Scrutinizing the Great Acceleration: The Anthropocene and its analytic challenges for social-ecological transformations

Abstract

Despite considerable advancements over the last couple of years, research on the Anthropocene still faces at least two challenges: (1) integrating different approaches from natural, social and cultural sciences, and (2) clarifying the political relevance of this concept. To address these challenges, we propose an interdisciplinary approach from Social Ecology and Political Economy which combines research on social metabolism with a historical approach to capitalist development. We argue that such an interdisciplinary approach can help to better understand the Great Acceleration of production and consumption and the related surge in global resource flows. The observation of such an acceleration in the physical growth of societies, in turn, is perceived as the most convincing argument to explain fundamental shifts in the state and functioning of the Earth system, the Anthropocene. Our approach emphasizes that the Great Acceleration was not homogeneous, neither in space nor in time. Instead, spatial varieties and different historical trajectories must be considered which allow for the differentiation of two phases of accelerated resource use, taking place in different world regions. In this article, we propose an integrated research framework for the study of the Great Acceleration, illustrate the insights to which its application leads and discuss the political relevance of the Anthropocene for further research on social-ecological transformations.