The Grounding Sociologies of the Future: Anthropocene Futures Emerging from the Present Burning Up the Past

The Anthropocene thesis being advanced by many scientists, social scientists, and humanists is fraught with many uncertainties, but it also demands innovation in our methods and theories. What can sociology contribute to these broad debates, since the assumptions and aspirations about the Anthropocene increasingly are influencing the daily routines and long-term collective lives of those who accept its plausiblity? There still are many risks to be identified, avoided, mitigated, transferred, and shared, and the horizons of Earth System Science or Governance as social imaginaries with definite elitist and inegalitarian agendas to shape human and nonhuman futures.  What can be learned by comparing the expert and lay struggles in different countries and settings over this analysis of the future?  And, what visions for alternative futures in the Anthropocene are now imaginable and perhaps achievable for the broader macro-dynamics affecting the entire planet?