Domination, Power, Supremacy: Confronting Anthropolitics with Ecological Realism

Toni Ruuska*, Pasi Heikkurinen, Kristoffer Wilén

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

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.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2617
Peer-reviewed scientific journalSustainability
Volume12
Issue number7
Number of pages20
ISSN2071-1050
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26.06.2020
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article - refereed

Keywords

  • 117,2 Environmental sciences
  • 512 Business and Management
  • anthropocentrism
  • anthropocene
  • deep echology
  • degrowth
  • domination
  • ecological realism
  • politics
  • post-anthropocene
  • power
  • supremacy

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