Browsing by Author "Venkateswar S"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Anthropological engagement with the Anthropocene: A critical review
    (Bergahn Journals, 1/09/2015) Gibson H; Venkateswar S
    The new geological interval, the Anthropocene, or the ‘era of the human’ refers to the planetary scale of anthropogenic influences on the composition and function of the Earth’s ecosystems and all life forms (Steffen, Crutzen & McNeil 2007). Socio-political and geographic responses frame the unfolding but uneven topographies of climate change (Crate 2011; Moore 2010; Lazrus 2012), while efforts to adapt and mitigate its impacts extend across the social and natural sciences. This paper reviews anthropology’s evolving engagement with the Anthropocene, contemplative of the multifarious approaches to research. The growing body of contemporary thinking (Latour 2005, 2013; Haraway 2008, 2011) encompasses the emergence of multispecies ethnographic research (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010; Fuentes 2010; Tsing 2012; Paxon 2010) highlighting the entanglements of humans with other life forms. Such new ontological considerations are reflected in Kohn’s (2007) “Anthropology of Life,” ethnographic research that moves beyond an isolated focus on the human to consider other life processes and entities as research participants. Examples of critical engagement discussed include anthropology beyond disciplinary borders (Kelman & West 2009), queries writing in the Anthropocene (Rose 2009), and anthropology of climate change (Crate 2011). Although not exhaustive of contemporary anthropology, we demonstrate the diverse positions of anthropologists within this juncture in relation to our central trope of entanglements threaded through our discussion in this review.
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    Broadening the Circle: Creativity, Regeneration and Redistribution in Value Loops
    (Emerald, 31/03/2023) Palakshappa N; Venkateswar S; Ganesh S
    Increasing industrial agriculture and economic crisis has generated creative responses in pursuit of responsible solutions to the human and environmental cost of globalization by applying these models to promote social responsibility, help sustain livelihoods and foster biodiversity. A key issue concerns how responsible and circular businesses might provide appropriate responses to large-scale ‘wicked’ problems. This paper asks what such creativity looks like in the context of a circular economy that attempts to build closed value loops, by examining a case from the organic cotton textile industry: Appachi Eco-Logic. We use an ethnographic extended-case approach to identify two phases of creative growth at Appachi Eco-Logic, examining how closing the value loop and creating circularity involved broadening the circle to include more and more actors. We identify two major challenges to achieving and maintaining full circularity before concluding with a broad provocation for the study of circular economies.
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    How should we think of the Sentinel Islanders?
    (Dispatches, Cultural Anthropology website, 2018-12-05) Venkateswar S