Towards a Critical Theory of the Anthropocene and a Life-affirming Politics

This thesis locates itself in the field of critical green political theory. It takes the present environmental crisis as its object of study to provide a critical account of the way it is currently addressed in dominant Anthropocene narratives and liberal capitalist growth-based institutions. This work offers a constructive and emancipatory delineation of what could be an ecological civilisation respectful of its natural environment and social differences, and describes how to shift from an ‘arrogant speciesism’ and materialistic lifestyle to a post-anthropocentric ecological humanism focusing on the ‘good life’ within ecological limits. Whilst there are already countless research works and books dealing with this issue, the major novelty of this thesis is to propose a green republican analysis building on John Barry’s work that covers the ethical, political, and economic aspects of the transition away from ‘actually existing unsustainability’. Taking as a starting point the society as it is constituted today and not as it should be, that is a consumer capitalist society characterised by ecologically flawed ontological, ethical, and practical approaches, this dissertation presents a normative investigation concerned with the real world applicability of the changes it suggests to implement. Indeed, while rooted in ethical thinking and political philosophy, this thesis seeks to offer a concrete roadmap of how sustainable societies can be fostered. It, therefore, represents an attempt in the field of ‘realist utopianism’, that is a position committed to a transformative narrative which advocates humans’ reconciliation (and re-connection) with the planet and the more than human world. This work aims at integrating and synthesising across different bodies of knowledge such as Earth Systems Sciences (ESS), philosophy, political theory, political science, political economy, ecological economics, but also sociology, psychology, and cultural studies. In this regard, it is an interdisciplinary applied form of critical green political theorising.