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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to How to do things in the Plasticene: Ontopolitics of plastics in Arendt, Barthes, and Massumi
ClearPlastic Memories of the Anthropocene
This essay uses philosophical frameworks to analyze plastics as objects with material agency—things that escape human control and embed themselves in ecosystems. The author examines plastic's persistence as both a literal and symbolic phenomenon of the Anthropocene era.
Plastic Humanities: Revaluing Humanistic Inquiry in the Plastic Age
This humanities essay argued for the value of humanistic inquiry in addressing the environmental and cultural consequences of the 'Plastic Age,' proposing the concept of 'plastic humanities' as an interdisciplinary framework. The work makes the case that understanding plastics' social and cultural dimensions is essential alongside scientific approaches.
How plastic is our plastic culture? Reducing our consumption of single-use plastics
This paper examines the cultural and economic forces that have made single-use plastics so embedded in modern life, making them difficult to reduce despite known environmental harms. Understanding the social dimensions of plastic consumption — not just technical solutions — is essential for effectively reducing the microplastic pollution they ultimately generate.
Introduction to Part II
This is an introductory chapter in a social science book framing how invisible toxicants and pollution are embedded in everyday modern life. It is a humanities perspective piece rather than an empirical study of microplastics.
Introduction: Avowing Fragility
Despite its title referencing fragility, this paper is a work of philosophy and social theory examining how contemporary academia approaches questions of environmental uncertainty and modernity — not microplastic pollution. It discusses concepts from Husserl, Wittgenstein, and sociological theorists and is entirely unrelated to microplastics or human health.
Plastiglomerates, Microplastics, Nanoplastics
This essay explores the cultural and ecological meaning of plastic pollution through art and speculative design, examining how plastics have become embedded in every environment including the human body. It argues that understanding plastic as part of a 'dark ecology' is essential for rethinking our relationship with synthetic materials.
The Outdoor Condition: Reading Arendt on a Warming Planet
This article examines whether Hannah Arendt's political thought remains relevant to the contemporary planetary crisis, using a distinction between outdoor and indoor environments to analyze three types of artificial adaptation to a warming planet. The author draws on Arendt's account of embodied human experience to explore how environmental awareness may be narrowing. While not directly about microplastics, the philosophical framework addresses broader questions about how humans relate to environmental change and artificial materials in their surroundings.
Living in the Plastic Age
This interdisciplinary work examines plastic pollution from societal and environmental perspectives, arguing that ubiquitous plastic waste and its conversion to microplastics has become so pervasive in shaping human-nature relationships that it defines a distinct 'Plastic Age,' and exploring implications for human health and pathways toward systemic change.
Analisis Ontologis Mikroplastik Dalam Tubuh Manusia Sebagai Ancaman Terhadap Hakikat Eksistensi Dan Kesehatan Biologis Modern
This Indonesian philosophical-scientific article performed an ontological analysis of microplastics in the human body, examining what their pervasive accumulation means for human existence and biological health. The work integrated philosophical frameworks with scientific evidence on microplastic exposure pathways and health risks.
Anthropocene Ouroboros
This ethnographic study explores how plastic objects on an Indian Ocean island shatter and disperse into microplastics, complicating our understanding of geological time. Researchers argue that because microplastics can migrate through sedimentary layers and infiltrate earlier geological strata, they disrupt the very framework used to delineate the Anthropocene. The paper examines the cultural and temporal implications of plastic pollution as a defining material of the modern era.
Microplastics in Arctic Sea Ice: A Petromodern Archive Fever
This cultural studies essay examines microplastics found in Arctic sea ice as a form of archive — recording human pollution and reducing the ecological agency of the ice itself. The paper applies philosophical frameworks to plastic contamination, arguing that microplastics in sea ice represent both a record of human impact and an erasure of natural ecological processes.
Por uma arqueologia do antropoceno: tempo, identidade e novos artefactos numa nova era
This Portuguese-language archaeology paper discusses the emergence of 'Anthropocene Archaeology' — the study of human artifacts and materials from the current geological era of human dominance. Plastics, including microplastics, are among the defining material markers of the Anthropocene that will be part of this archaeological record.
Waste Journeys
This multidisciplinary study examined plastic waste as a material of the Anthropocene by tracing the journeys of plastic objects across cultural, natural, marine, and terrestrial landscapes, exploring how plastic's resilience makes it a defining and problematic artifact of modern civilization.
Plastic Legacies: Pollution, Persistence, and Politics
This review of the book 'Plastic Legacies: Pollution, Persistence, and Politics' examines how plastics communicate messages about class, gender, and identity, and how global policy responses to plastic pollution often neglect socio-cultural differences and the voices of affected communities.
The decaying stuff of the Anthropocene: exploring contemporary trashscapes through ruination
This paper is not primarily a scientific study of microplastic pollution. It is a humanities/social theory article that uses the concept of 'ruination' to philosophically examine how waste and trash are transforming landscapes in the Anthropocene era, arguing that collective wastage is turning natural environments into 'trashscapes.'
The concept of plasticology
This conceptual paper introduces "plasticology" as a proposed interdisciplinary field that integrates the natural sciences, social sciences, and arts to study the full relationship between humans and synthetic plastics in the environment. The authors argue that microplastic and nanoplastic research must include social dimensions — such as behavior patterns and public awareness — alongside chemistry, ecotoxicology, and environmental science to fully understand and address plastic pollution. They highlight art-science collaboration as a potentially valuable tool for building public awareness and monitoring societal responses to plastic contamination.
The Task of Envisioning Security for the Anthropocene
Not directly relevant to microplastics — this is a political science and philosophy essay arguing for a broader, holistic concept of security in the Anthropocene that encompasses climate change, ecosystem degradation, and pandemics.
“The Rejected Remains as Fact”
This paper explores how contemporary artists are responding to the pervasive presence of microplastics and nanoplastics through visual and performative works. Researchers examine how art projects have shifted from environmental alarm toward speculative scenarios of plastic-human coexistence, drawing on the concept of the plastisphere. The study suggests that artistic investigations can reframe our understanding of plastic pollution by exploring cultural and material dimensions beyond purely scientific perspectives.
Framing pollution
This social science analysis explores how "pollution" — and microplastics specifically — is defined not just by science but by political, economic, and cultural forces. The paper examines different ways of framing microplastic pollution: as a waste management failure, a consumer behavior problem, or an inevitable product of industrial capitalism, each with different implications for who bears responsibility. It argues that understanding the social and political dimensions of microplastic pollution is essential for developing just and effective responses.
Becoming Plastic, Transforming Justice
This chapter traces the word 'plastic' from its theological meaning (the human capacity to be shaped by divine action) to its modern association with pollution and colonial extraction, arguing that ethical engagement with plastics requires reclaiming both our responsibility to act and our capacity to be transformed.
Reverse Archaeology: Synthetic Surrogate as Ghosting Object
This fine arts paper examines how synthetic plastics have been used as surrogates for natural materials in museum conservation and art, and reflects on the irony that these supposedly preservation-oriented substitutes have become persistent environmental pollutants. It engages with the cultural dimensions of plastic's dual legacy as both material innovation and environmental burden.
Time is running: top ways to avoid a plasticene
This review article argues that society is approaching a "plasticene" — an era defined by pervasive plastic contamination — and calls urgently for behavioral, regulatory, and educational changes to curb plastic production and pollution. It highlights the growing body of evidence showing microplastics harm living organisms and human health, emphasizing that individual awareness and systemic governance reform are both essential.
Petrochemical Bestiary
This paper is not a natural science study of microplastic pollution. It is a cultural studies article examining how plastic animal toys in socialist Yugoslavia served as vehicles for normalizing petrochemical consumption and fossil fuel dependence. While it touches on the broader relationship between plastic production and the environment, it is a humanities analysis rather than empirical pollution research.
The Darkest of Secrets
Researchers examined the philosophical dimensions of trash and garbage through a phenomenological analysis drawing on the writings of Husserl, Stiegler, and others, exploring concepts of sedimentation, temporality, and technology to understand how society renders waste invisible. This paper investigates what it means to 'throw away' something — at both individual and collective levels — and what remains unseen in the language and practice of discarding.