and contemporary feminist theory From natural subjection to Lockean freedoms Relational freedom and responsibility Conclusion Notes References 6 Limits and liberty in the Anthropocene Introduction Challenging limits: Ecomodernism and transhumanism Vulnerability Non-domination Conclusion References 7 The virtue ethics alternative to freedom for a mutually beneficial human–Earth relationship Introduction Types of virtue ethics The ontology of deontological and consequentialist ethical theories Aristotelian virtue ethics and the importance of the telos Objections to the concept of telos Response to objections The coupling of fact and value Virtue ethics, ecology, and freedom as flourishing Notes References 8 Who stands for Uŋčí Makhá: The liberal nation-state, racism, freedom, and nature Introduction MacIntyre’s critique of liberalism Collective self-rule Freedom No DAPL as a critique of liberalism Racism, the domination of nature, and the liberal nation-state Haŋblečeya and the Sacred Hoop What place do fish have in this analysis? Conclusion References 9 Nature, liberty, and ontology: Why nature experience still exists and matters in the Anthropocene Nature and liberty: Two traditions The agrarian tradition The sylvan liberty tradition Outlaw freedom From freedom in nature to freedom as transforming nature Sustainability and the preservation of liberty Nature on a spectrum of instrumental rationality Pragmatic naturalism Conclusion References Part III Resisting the undertow of modernity 10 Liberation from excess: A post-growth economy case for freedom in the Anthropocene Liberation from Excess Liberation and post-growth economy: Philosophical underpinnings Argument from diversity of subjects and their contexts Argument from participation in modes of provision Argument from the value of niches Blocked modes of provision Wage labour reduction and freedom Conclusion Notes References 11 Cognitively unstable rational agents: A new challenge for economics in the Anthropocene? Introduction Physics envy in the Anthropocene What makes the sciences rational from an economic perspective? Anthropocene and anthroposphere: Modelling agency, agentic models The two faces of homo economicus: Neoclassical economics as cognitively unstable? Two traditional threats to neoclassical economic hegemony, and two strategies for evading them Conclusion: Aristotle’s revenge: A new ontological threat to neoclassical economics? Notes References 12 The Civilicene and its alternatives: Anthropology and its longue durée Anthropological survival The ascendance of an era Sociogenic vs. anthropogenic The Civilicene Definitional intervention The descent of an era Conclusion References 13 Defending and driving the climate movement by redefining freedom Climate change as an issue of economic and cultural transformation Consumption as freedom: Business shapes culture in its preferred image An ecological and democratic understanding of freedom Redefine freedom to protect the movement The corporate culture machine The public’s vulnerability Appeals to freedom, then and now This is war Summary Redefine freedom to drive the movement Issue tangibility Engaging values Movement legitimacy Participant identity-formation Summary Conclusion: Illuminating our choices References Part IV From navigating the Anthropocene to being in the Ecozoic 14 A beginner’s guide to avoiding bad policy mistakes in the Anthropocene Introduction Optionality and choice in the Anthropocene Competing pathways to the future Agency, freedom, and optionality Conclusion: Safeguarding optionality in the anthropocene References 15 Liberty, energy, and complexity in the longue durée Introduction The historicity of liberal ideas: Liberty and the ontology of rational individualism Culture and personality Modernization, disembedding, and the society of individuals Individualism and the fibre of modern institutions A materialist account of ethics and agency: The triad of basic controls Liberty and the epochs of human development Liberty in the Pleistocene (middle/upper Palaeolithic): Liberty in the Holocene Liberty in modernity Liberty in the Anthropocene Continuing societal complexity A voluntary or involuntary loss of complexity Discussion: Liberty in the Anthropocene Conclusion References 16 Forest on trial: Towards a relational theory of legal agency for transitions into the Ecozoic Introduction: Vegetal agencies in the law Why plants? Personhood reinforces the ontological dualism between humans and nature. Can we think of legal agency beyond this divide? Situating non-personhood within legal ontologies On how ontological choices may determine legal frameworks Standing on the legal stage, the actor conceals the human and its constitutive relations underneath the mask of the person Indigenous law, plants, and ritual: A story of Amazonian legal concepts7 Legal plants: How vegetal others invite us to think about environmental law and governance otherwise Expanding agency to non-persons in the court of justice Notes References 17 From the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene to harmony in the Ecozoic A heroic voyage of thought and action Regrounding the human–Earth relationship and the myth of freedom At home in the Ecozoic: A relationship of harmony and resonance with nature From the emergency of the Anthropocene to educated hope for the Ecozoic Bibliography Index "This book examines the concept of liberty in relation to civilization's ability to live within ecological limits. Freedom, in all its renditions - choice, thought, action - has become inextricably linked to our understanding of what it means to be modern citizens. And yet, it is our relatively unbounded freedom that has resulted in so much ecological devastation. Liberty has piggy-backed on transformations in human-nature relationships that characterize the Anthropocene: increasing extraction of resources, industrialization, technological development, ecological destruction, and mass production linked to global consumerism. This volume provides a deeply critical examination of the concept of liberty as it relates to environmental politics and ethics in the long view. Contributions explore this entanglement of freedom and the ecological crisis as well as investigate alternative modernities and more ecologically benign ways of living on Earth. The overarching framework for this collection is that liberty and agency need to be rethought before these strongly held ideals of our age are forced out. On a finite planet, our choices will become limited if we hope to survive the climatic transitions set in motion by uncontrolled consumption of resources and energy over the past one hundred and fifty years. This volume suggests concrete political and philosophical approaches and governance strategies for learning how to flourish in news ways within the ecological constraints of the planet. Mapping out new ways forward for long term ecological well-being, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of ecology, environmental ethics, politics and sociology and for the wider audience interested in the human-earth relationship and global sustainability"-- Provided by publisher.