Between Inevitability and Hindsight: End-Times and the Loss of Agency in the Anthropocene.

Judeo-Christian eschatological time has re-emerged in scholarly and popular discussions of climate apocalypse in the last decades, also in attempts to mobilise action against climate change. I argue that speaking about climate change as the eschatological endpoint in linear time undermines the call...

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Publicado en:Political Studies Vol. 74; no. 1; pp. 51 - 71
Autor principal: Sæten, Nanna Lilletvedt
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Sage Publications Inc. Feb2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      aug:
        au: Sæten, Nanna Lilletvedt
        affil: Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
      su:
        Eschatology
        Power (Social sciences)
        Collective action
        Climate change
        Climate apocalypse
        Time measurements
        Anthropocene Epoch
        Autonomy (Philosophy)
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          Eschatology
          Power (Social sciences)
          Collective action
          Climate change
          Climate apocalypse
          Time measurements
          Anthropocene Epoch
          Autonomy (Philosophy)
      keyword:
        agency
        Chronos time
        climate change
        eschatology
        temporality
        agency
        Chronos time
        climate change
        eschatology
        temporality
      ab: Judeo-Christian eschatological time has re-emerged in scholarly and popular discussions of climate apocalypse in the last decades, also in attempts to mobilise action against climate change. I argue that speaking about climate change as the eschatological endpoint in linear time undermines the call for action, understood as the contingent capacity for new beginnings. When the severity of climate change is made sense of by introducing an end to linear Chronos time, the result is a confusion in the direction and contingency of temporal politics, which effectively undermines action through speech. Eschatological, linear time frames the time for action as too narrow: first, by casting the end of time as inevitable, and second, by upsetting the chronology and direction of time as a prerequisite for politics. The conclusion is that climate eschatology is disempowering in Chronos time and that another temporal frame is needed to address climate change politically.
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      src: R
    language: English
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