The Great Acceleration into the Anthropocene? Energy and Environment in Contemporary History

Social scientists and historians commonly describe the boom decades after the Second World War in Europe and the Western World as the “Trente Glorieuses” (Jean Fourastié) or the “Golden Age” (Eric Hobsbawm). The rosy picture of rising affluence, social security, emancipation and liberalization has often served as a normative foil to criticize economic, social, and political developments since the 1970s. From an environmental perspective, however, the decades of the economic boom appear in a strikingly different light, namely as the Great Acceleration which propelled humanity into the Anthropocene (Paul J. Crutzen). In this seminar, we will examine the changes of institutions, infrastructures and life-styles that both cause climate change and make it difficult to limit it and tackle its consequences. In particular, we will focus on the emergence and spread of energy-intensive life-styles and (auto-)mobility.