Writing Planetary History ? the Case of the Soyacene
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
Writing (Hi)stories in the Anthropocene
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
The lecture discusses the possibilities and limits of writing planetary history using the example of soy, a key commodity of global capitalism that achieved planetary impact in the long 20th century (ca. 1870-2020). Global soy expansion directly or indirectly fuels deforestation, toxification, genetic engineering, greenhouse gas emissions, and species extinction. The ?Anthropocene? can also be understood as the ?Soyacene?. A planetary history of the ?Soyacene? affects both content and form of historiography. In terms of content, ?more-than-human? (post-anthropocentric, posthumanist, neo-materialist, etc.) concepts are evaluated regarding their connectivity to humanist concepts. The focus here is on agro-food regimes, commodity frontiers, and actor-networks. In formal terms, conventional and alternative forms of historical writing are weighed up against each other. These fundamental considerations ultimately serve the pragmatic requirements of an ongoing book project.