The Anthropocene crisis and higher education: A fundamental shift

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Date

2016

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education (SAARDHE)

Abstract

This article seeks to address a fundamental shift that has occurred in reality; a displacement that requires us to critically account for the ways in which knowledge is both being produced and taught at universities. The recent re-naming of the current geological epoch after anthropos has some chilling implications for humans and the ecosystems on which their livelihoods depend. As pedagogues, the crisis of the Anthropocene demands that we make drastic interventions in the way we teach and in what we teach. My aim is to suggest ways in which Deleuzoguattarian schizoanalysis, intersecting as it does with critical posthumanism, the affective turn and the new materialisms, might assist us in this process of crafting socially and environmentally-just pedagogies that are relevant to the contemporary situation. In so doing, I will address some of the uncanny ethical, ontological, epistemological and affective configurations of these theoretical perspectives to show how these ideas may impact the curriculum of socially/environmentally just pedagogies and the practice of such pedagogies in higher education.

Description

Keywords

Anthropocene, Posthumanism, Higher education, Pedagogy, Social justice

Citation

Carstens, D. (2016). The Anthropocene crisis and higher education: A fundamental shift. South African Journal of Higher Education, 30(3): 255-273