View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Essex Research Repository The Walking Dead: the Anthropocene as a ruined Earth Dr Nicholas Beuret (corresponding author) Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University Email:
[email protected] Phone: 07742947921 Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University Lancaster, UK, LA1 4YQ Dr Gareth Brown School of Business, University of Leicester Email:
[email protected] Phone: 07910 887 324 School of Business, Ken Edwards Building, University of Leicester University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH UK Abstract Much has been made of the claim that humanity has ascended to the status of a terrestrial force and inaugurated a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. While attention has been paid to the contestable nature of the epoch and its disputed histories, insufficient attention has been paid to the significance of the Anthropocene for political praXis. Contrary to much Anthropocenic discourse that articulates a renewed sense of mastery over nature through assertions of humanity’s complete subsumption of the environment, recent work in both science and technology studies and human geography suggests an alternate reading of the Anthropocene as an epoch without mastery, one where humanity eXists in a permanent state of vulnerability. The political significance of this state of vulnerability is eXplored through a reading of popular TV show The Walking Dead, a post-collapse narrative of a world in ruins and overrun by zombies. On a ruined earth, political praXis is orientated not towards a return of the earth to its previous productive state, but rather as an unending labour of survival and salvage.