Work, value and space: Three key questions of making for the Anthropocene

Authors

Chontel A. Carr, University of WollongongFollow
Christopher R. Gibson, University of WollongongFollow
Elyse R. Stanes, University of WollongongFollow
Andrew T. Warren, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

131122

Publication Details

Carr, C., Gibson, C., Stanes, E. & Warren, A. (2018). Work, value and space: Three key questions of making for the Anthropocene. In L. Price & H. Hawkins (Eds.), Geographies of Making, Craft and Creativity (pp. 94-107). Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Abstract

Debates about the precarious ecological state of the world are gathering pace. The Anthropocene is a term that has been proposed across the natural and social sciences to describe a new geological epoch defined by the unprecedented influence of humans on climate and the environment (Castree, 2014; Head, 2016). Making, where it is connected with the carbon-intensive transformation of raw materials into usable things, arguably sits at the centre of Anthropocenic concerns (Bridge, 2001, 2009; Castree, 2004; Cook, 2004). The question of making, under such conditions, is increasingly one of sustaining everyday life in a way that does not demand abundant resources. Initiatives such as the Circular Economy (Hobson, 2016), the field of industrial ecology and investigations into product stewardship (Lane and Watson, 2012) offer a range of approaches to the environmental challenges that accompany making at scale.