Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Belief in the possibility of a collapse of thermo-industrial society gained visibility in the French public sphere during the 2010s. This paper examines how this conviction is put into practice, through collectives preparing for the world after by settling in rural areas.

Paper long abstract

Fear of catastrophe has a long history in France, dating back even before publication of the Meadows Report in 1972. Nevertheless, it was only from the mid-2010s onward that the idea that industrial society might collapse broke out of the circles of political ecology and gained visibility in the public debate. The media success of Collapsology bears witness to this shift: collapse is framed as a probable process, at the end of which the most basic needs would no longer be provided to the population through legally regulated services. This paper draws on an ethnographic study of two collectives that emerged in rural areas of France in the late 2010s. These groups explicitly aim to prepare for the “after”, by experimenting with practices that lie somewhat outside the social mainstream, such as the management of agricultural commons, alternative exchange systems, and free-pricing arrangements. One of the arguments advanced in this paper is that, far from being marked by fatalism or reducible to forms of selfish withdrawal (as common sense often suggests), these experiments in collapse preparedness carry a distinct political dimension. Non-confrontational in nature, they reveal a form of collapsism that actualizes alternative worldview, notably through a practical critique of capitalism. Rather than merely anticipating catastrophe, these initiatives seek to outline other possible futures for the world after collapse. Studying them offers social sciences an opportunity to move beyond an understanding of critique that is limited to resistance alone, and to take seriously social experiments that prefigure alternative social orders.