{EC} Coloniocene
Cindy Nguyen, Stella Bennett, and Felix Benardo
Introduction
Our ‘cene begins with colonization; which began around the 1490s when Columbus set sail. This is where the world started to connect, the forces of the Metropocene began to emerge and actors in the Astycene grew exponentially (https://www.are.na/block/16098215), and as a result the beginning of urban areas. Urban areas have emerged before the 1490s, most notably Rome during the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire and agricultural societies of the pre-industrial Americas. Yet, they do not qualify for the beginning of the ‘cene because they relied on an organic economy (https://www.are.na/block/16108097); their production was limited to human power, animal power, as well as power from the sun (wood, harvests) while after colonization spurred industrialization and later on post-industrialization. The 1490s have set the stage for humans to conquer their environment and each other.
Our ‘cene intervenes with the Anthropocene because it sets a different date from the proposed ones. The closest date for the Anthropocene that is related to this ‘cene is 1610, also known as the Orbis Spike (https://www.are.na/block/15913345), where carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began to dip due to the interactions between the colonizers and Native Americans and the introduction of species and germs (Lewis & Maslin, 2015, 175). Furthermore, this ‘cene disregards the concept of “human agency” and instead depends on the three separate ‘cenes; all implies human agency. These three separate ‘cenes; the Metropocene, the Urbanocene (https://www.are.na/block/16092182), and the Astycene, fit together to create our new ‘cene: the Coloniocene.
The Coloniocene is a theoretical ‘cene, a metaphysical one, that starts here to allow the history of humans to take the course that it did. The media chosen to represent the Coloniocene will go into more detail about its roots and effects. The basics are the reliance on land and populations outside of Britain that allowed the country to focus on innovation, industrialization, and the expanse of capitalism.
The Urbanocene focuses on urban spaces that have become essential to planetary political, economic, social, and cultural life and socio-environmental conditions. Across diverse terrains of social research, policy intervention, and public discourse, the configuration of urbanizing built environments (https://www.are.na/block/16113191) and urban institutional configurations is now thought to have major consequences for the futures of capitalism, politics, and indeed the planetary ecosystem as a whole. The Garden City depicts a potential solution for reimagining urbanism, aiming to create a less dense city as well as specialization of the city and protect the environment because that is where the population lives (https://www.are.na/block/16111435).
The creator of the Metropocene term, Mark Whitehead, defines the Metropocene as “a period defined by the dynamics and demands of urbanization” (Whitehead, 2014, 100.). More specifically, Whitehead refers to the dynamics as the economy, capitalism, pollution, technology development and advancement and the needs as food, construction, and survival. Rondonia’s Deforestation is a great example of the forces of the Metropocene; the demands of urbanization caused this dynamic of desertification (https://www.are.na/block/16108586).
“Astos”, where the term Astycene is derived from, is an urban dweller. Humans have now entered the Century of the City, and urbanization will be a defining social, economic, and environmental characteristic of the new centennial. Astycene is a more accurate description of the Anthropocene; the period in Earth’s history when humans are altering the functioning of the global environment. (https://www.are.na/block/16026178)
Synthetic Map (1)
Synthetic Map (1) Drawing Description
Using datasets of the global railway system, shipping routes, and cities with populations over two million, this map represents the global urban network by showing how the interconnectivity of the world spawns urban settlements which fuels greater connectivity. This defining characteristic of connectivity can be traced back to the force Colonialism.
“By linking the Anthropocene with colonization, it draws attention to the violence at its core, and calls for the consideration of Indigenous philosophies and processes of Indigenous self-governance as a necessary political corrective, alongside the self-determination of other communities and societies violently impacted by the white supremacist, colonial, and capitalist logics instantiated in the origins of the Anthropocene.” (Davis, 2017, 763).
It is important to remember that the Coloniocene as a constellation of the Urbanocene, Metropocene, and Astycene is not meant to replace the reality of the Anthropocene but merely add depth and character to it.
During The Age of Exploration Europe quickly became the predominant global political and economic power through the systematic subjugation of indigenous peoples around the world. British colonialism birthed the global railway system through their effort to more efficiently mine their new empire of natural resources. Shipping routes exploded as Europe became the homeport of ships bound for the New World, Africa, and Asia and a destination for ships bearing the riches of those places. Cities began to sprout up as natural harbors in the colonies became hubs of trade and international activity and as the new railways and shipping routes found places to converge. “The city is everywhere and in everything. If the urbanized world now is a chain of metropolitan areas connected by places/corridors of communication (airports and airways, stations and railways, parking lots and motorways, teleports and information highways), then what is not the urban?” (Brenner, 2013, 90) This question haunts the idea of an Urbanocene or any other similar concept although it may seem intuitive. The hinterlands, or nonurban (https://www.are.na/block/16111514) spaces of the world have become supply chains for cities and are now webbed with roads and railways transporting goods and labor into and between cities. This creates a constituent outside (https://www.are.na/block/16105853) in that the urban spaces of the world are created by the existence of the nonurban spaces, this relationship makes the urban system possible and effective.
Cities are urban hubs of human creation and development and are connected to each other in inextricable ways, weaving a dense web around the entire globe. With most of the global human population living within the boundaries of a city, urban patterns determine the course of society and hence the fate of the planet. (Chwałczyk, 2020). This allows for a “science of cities” (https://www.are.na/block/16117942) in which we can study the interconnectivity of the urban system and the repercussions and significance of its innerworkings.
This map shows the intersection of the Urbanocene, an epoch (https://www.are.na/block/1592529) characterized by the exponential rise of cities which now dominate the planet […] that began with the Industrial Revolution” (West 2017, 214), the Metropocene, “a period defined by the dynamics and needs of urbanization…geography, environments, peoples, their psychology and cultures, and also possible changes and futures” (Chwałczyk, 2020) and the Astycene, and Anthropocene alternative “where “anthropos” is an “astos,” a dweller of an urban area.” (Seto, Sánchez-Rodríguez, Fragkias, 2010) to create the Coloniocene.
The Coloniocene highlights the role of colonialism in the creation of the Urbanocene, Metropocene, and Astycene and so assumes its position as guilty for the damaged environment and society it spawned. This visual centers on the homeport of colonialism, London (designated by the red dot), and traces the paths of destruction connecting it to nearly the rest of the world. By creating the Coloniocene out of the various urban-centric Anthropocene “alternatives” we hope to show “the ways in which cities and climate change are entangled in broader networks of geopolitics, economics and governance.” (Goh, 2020) and how the systematic and tragic force of European Colonialism has created a homogenous urban network which has become the organism embodying the global human population and so the acting entity behind the Anthropocene.
Investigating the Urbanocene/Metropocene/Astycene uncovers problems such as how “the apparent ubiquity of the contemporary urban condition makes it now seem impossible to pin down” (Brenner, 91) The concept of the Coloniocene attempts to provide enough context to provide answers to such problems. The Coloniocene as pictured in this map attempts to show the deep interconnectedness of the global urban network, as well as its root in Colonialism and a human aspect provided by the idea of the Astycene which places the individual into the context of the Coloniocene.
Other map media:
Albrecht Heubner. Contrasting Photomontages (From Joost Schmidt’s Bauhaus Design Course). 1930–1933. Ink and photo collage. 15 1/4 x 23 1/4″ (38.7 x 59.1 cm). Acquired through Walter Gropius. SC55.1977.8. Architecture and Design
From Connetere’s article “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Urbanocene” by Massimo Palme
Synthetic Map (2)
Synthetic Map (2) Drawing Description
This map emphasizes the spread of the urban from the 1700s to 2000.
The Industrial Revolution emerged and the Wealth of Nations was published, both signifying the start of the Industrial Revolution as well as the rise of capitalism. It is known that the Industrial Revolution began in England because of their easy access and low and low transportation costs of coal as well as their reliance on ghost acres in the Americas. This caused Englandites to not worry about food production and produce more children to obtain a higher income.
In the 1700s, dense settlements and urban areas were visible in London as well as throughout Britain. Nonetheless, London does have the highest intensity and spreads across the most area.
It is interesting to see that London actually decreased in urban and dense settlements during the 1800s. We assume that people are moving out of London and into England’s industrial capitals, such as Manchester, or even leaving England and emigrating to the Americas. The first occurrence is shown with a decrease in red around London and an increase in dense settlements in the north.
During the 1900s, the urban area grew and dense settlements were not visible as they have been absorbed into the urban. There are also areas right outside of the main urban area that are also urban rather than dense settlements. Hypothetically, these would be suburbs due to the nature of suburbs right outside of the urban, yet suburbs are not considered urban. Erle Ellis concludes that the dense settlement category “have population densities ≥ 100 persons/square kilometer” (Ellis, 2021, 6).
The Anthromes dataset was chosen to display intensity and spread of the urban over time. While there are other datasets that depict the urban, many do not have the ability to show the temporal change of the urban as well as the nonurban.
“Point of Life” Diagram
“Point of Life” Drawing Description
This drawing is designed to portray the Coloniocene through its constitutive parts — the Metropocene, Urbanocene, and Astycene — and address the links that hold them together. It aims also to provide an understanding as to what is central to the system and why specific layers subsume others. At the heart of the diagram is the only layer that does not include any kind of mapping or dataset: people. The Coloniocene is delineated by the move towards intense and consuming urbanization, urbanization being the shift in human population from rural to urban realms. People are the core and drivers of our ‘cene, unlike that of the Anthropocene which is driven by specific geological factors. Finally, the Coloniocene considers “not just how environments concresce (https://www.are.na/block/16015962) along with individuals and objects but also how distributions of experience might be recast in and through environmental processes” (Gabry, 21). The Astycene in particular tackles the ways in which human experience is vital for the future livelihood of the environment through the choices that cities make.
Right outside of the center circle is the world road map, particularly eyeing the London area. The city is defined, in the Metropocene, as a bundle of social, political, economic, and relationship interests with capitalism (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4458/htm) (Chwałczyk, 13). In the map we can see that kind of intense bundling between urban areas takes place: their unique geometric configurations are particular and pertinent to the London area as a hub of capitalism. Sanford Biggers’ “Khemetstry” (https://www.are.na/block/15853069) shows the way in which these factors overlap and develop within each other. The urban frame, highlighted by the Metropocene, is dynamic and nonlinear in this way. World roads encircling the image of people indicates that there is a shift away from people themselves and towards the urban clusters which they create.
Outside of that layer are train maps which blur into a photograph of railroads being constructed in the colonial period. This circle is significant for the story of the Coloniocene and the larger story that the diagram tells. The urban space visualized here is “sociospatial,” meaning that they “relate to the sociological aspects of spaces” (https://www.are.na/block/16201897). Railroad maps become sociological in the Coloniocene in terms of their history. In “How colonial railroads defined Africa’s economic geography” by Remi Jedwab, Edward Kerby, and Alexander Moradi, they argue that the installation of colonizer-driver railroad sites were carried out for multiple purposes.. Some of the reasons the authors describe are
“military domination: the line was built to exercise ‘effective control’ in the Scramble for Africa, or to dispatch troops for better control of the native population; mining: the line was built into the interior to further European mining interests, and cash crops: the colonial power built the line to connect agriculturally rich areas” (Jedwab, Kerby, Moradi).
Coming back to the diagram, it was important to recognize this historical reality when tying the railroads to its internal layer, the world cities. Train lines link world cities together, and they make sense of its patterns. The Metropocene tells us that humans are linked densely across the globe, creating webs dependent on psychology and cultures, but the Urbanocene uses that philosophy along with modern urban, industrial developments, in this case railroad lines, to stress that the way in which cities are connected and develop alongside each other in the current era.
On the final outer layer is the 1970s emissions map which brings the Astycene into view. The Astycene, also with a stranglehold on the urban and its outcomes, argues that even though cities are the prime contributors to the destruction of the global environment, they may constitute our only way out in terms of sustainability solutions. So far, “the urbanization and global change research community has focused on cities as triggers of global environmental change and has identified pathways through which urban areas contribute to climate change with a focus on carbon emissions” (Seto, Sanchez-Rodriguez, Fragkias, 184). Heavy emissions are the outcome of city life, and specifically of modern urbanization. Yet the Astycene also underscores the importance of people, returning to the heart of the Point of Life. One fashion in which urban growth can lead us out of peril is through effective governance. “In addition to demographic and economic forces, agglomeration, changes in governance and institutions, and international capital are interacting to amplify their individual impacts on urbanization processes and are accelerating changes in the physical structure and character of urban areas” (Seto, Sanchez-Rodriguez, Fragkias, 188). Human involvement in political processes, focusing on environmental regulation, is possible in growing, powerful cities. This is why the slices of governmental imagery run across all layers. Our dynamic, ever-important urban metabolisms (https://www.are.na/block/16097214) can be put to use in equitable, sustainable ways.
Synthetic “Systems” Diagram
“Systems Diagram” Drawing Description
The diagram displays the “who”, “what”, “where”, “why” and “how”. The “when” is excluded because the -cene begins with colonialism. The “what” and “where’ are related to the Urbanocene, the “how” and “why” are tied with the Metropocene, and the “who” is related to the Astycene.
The “who”, the creator of this epoch, is the population. The dataset of the population was derived from the Cities, which is used in the synthetic map. While the final product of the dataset is cities, population is an input. The population feeds into the Cities & Built Environment and vice versa, which is shown with a double arrow. The Anthropogenic Biomes are an input to the population because it displays where the population is located and its intensity.
The “what”, which refers to the creation of the creators, is the Cities and the Built Environment. The population, anthromes (https://www.are.na/block/15924606), as well as Nighttime Lights collectively depict this. The population and the anthromes determine the locations and intensity while the Nighttime Lights depict the built infrastructure. However, this built infrastructure may not be located within cities, such as land mines and gas drilling areas, yet the urban areas rely on this built infrastructure to power as well as construct the cities. All three of these datasets become a concrescence due to its reliance and dependence on each other; if one grows, subsequently the other two grows.
The “where”, where we can see the “what”, takes place in global urban areas. All of the other inputs for the Coloniocene are also inputs for global urban areas.
The “why”, why the “who” were able to create the “what”, is the hinterlands. The hinterlands provide the populations with resources needed for their species survival and reproduction as well as the creation of cities and urban areas. It was only through the exploitation of the hinterlands for humans to begin industrialization and the system of capitalism to create and reinforce cities and their social dynamics, (Whitehead, 2014, 110–112).
The “how”, how the “who” was able to create the “what”, had a strong dependence global on routes, specifically shipping and train routes. Global Shipping Routes allowed the fruits of the hinterland’s exploitation to be delivered to the city for consumption or production. During Colonialism, ghost acres from the Americas allowed the British to find incentives to industrialize and developed its first industrial city: Manchester. It was also through the use of canals and waterways within Britain and throughout Europe that allowed the Europeans to industrialize due to its low price and high carrying capacity. As industrialization waved across Britain and Europe, individuals began to use trains to transport themselves in areas where industrialization is taking place in order to find work. Today, global shipping routes expanded on the initial colonization routes are still the most economically-friendly choice of shipping due to its low costs and high volumes to ship. The same goes for trains; the routes have been expanded on from the initial ones during the colonization period.
The history of the “who”, “what”, “where”, “why” and “how” could have only taken the route it did if the Coloniocene came into fruition; hence the double arrow leading into the Coloniocene.
Works Cited
*From class
Datasets
Synthetic Map (1)
- Nighttime Lights*
- Cities over two million*
- Shipping Routes*
- Global Railways https://geonode.wfp.org/layers/esri_gn:geonode:wld_trs_railways_wfp
Synthetic Map (2)
“Point of Life” Diagram
- Global Railways https://geonode.wfp.org/layers/esri_gn:geonode:wld_trs_railways_wfp
- Global Emissions https://www.manifest-data.org/post/geographies-of-emissions-edgar
- World Roads https://hub.arcgis.com/maps/Story::world-roads/about
“Systems” Diagram
- Shipping Routes*
- Global Railways https://geonode.wfp.org/layers/esri_gn:geonode:wld_trs_railways_wfp
- Nighttime Lights*
- Cities over two million*
- Anthromes https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/anthromes-anthropogenic-biomes-world-v1
External Sources
- Jedwab, Rémi; Kerby, Edward; Moradi, Alexander. “How colonial railroads defined Africa’s economic geography.” VoxEU. March 2, 2017. https://voxeu.org/article/how-colonial-railroads-defined-africa-s-economic-geography
- Whitehead, M. Environmental transformations: A geography of the Anthropocene; Routledge, 2014.
- Karen C. Seto, Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, and Michail Fragkias, 2010, “The New Geography of Contemporary Urbanization and the Environment”, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-environ-100809-125336
