TY  - JOUR
A1  - Folkers, Andreas
T1  - Air-appropriation: The imperial origins and legacies of the Anthropocene
T2  - European journal of social theory
N2  - This article elucidates the spatial order that underpins the politics of the Anthropocene – the ecological nomos of the earth – and criticizes its imperial origins and legacies. It provides a critical reading of Carl Schmitt’s spatial thought to not only illuminate the spatio-political ontology but also the violence and usurpations that characterize the Anthropocene condition. The article first shows how with the emergence of the ecological nomos seemingly ‘natural’ spaces like the biosphere and the atmosphere became politically charged. This challenges the modernist separation between natural facts and political norms. It then underlines the imperial origins of this nomos by introducing the concept of air-appropriation understood as the colonization of atmospheric space by CO2 emissions. Instead of assuming that the ecological nomos represents a transition from a colonial to an ecological and cosmopolitan world order, focusing on air-appropriation highlights forms of ecological imperialism that go along with the new nomos. Accordingly, the article calls for a just redistribution of ecospace that takes into account the imperial legacies and ongoing effects of air-appropriation.
KW  - Atmosphere
KW  - Carl Schmitt
KW  - climate change
KW  - political ecology
KW  - nomos of the earth
KW  - carbon
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/55526
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-555260
SN  - 1461-7137
SN  - 1368-4310
VL  - 23
IS  - 4
SP  - 611
EP  - 630
PB  - SAGE Publications
CY  - London
ER  -