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We Should Be Talking about the Capitalocene

Wendy Arons

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Theme
Tag
  • Colonisation,
  • Art and Humanities
Target Group
  • Students,
  • Researchers,
  • Policy makers,
  • Teachers,
  • Artists
Language
  • English
Region

In this article, Wendy Arons argues that instead of Anthropocene, 'we should be talking about the “Capitalocene,” a term that locates climate change within the history of capitalism and colonialism.

The term “Anthropocene” is obfuscatory, and as an analytic framework it has a serious blind spot: the conflicts stemming from the uneven distribution of the costs and benefits of the “Age of Man,” which are the very eco-conflicts on which artists in our field should focus. We should be talking about the “Capitalocene,” a term that locates climate change within the history of capitalism and colonialism, and suggests stories that deserve time on our stages.

Citation: Arons W. We Should Be Talking about the Capitalocene. TDR: The Drama Review. 2023;67(1):35-40.