A School of Anthropology and Conservation Human Ecology special event, exploring the concept of planetary governance in an age of uncertainty and human-induced crises, will take place in Marlowe Lecture Theatre 1 from 10.00 to 13.00 on 2 June.

Attendance is free and open to all, but you will need to register online.

This half-day conference addresses a central paradox confronting industrial society, if not humanity, as it heads into the twenty-first century: the collective ability of humans, or of some humans at any rate, to fundamentally transform the Earth and its life-supporting capability is not matched by an ability to act collectively and concertedly in a way that supports those capacities over the foreseeable future.

Four internationally-renowned speakers will respond to the provocation that the Anthropocene, formulated in terms of governance and planetary-scale problems and processes, signals not just a new geological epoch, but a new epoch of thought and politics, with its corresponding epistemic, methodological, institutional, normative and legal dimensions.

Speakers:

Dr. Frank Biermann (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), Navigating the Anthropocene: From Environmental Policy to Earth System Governance.

Philipp Pattberg (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Governing the Anthropocene: Challenges and Prospects.

Dr Rory Rowan (University of Zurich, Switzerland), Governing the Earth: Earth System Governance and the Post-Political .

Dr. Davor Vidas (The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway), The Anthropocene: The New Meaning of Change and Stability Under International Law.

Further details can be found on the conference’s flyer.