Plantationocene: A Framework For Understanding the Links Between Ecological Destruction and Social Inequalities

Abstract

The Anthropocene, as one of the core concepts currently used to understand and reflect on the relationships among humans, species, and planet, has received widespread attention and discussion in the global academic community. As one of the important alternative concepts to the Anthropocene, the term Plantationocene was first proposed by Haraway et al. in October 2014. Compared to the former, it reveals the fundamental characteristics of the modern era, and continues to enrich its theoretical connotations amidst rapid shifts in social concepts and practices. Tracing and sorting out the genealogy of this concept over less than a decade since its inception allows for a microhistorical study of conceptual history, revealing three key dimensions of its meaning: (i) a critique of the history of (post)colonialism and extractivism, (ii) although plantations are known worldwide for monocrop agriculture and have so-called keystone species, they are essentially a multispecies symbiotic system. From its inception, the concept of the Plantationocene inherently encompasses the idea of “multispecies entanglement and multispecies politics,“ and (iii) a metaphor for structural power relations from real word to digital world. Research indicates that the Plantationocene has become a framework for understanding the connection between ecological destruction and social inequality. In the game of global ecological politics and academic power relationships in the post-humanist era, it requires us to pay attention not only to the relationships among humans but also those among multispecies to build a more just and sustainable society in the future.