Gardens and the Anthropocene

Abstract

This chapter introduces the book’s central claim that urban gardening in the Anthropocene – this new epoch in which no earthly place, form, entity, process, or system escapes the reach of human activity – is an ecologically and socially beneficial, culturally innovative, morally appropriate, ethically uplifting, and politically incisive practice. The discussion is situated within the context of environmental philosophy, particularly the philosophy of built and specifically urban environments. An overview of works on gardens, the Anthropocene and other topics of relevance to the book is provided. Follows an articulated discussion of the notion of the Anthropocene, its defining circumstances, and main challenges. The chapter closes with a discussion of the specifically ethical, moral and political challenges that confront individuals in the Anthropocene, particularly agency loss and responsibility dissolution. It is to these two challenges, above all, that the practice of urban gardening is meant to respond.