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The Anthropology of Sustainability pp 207–228Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Gaia Complex: Ethical Challenges to an Anthropocentric ‘Common Future’

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Anthropology of Sustainability ((PSAS))

Abstract

The Brundtland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, The World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, 1987) envisaged a ‘Common Future’ in which humankind would undertake ‘sustainable development’, in theory including the interests of the non-human. In the same year, James Lovelock proposed that humankind comprised the ‘brains’ of Gaia, with a directive role in relation to other species and things. Since then, in a globalised market economy, discourses have increasingly framed ecosystems and their non-human inhabitants as providers of ‘services’ to human communities. Resource use has intensified exponentially, and other species are facing unprecedented rates of anthropogenically caused extinctions. Questioning both the propriety and the wisdom of adhering to anthropocentric positionality, ethicists have underlined the need to consider more equally the interests and the agentive capacities of the non-human. For anthropologists, traditionally focused on humankind, this presents some ethical and practical challenges. This chapter considers how we might address some of these.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Veronica Strang

  2. Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Veronica Strang

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  1. Veronica Strang
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Correspondence to Veronica Strang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Marc Brightman

  2. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Jerome Lewis

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Strang, V. (2017). The Gaia Complex: Ethical Challenges to an Anthropocentric ‘Common Future’. In: Brightman, M., Lewis, J. (eds) The Anthropology of Sustainability. Palgrave Studies in Anthropology of Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56636-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56636-2_12

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