Dr. Martina Lassalle
What does the Anthropocene mean to you?
The concept of the Anthropocene has been key to illuminating the profound socio-ecological crisis that is threatening the very existence of human and non-human life. At the same time, this concept has had the potential to foster interdisciplinary debates on the multiple dimensions of this global crisis. Over the last years, this category has been both widely disseminated and critically discussed. Among the alternative terms that have emerged in the fields of social sciences and philosophy, I find the concept of the ‘capitalocene’ analytically and politically fundamental, as it underlines that this is a systemic crisis that goes beyond individual agency, and is the result of capitalist modes of production, consumption and, more broadly, of living. It has also been helpful to make visible how geopolitical interests, power asymmetries and extractivist neocolonial logics have contributed to the current situation. In my view, all these aspects are essential when sociologically describing and explaining how judicial systems address environmentally damaging actions.
How does the Anthropocene play a role in your work?
I conduct research on the selective functioning of courts and their role in (re)producing hegemonic values and social meanings. One dimension of my work focuses on the judicial treatment given to environmentally damaging actions, where the notion of the Anthropocene provides a useful framework to situate judicial interventions and to understand their ecological, social, and political consequences within the ongoing socio-ecological crisis. This concept is also analytically valuablefor problematizing the anthropocentric foundations of modern Western legal systems and the very categories of liability and crime.
What project(s) are you working on during your fellowship at the Forum Basiliense?
My project sociologically examines how justice systems in Latin America address socio-environmental harms, with the aim of analyzing the material and symbolic consequences of such judicial interventions and the ways they may reinforce extractivist dynamics and structural inequalities in the region. The research seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how environmental criminality and environmental security are being configured in the Global South. During my stay at the Forum Basiliense, I will advance my research and also review environmental regulation in the Global North, in turn exploring how it relates to Latin American regulations and judicial interventions. I am particularly interested in analyzing how the concept of ecocide has been used and evolved across different regions.