Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene

"Involving Anthroponomy is a deceptive book, simply because it is so beautifully written. Yet the subject matter at the heart of its analysis is anything but tranquil. Bendik-Keymer courageously confronts the Anthropocene’s systemic moral ambivalence, and lays bare the complicity of our social systems that are responsible for the planetary socio-ecological destruction being committed in the name of progress. In pursuit of such progress, our planet’s integrity and the deeply unjust lived realities of billions of its people have become dire. Either we continue to accept this with apathy, delusion and disorientation, as he says, or we demand "systems that do not render us heteronomous, that don’t dominate any of us, systems where participating in social processes won’t contradict our convictions and perpetuate injustice." This will become a seminal work, forcing us as it does, to rethink our place in, and responsibility for, the living order."

- Louis J. Kotzé, Research Professor, North-West University, South Africa; Senior Professorial Fellow in Earth System Law, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom

"Bendik-Keymer is doing something remarkable, and important, here. He offers an account of our place in the world with each other, including the lands we inhabit (sometimes illegitimately) and the other creatures surrounding us on the Earth, seeing all these as morally connected. He then suggests that recognizing our connection might help us understand how to live. "Environmental ethics" and "environmental justice," in his account, are inextricably bound up with questions of personal autonomy and thoughtful community, and at the same time with difficult questions about the impact of colonialism and capitalism on our lives, our minds, and on the world we inhabit."

- Steven Vogel, Professor of Philosophy, Denison University, Author of Thinking like a Mall: Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature

What is it to be a settler in a settler state? How does one make sense of place in a world warping towards destruction? What parameters might define living well across generations and with more than human realms? How does one become responsible to and with the smallest fleck of life and simultaneously all being that is planet earth? Jeremy Bendik-Keymer's novel set of reflections – moves us – where 'us' might be construed as the author himself in community with his readers – from moments of intimate contemplation and heartfelt anxiety to a place of stimulating possibility for reconfiguring nested sets of relationships that span from the hearth to the planetary, from colonial wrongdoing to intergenerational accountability.

This work is vital and timely. As I write, fires blaze through the forests of Greece & Turkey and down the west coast of North America, while floods devastate villages in Europe, Japan, and the Indian subcontinent, and melting permafrosts release methane into the atmosphere. The Anthropocene is not a metaphor.

Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene steps us through Bendik-Keymer's journey from paralytic anxiety to one of powerful engagement with what needs to be done. [It] leads the reader to address the injustice of colonisation (past and present), acknowledge globally destructive systemic forces, and to negotiate a social evolution responsible to future generations of human and more than human being on earth.

This is an intimate work. And in its intimacy it guides us towards deciding for ourselves what is the right thing to do.

- Christine Winter, Research Fellow, Sydney Environmental Institute, University of Sydney, Author of Subjects of Intergenerational Justice: Indigenous Philosophy, the Environment, and Relationships

This book provides a much needed grounding for doing decolonial work through the notion of 'anthroponomy,' an engagement with human development in relation to [the] environment. ... [W]e must collectively make room for alternative norms of governing human development to come into being on their own, and learn to work through disagreements with them and their capacity to face [the] challenges of the Anthropocene. This book shows one possibility of decolonising in the Anthropocene and invites us to create others.

- Harshavardhan Jatkar, University College London, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities

"Involving Anthroponomy is a deceptive book, simply because it is so beautifully written. Yet the subject matter at the heart of its analysis is anything but tranquil. Bendik-Keymer courageously confronts the Anthropocene’s systemic moral ambivalence, and lays bare the complicity of our social systems that are responsible for the planetary socio-ecological destruction being committed in the name of progress. In pursuit of such progress, our planet’s integrity and the deeply unjust lived realities of billions of its people have become dire. Either we continue to accept this with apathy, delusion and disorientation, as he says, or we demand "systems that do not render us heteronomous, that don’t dominate any of us, systems where participating in social processes won’t contradict our convictions and perpetuate injustice." This will become a seminal work, forcing us as it does, to rethink our place in, and responsibility for, the living order."

- Louis J. Kotzé, Research Professor, North-West University, South Africa; Senior Professorial Fellow in Earth System Law, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom

"Bendik-Keymer is doing something remarkable, and important, here. He offers an account of our place in the world with each other, including the lands we inhabit (sometimes illegitimately) and the other creatures surrounding us on the Earth, seeing all these as morally connected. He then suggests that recognizing our connection might help us understand how to live. "Environmental ethics" and "environmental justice," in his account, are inextricably bound up with questions of personal autonomy and thoughtful community, and at the same time with difficult questions about the impact of colonialism and capitalism on our lives, our minds, and on the world we inhabit."

- Steven Vogel, Professor of Philosophy, Denison University, Author of Thinking like a Mall: Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature

What is it to be a settler in a settler state? How does one make sense of place in a world warping towards destruction? What parameters might define living well across generations and with more than human realms? How does one become responsible to and with the smallest fleck of life and simultaneously all being that is planet earth? Jeremy Bendik-Keymer's novel set of reflections – moves us – where 'us' might be construed as the author himself in community with his readers – from moments of intimate contemplation and heartfelt anxiety to a place of stimulating possibility for reconfiguring nested sets of relationships that span from the hearth to the planetary, from colonial wrongdoing to intergenerational accountability.

This work is vital and timely. As I write, fires blaze through the forests of Greece & Turkey and down the west coast of North America, while floods devastate villages in Europe, Japan, and the Indian subcontinent, and melting permafrosts release methane into the atmosphere. The Anthropocene is not a metaphor.

Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene steps us through Bendik-Keymer's journey from paralytic anxiety to one of powerful engagement with what needs to be done. [It] leads the reader to address the injustice of colonisation (past and present), acknowledge globally destructive systemic forces, and to negotiate a social evolution responsible to future generations of human and more than human being on earth.

This is an intimate work. And in its intimacy it guides us towards deciding for ourselves what is the right thing to do.

- Christine Winter, Research Fellow, Sydney Environmental Institute, University of Sydney, Author of Subjects of Intergenerational Justice: Indigenous Philosophy, the Environment, and Relationships

This book provides a much needed grounding for doing decolonial work through the notion of 'anthroponomy,' an engagement with human development in relation to [the] environment. ... [W]e must collectively make room for alternative norms of governing human development to come into being on their own, and learn to work through disagreements with them and their capacity to face [the] challenges of the Anthropocene. This book shows one possibility of decolonising in the Anthropocene and invites us to create others.

- Harshavardhan Jatkar, University College London, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities