Research project

Planetary Politics

Research Network

Duration: 2026 - 2029
Contact: Maxine David
Funding: Institute for History

Planetary Politics is an emerging interdisciplinary paradigm emphasising the biophysical and interconnected nature of our Earth system. It integrates ecological thinking, expanding agency beyond the human. The Planetary Politics network adopts this normative departure towards post-anthropocentric politics and related research questions, directing us to pursue research reflecting the complexities and interdependence of human activity with wider biophysical processes. In rejecting anthropocentrism, researchers interrogate existing, often implicit, disciplinary and sub-disciplinary preoccupations to identify and pursue the planetary dimensions of our research agendas as well as shared concerns across different disciplinary, chronological, and geographical foci.

The network is established in the context of ongoing poly-crises, which include but are not restricted to:

climate change and the forced displacement, statelessness and species extinction that follow from it;
capitalist extraction;
techno utopianism and surveillance capitalism;
transition to a new world (yet unknown) order and “return to geopolitics”;
racism and ethnonationalism;
retreat from hard-won rights, especially in regard to gender. Rather than grappling with the complexity of any one crisis, let alone poly-crisis, we have witnessed instead the regressive tendencies of national and international actors to focus on the short-term and on a narrow set of interests.

Drawing on the multiple disciplines represented in this network and the objective of delivering interdisciplinary work, the network is well-placed to address the questions of inter-generational and geographical injustices that researchers urgently need to grapple with. These crises also point us in the direction of novel actors and/or actions and sites of actions: such as mega corporations, tech billionaires, and foreign-funded entities.

The network has three broad themes, with porous borders that facilitate work across them and encourage interdisciplinarity.

Post-Anthropocentric thinking

It reorientates our thinking to consider planetary boundaries, and the role of humans and technology in exceeding them, with biospheric and ecological impacts, creating an existential crisis for many species. Here, we see the reconfiguration of ideas and theories about:

· Who or what matters;

· Who or what is represented and how;

· Who or what is funded/resourced in international politics;

· Actors and actorness;

· Change over time.

Political Economy Dimensions of Planetary Change

The anti-capitalism critique has strengthened in planetary politics, with many rejecting an energy transition driven primarily by market-led models and corporate actors that fails to create a democratic and equitable system of production and distribution. Research questions here capture the material drivers behind:

· Economics, politics, societies, culture and ecology;

· Human rights, justice;

· Inequalities: of wealth, resources, attention;

· Climate change and its effects;

· Conflict.

Inter and Sub-National Relationships

This theme draws on the Area, History and International Relations expertise of the network's members, expertise vital to understanding whether / how a new world order that reflects post-Anthropocene thinking might emerge. Multi-level analysis here suggests research questions that speak to the nature and role of:

· The global majority / minority;

· Regional organisations;

· Intra and inter-continental relations;

· Transnational networks / corporations;

· Small island states;

· Non-state actors;

· (Neo)Imperialist states;

· Cities;

· Narratives.