CHANSE Call Partner Search Tool

General Information

• Type: Project looking for partner
• Organisation: University of Brighton
• Country: United Kingdom (UK)

Research area

• Call theme: Crisis - Perspectives from the Humanities
• Keywords:

  Anthropocentrism; Populism; Humanity; Demos; Representation

• Brief description of your expertise / expertise you are looking for:

  My Expertise: Critical Theory, Climate Politics, Populism and Democracy Looking for: Scholars interested in the crisis of the representation of the human after the climate emergency. The description below will be modified through discussion between partners.

• Brief description of your project / the project you would like to join:

  The Humanities in Crisis: Populism and the Climate Emergency In the first two decades of the 21st century European democracies have been rocked by ongoing climate crises alongside populist challenges to the liberal democratic consensus. Despite this, the relationship between these crises remains unaddressed in three respects. First, the climate emergency compels a vision of humanity beyond the borders that divide peoples. Right wing populists either reject the reality of climate change or articulate a green nationalism that undermines transnational agreements. Humanities disciplines address the narration and the representation of the climate crisis; and crises of democratic representation. Second, left wing populists (including Syriza and PODEMOS) recognise the importance of the climate crisis but simultaneously aim to fund redistribution through investment and economic growth. Developmental populism is incompatible with environmental politics. Left populisms Third, the climate crisis demands a rethinking of the human. The main theories of populism – ideational, discursive, strategic or performative – all view climate change as a pawn used and abused in the political game to establish hegemonic power. Political agency is viewed in wholly anthropocentric terms. However, for indigenous scholars, as well as for new materialist and environmental philosophers the air, land, water and other animals should be attributed agency. The classic enlightenment distinctions between subject and object, culture and nature, action and behaviour are all put in to question. In this case notions of the people as the primary agent of politics is confronted by democratic claim making that transcends anthropomorphism. The Humanities are uniquely placed to investigate and understand these related crises. This consortium brings together philosophical approaches that challenge anthropomorphic narratives; political theorists attuned to the politics of contemporary populisms; literary scholars investigating new ways of representing and engaging with both humans and other creatures; and last aesthetics scholars attuned to the visualization of a post-anthropocentric future.

Mark Devenney

• Organisation: University of Brighton
• Position: Professor of Critical Theory
• E-mail: m.devenney@brighton.ac.uk
• Phone: +441273643301
• Web: www.brighton.ac.uk/cappe/index.aspx