The Sumbiopolis - Activists imagining the Symbiocene in contemporary urban environments

Abstract

The current separation of culture and nature as two different realities validates the subjugation and subsequent degradation of nature for human gain (Mrozowski, 1999; Haila, 2000). Crutzen (2006) diagnoses the Anthropocene to reflect the period of humanity’s impact on the environment resulting from this perpetuated separation which is now perceived as the catalyser of anthropogenic climate change (IPCC, 2023). The environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht (2015) proposes an alternative epoch to the destructive Anthropocene: the Symbiocene, that envisions humans, nature, and technology conspiring to create a new balance in companionship and a mutually reinforcing relationship.

Different concepts relating to futuring (Hoffman et al., 2021) were combined and rooted in the more-than-human geographies to serve as a unique framework for imagining alternative ecocentric futures such as the Symbiocene (Sheikh, Foth and Mitchel, 2023; Fieuw et al., 2022). This act requires images to circulate, hence through the method of data-driven photo-elicitation, Symbiocene aspects in the contemporary urban environment were photographed by seven activists of XR Den Bosch and elaborated on in semi-structured interviews.

The activists envision the Symbiocene as an epoch where human exceptionalism is replaced by a mindset recognising humans as part of a larger system that must be nurtured for justice and harmony with the non-human world. Despite the negative outlook on climate change hindering progress, XR activists use the transformative power of hope to imagine and document their connections to the Symbiocene in everyday spaces. This visioning process helps shift the concept of the Sumbiopolis from an unimaginable urban environment to a preferable one, aiding the transition from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene. A small number of homogenous respondents in terms of race and geographical location and potentially too large a scope of analysis leave room for further exploration of this topic by future researchers.