A more-than-human political moment (and other natural catastrophes) |
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Authors: | Kate Booth Stewart Williams |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, AustraliaKate.Booth@utas.edu.au;3. School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia |
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Abstract: | Catastrophic events such as wildfires are predicted to increase and intensify because of climate change. This paper speculates on how politics may look within such a context by deploying Rancière's political theorisations. We examine how a posthumanist re-configuration of this humanist notion of politics contributes to thinking about, acting for, and living within a rapidly changing climate. Specifically, we make a case for “more-than-human” political moments using the illustration of wildness – in the form of a wildfire – breaking free of wilderness and burning the settled lands of human habitation. In doing so, we draw on a relational ontology that re-configures agency and speech as “more-than-human”. |
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Keywords: | disaster Rancière relational ontology politics wilderness |
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