Cultural History and the Anthropocene

This open access collection is a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and contributions of cultural history to contemporary and cross-disciplinary discussions of the Anthropocene.

Organised into three key sections, this volume is a concise and critical overview of interdisciplinary research on the cultural history of the Anthropocene. The first part introduces readers to the key conceptual and theoretical challenges of Anthropocene debates, before the second part analyses a variety of case studies, to highlight how ethnography and cultural history can make certain processes visible and historically tangible. Key case studies explored by the volume range from sustainability in poultry production, to 18th century mining, to natural history and the works of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen. Finally, the third section explores 5 critical approaches to Anthropocene discourse, and the challenges it may pose to alternative styles of cultural history.

Overall, this volume offers a synthesis of conceptual, historical, and critical approaches, that when combined provide a detailed overview of the latest research surrounding the cultural history of the Anthropocene.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the University of Bergen.

Author Biography

Anders Ekström is a Professor in the Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University, Sweden

Marit Ruge Bjærke is a Researcher in the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway

Brita Brenna is a Professor in the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, Oslo University, Norway

John Ødemark is Professor in the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, Oslo University, Norway