Domination, Power, Supremacy: Confronting Anthropolitics with Ecological Realism

Toni Ruuska, Pasi Heikkurinen and Kristoffer Wilén
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Toni Ruuska: Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, 00500 Helsinki, Finland
Pasi Heikkurinen: Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, 00500 Helsinki, Finland
Kristoffer Wilén: Department of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: In this article, we study politics as domination. From our point of view, domination, especially in the Anthropocene, has had two vital components—power and supremacy. In order to dominate, one has to have power over others. In addition, the politics of domination, such as colonial oppression of Latin America, has required reasoning, justification, and legitimation, often connected to superiority (because of religion, society, or civilization) from the oppressor’s end. Past and present political ideologies and programs, such as colonialism, imperialism, but also welfare state capitalism, neoliberalism and increasingly popular Green New Deal are examples of what we call “anthropolitics”, an anthropocentric approach to politics based on domination, power, and supremacist exploitation. In contrast to the prevailing anthropolitics, this article discusses post-Anthropocene politics, characterized by localization and decentralization, as well as a steep reduction of matter–energy throughput by introducing a theoretical frame called ecological realism.

Keywords: anthropocentrism; Anthropocene; deep ecology; degrowth; domination; ecological realism; politics; post-Anthropocene; power; supremacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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