Drivers of society-nature relations in the Anthropocene and their implications for sustainability transformations

• Published in: Current opinion in environmental sustainability 2017-06, Vol.26-27, p.32-36
• Main Authors: Pichler, Melanie, Schaffartzik, Anke, Haberl, Helmut, Görg, Christoph
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1877-3435; 1877-3443
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.01.017

•‘Humanity’ as a whole is not the driver of epochal change in the Anthropocene.•Sustainability research must pay more attention to the drivers of epochal environmental change.•These drivers have led to persistent social inequalities and regional differences.•The proposed research agenda has strong implications for sustainability transformations. Human impacts on the Earth system mark the dawn of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. This claim has triggered a debate in science, media, and politics in which ‘humanity’ as a whole is commonly identified as the driving force of epochal environmental change. The historically and geographically specific expansion of capitalist society-nature relations and the associated social differentiation have led to persistent social inequalities, challenging the assumption of humanity as a homogenous driver. Based on a review of social and political ecology literature, we propose a differentiated research agenda focusing on drivers of accelerating resource use in the Anthropocene. As many current governance instruments replicate and reinforce these drivers, such a research agenda can offer crucial insights for sustainability transformations.