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Paper short abstract:

The Anthropocene event is shifting temporal dynamics, refocusing the geologic time scale as causal factors in the trajectory of human civilization. This irruption alters our relationship with time while breaking away from a linear perspective.

Paper long abstract:

At the heart of my 10-year transdisciplinary research, the Anthropocene concept shifts theory in social sciences and humanities. From a philosophical perspective, the emergence of the Anthropocene repositions the human species on immense time scales, which are difficult to comprehend. The irruption of planetary history in the footsteps of human history points to a deep bifurcation away from our construct timeline developed within the frame of the human agency. To put it briefly, it embodies a fundamental break in the trajectory since the dawn of Homo sapiens.

Hence, the relationship to time between the human and geological scales needs to be rethinking. In light of this temporal disruption, my primary interest lies in the paradigmatic change implied by Earth’s trajectory in human history. It highlights unthinkable facts because the planet’s background is divergent from our fate and opens the debate on habitability. Given the rapidity of a massive transformation of planetary conditions, the human project is reprogramming the Earth System and the definition of conditions of its maintenance in the habitability zone. It questions our ability to rethink the narrative linking human and non-human species on the entangled planet.

At the end of the day, it is a matter of redesigning the timescales and incorporating the human adventure into a new narrative, that of a species integrated into the Earth’s history that does not dissociate itself from non-human agency. Engaging in this discussion is also a means to consider the post-Anthropocene era.