Landscapes of the Anthropocene: from dominion to dependence?

Eric Pawson; Andreas Aagaard Christensen

Landscapes of the Anthropocene: from dominion to dependence?

Eric Pawson, Andreas Aagaard Christensen

Landscape Architecture and Planning

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the dramatic increase in the power of human agency over the environment through an analysis of landscape change. It discusses the processes that have shaped new landscapes in the capitalist world before focusing on one place that is characteristic of the shifting balance of ecological agency in favour of humans during the Anthropocene. Banks Peninsula on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island was first settled by Polynesian peoples within the last few hundred years. The nature of their footprint contrasts with the dramatic change wrought by Europeans since the 1840s, when indigenous forests were transformed into improved landscapes of sown grass. The chapter is shaped by a broad question. What can be learned from this place about the ways in which people have exercised and are coming to terms with what Gibson-Graham and Roelvink describe as our ‘gargantuan agency’ and ‘almost unbearable level of responsibility’ in the Anthropocene (2009, 321)? It concludes with a discussion of the concept of ‘middle landscapes’ as one means by which the planetary dominion of humanity might be tempered with a realization of its dependence on terrestrial ecosystems for continued survival.

Translated title of the contribution	Landscapes of the Anthropocene: from dominion to dependence?
Original language	English
Title of host publication	Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities
Editors	Jodi Frawley, Ian McCalman
Number of pages	10
Publisher	Routledge
Publication date	2014
Pages	64-83
Chapter	5
ISBN (Print)	978-0-415-71656-7, 978-0-415-71657-4
Publication status	Published - 2014
Event	Rethinking Invasion Ecologies: Natures, Cultures and Societies in the age of the Anthropocene - University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Duration: 18 Jun 2012 → 19 Jun 2012 Conference number: 1

Conference

Conference	Rethinking Invasion Ecologies
Number	1
Location	University of Sydney
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Sydney
Period	18/06/2012 → 19/06/2012

Series	Routledge Environmental Humanities

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences
Modernization
Development
Post-Colonial Territories
Post-productivism
Faculty of Science
Environmental history
Landscape management
Banks Peninsula
New Zealand
Forest management
Forest history
Rephotography

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

05 CHAPTER 05 - Sydnet chapter udgivetSubmitted manuscript, 1.61 MB

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415716574/

1 Other (prizes, external teaching and other activities) - Period visiting other institutions

Guest researcher at Canterbury University
Andreas Aagaard Christensen (Participant)
4 Jan 2013 → 29 Jan 2013
Activity: Other activity types › Other (prizes, external teaching and other activities) - Period visiting other institutions

Cite this

Landscapes of the Anthropocene : from dominion to dependence? / Pawson, Eric; Christensen, Andreas Aagaard.

Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities. ed. / Jodi Frawley; Ian McCalman. Routledge, 2014. p. 64-83 (Routledge Environmental Humanities).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

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Landscapes of the Anthropocene: from dominion to dependence?

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Activities

Guest researcher at Canterbury University

Cite this