Planetary reason and the ordinary problems of earthly excess

Much recent social thought highlights the entanglement and co-constitution of humans and nature. In this talk, Professor Nigel Clark focuses on what it means for human agents to live, work and play on a planet that constantly exceeds their understanding and reach. 

Dealing with the excess of the Earth and all the problems this poses is an ancient, ongoing and ordinary aspect of being human. 

This can act as a prompt to return to the rather unfashionable idea that human social actors habitually ask for and offer reasons for what they do – and consider the possibility that ‘reason’ has an inherently planetary aspect.

Biography

Nigel Clark is professor of human geography at Lancaster University. His work looks at the relationship between social life and the dynamics of the Earth, and he is the author of Inhuman Nature (2011) and co-author with Bronislaw Szerszynski of Planetary Social Thought (2021).