Science for the Anthropocene - Learning to Fly

What is meant by the increasingly common phrase ‘more-than-human’? In Episode 9, we dive into this question, which is potentially so important for a science for the Anthropocene, by talking about… the humble chicken.  We are joined for this discussion by the brilliant Catherine Oliver, a ‘beyond-human’ geographer and lecturer in climate change and society. Now bred in their billions (and modified) for eggs and meat, a closer look at chickens proves exceptionally revealing in terms of what they reflect back to us, good and bad, about human society, with which they have co-evolved for some 10,000 years. In fact, the chicken turns out to be a remarkably different creature to the banal farmyard fowl we may imagine: on the one hand, magical birds primarily prized for their plumage, only converted into a common food comparatively recently, and now, post-Covid, with a growing movement of reconnection with them as pets; on the other, no longer ‘chickens’ at all but a new and engineered species, hence a standout symbol of the Anthropocene itself. Our wide-ranging conversation also brings in the multiple challenges of our current relations with chickens and birdlife, including the avian flu currently devastating bird populations; the environmental, social and ethical costs of our current mega-breeding of chickens; the ‘plantationocene’; multi-species urban ecologies; and much more…

In Episode 8, we stick again with the subjective side of the crises of the Anthropocene, but turning to a more explicitly sociological approach. How do the ways in which we relate to the world shape the problems of climate change and the environment? Pretty fundamentally, according to our guest, the award-winning social theorist, Hartmut Rosa. Indeed, for Rosa, this question of ‘our relations to the world’ is the key to understanding how we now find ourselves in such a mess… and is richly suggestive of what we need to do – in society more generally, and in scientific research – to get through and beyond it. Specifically, we need to recognize that what we are really seeking is the experience of ‘resonance’, with the world, with others and with ourselves. Building on this insight as basis for a reformulated conception of what the ‘good life’ really is, Rosa maps out his paradigm-shifting ‘sociology of resonance’, as in his 2019 landmark book. Join us in another wide-ranging and exciting discussion of how we can learn to see the predicament of the Anthropocene differently, and possibly more productively, including: the fundamental nature of the epidemic of acceleration and alienation in contemporary social life; the pivotal role of self-efficacy as against a sense of powerlessness, including regarding new technologies; the contradictory form of our normal relations to ‘nature’; the uncontrollability of the world; and much more…

In Episode 7 we are keeping with the theme of the mind and climate change, but turning directly to the insights available from the mind sciences: neuroscience and psychology. Discussing these issues, we are in the excellent company of Kris de Meyer, who is a neuroscientist and Director of University College London’s Climate Action Unit. In this role, Kris has led numerous important collaborations with policymakers and stakeholders, including the exceptional programme of the Net Zero Innovation Project which funds and supports collaborations between UK local authorities and universities. Combining insights from these mind sciences with careful attention to how programmes of climate science communication and policy action are actually run, and hence to many of the stand-out problems they habitually run into, Kris and colleagues have developed whole programmes leading the way in getting those working on climate to take seriously what we know about the limitations and capacities of the most fundamental instrument of all, our minds. Join us in another wide-ranging and fascinating discussion of these key lessons from and for the mind sciences as we face the challenges of the Anthropocene, including: the complex and potentially self-defeating use of appeals to fear; the ways in which polarized views are formed; the structures and career incentives of science; and much more…

In Episode 6 we welcome our first external guest, Jamie Bristow, to discuss an issue that sits at the heart of the ‘Science for the Anthropocene’ initiative: mindfulness and the ‘inner’ dimensions of sustainable transition. Specifically, we discuss the landmark report released in May 2022 by Jamie and co-authors, Rosie Bell and Professor Christine Wamsler, on ‘Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out’ (which can be easily accessed on the Mindfulness Initiative’s website). We discuss what ‘mindfulness’ is (and is not), what taking it seriously opens up regarding more promising ways to do climate action, its deep compatibility (despite more superficial incommensurability) with scientific enquiry and a new agenda for science and how we do it in responding to the problems of the Anthropocene.

In Episode 5 we welcome Professor Rebecca Willis to discuss an aspect of science for the Anthropocene, and broader action for the Anthropocene, that is increasingly pressing for society as a whole: the role of democracy in effective governance of these issues, and the flipside of the current crisis of democratic government as against an ascendant authoritarianism the world over. Drawing on her excellent book ‘Too Hot to Handle: The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change’ (Bristol UP: 2020), we discuss the need for not just more, but better, democracy if we are to meet the challenge of climate emergency, focusing specifically on the potential contribution of various forms of deliberative democracy. Tune in for an insightful discussion ranging across the full set of relationships between power and knowledge: from the role of knowledge and science in climate government and in democracy per se, to insights regarding the need for a different relationship between science and politics, to reflection on how critical social science on these issues can itself best contribute to these issues.

(Pt 2 of 2) In Episode 4 we welcome Professor Nick Graham to discuss the crucial ecosystem of coral reefs. Over the last 30 years, coral reefs have emerged as one of the front lines of ecosystems beset by the changing planet that characterises the Anthropocene.  And while catastrophic coral bleaching events due to ocean warming make the headlines, these uniquely biodiverse marine environments have been confronting a variety of anthropogenic pressures for some time. Drawing on Nick’s 25 years of highly-cited, cutting-edge research, the discussion investigates: the stark challenges to existing science of coral reefs; the need for new approaches that are pragmatic, systemic and engaging with the social sciences; the profound conceptual questions and exciting theoretical programmes opened up by these predicaments, as well as the ethical and practical challenges of juggling uncertainty; and various emerging insights that offer grounds for cautious hope.

In Episode 4 we welcome Professor Nick Graham to discuss the crucial ecosystem of coral reefs. Over the last 30 years, coral reefs have emerged as one of the front lines of ecosystems beset by the changing planet that characterises the Anthropocene.  And while catastrophic coral bleaching events due to ocean warming make the headlines, these uniquely biodiverse marine environments have been confronting a variety of anthropogenic pressures for some time. Drawing on Nick’s 25 years of highly-cited, cutting-edge research, the discussion investigates: the stark challenges to existing science of coral reefs; the need for new approaches that are pragmatic, systemic and engaging with the social sciences; the profound conceptual questions and exciting theoretical programmes opened up by these predicaments, as well as the ethical and practical challenges of juggling uncertainty; and various emerging insights that offer grounds for cautious hope.

In Episode 3 we welcome our first guests on the podcast from the natural sciences – Professor Phil Haygarth, Professor Paul Withers, Dr Kirsty Forber and Dr Shane Rothwell – to discuss the key challenge for our food system of phosphorus. Phosphorus is an essential building block of life, and so an essential nutrient in our food and agriculture.  In the last 80 years or so, massive growth of mineral phosphorus in farming has been key to the boom in food production. But too much phosphorus flowing through the rural and natural environment also has profoundly negative environmental impacts, not least for water, on which human and non-human life also utterly depends. And the leaching of phosphorus into rivers, lakes and increasingly oceans sets up a one-way pipeline that is fast depleting this essential but finite resource. With this fantastic panel, we discuss these serious challenges, what is, is not and could be done about them, and all the challenges to the very institutions of contemporary science this brings to light.

Our first guests on the podcast are Lancaster University professors Nigel Clark and Bronislaw Szerszynski, discussing their fantastic new book 'Planetary Social Thought - The Anthropocene Challenge to the Social Sciences' (Polity, 2021). In a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, we cover: the 'socialization' of the Anthropocene and the converse movement of 'geologizing' social science; a new basis to bring natural and social science together and into new conversation; how taking the planet seriously rewrites familiar narratives of (Western) modernity, colonization and, indeed, contemporary decolonization; the basis of the capacity of human reinvention in the planet's multiplicity and its capacity for transformation; and, of course, the adequacy (or not) of social science for the age of the Anthropocene; and much more... 

Welcome to 'Learning to Fly' - the podcast for 'Science for the Anthropocene' (S4A) at Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) at Lancaster University, UK.

In this first episode, David Tyfield, Professor of Sustainable Transitions and Political Economy and leader of the S4A research theme at LEC, sets the scene for future episodes, by offering an initial overview to the idea of a 'Science for the Anthropocene', and the argument for its importance and urgency.  This hinges on the imperative of a turn towards 'phronesis', or situated practical wisdom, as the paramount goal and form of skilful judgement that science needs to be actively cultivating if it is to rise to the unprecedented challenges posed by the Anthropocene.  David explores phronesis in several dimensions, and the relevance of all of these to a reorganization and expansion of what science is and what science is actually done. 

In future episodes, David will be in conversation with leading thinkers, from across the world and across the sciences, both natural and social, to explore specific aspects of 'Science for the Anthropocene'.