Tag: modernization theory

In his new book, Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (Polity), Latour argues that climate change, by calling into question the once-universal dream of “development” and globalization, is leaving a huge void in our consciousness. How to orient yourself in politics?” Humanity no longer has a shared framework of “becoming modern,” says Latour. The remaining nation-states of the world, meanwhile, have no clear path in a fractured, divided world for constructing a shared vision. As the claims of modernity and globalized capitalism fall apart, revealed as ecologically and economically catastrophic, it has opened up an empty space that we don’t know how to fill. It is also shattering the idea of the Local as a haven of sequestered safety, morality, and order. The earth can no longer be ignored as a powerful autonomous, living force in human affairs. Latour argues that a new “third attractor” is gradually arising to harness political energies and revamp political alignments.The new attractor is based on a commitment to healing the earth and changing the dynamics of politics itself. In short, climate change is mooting many of the premises of modern consciousness itself. This attractor escapes the fantasies of the Global and Local by frankly recognizing the biophysical realities of the living earth as our destiny and mission. Throughout the book, he cites the need for humanity to find “a place to land” – a way to escape the fantasies of modernity and to become more entangled with the biophysical life of the earth.