The Society of the Anthropocene: Social Stability and Dynamics In Turbulent Times

At a time when humanity is leaving behind the favorable climatic conditions of the Holocene, the question arises to what extent this epochal shift changes the very conditions of social organization on the planet. Is the modern, secular order, including its historical forms of state and democracy, predicated on the existence of an expansive economic system that is fueled by abundant energy and exploitation of nature? In what ways will existing growth-dependent societies be affected by increasing instabilities of the earth-system and a dwindling material resource base? What, in short, will be the conditions for organized social life in the Anthropocene?

In this open session, we are interested in renewing the very question that has been driving sociological theory ever since its inception during the Industrial Revolution: How is society possible at all? To what extent have past answers to this question been premised on ‘fossilist’ and ‘industrial’ ontologies and epistemologies that may no longer provide reliable guidance for the future? For instance, can the logic of ‘functional differentiation’ or critical theories of the dynamics of capitalism plausibly be transposed to conditions of energetic contraction and economic decline? Do we need new concepts and theoretical vocabularies to grasp the changing conditions of social stability and dynamics in the Anthropocene?

We invite conceptual and theoretical papers that address these grand challenges from the perspectives of, e.g., social theory, historical or political sociology. In addition, we welcome theoretically founded submissions that develop a historical argument or are based on empirical observations.