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Capitalist Temporalities as Uchronia
- Theory & Event
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 22, Number 1, January 2019
- pp. 143-174
- 10.1353/tae.2019.0007
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
Ecological urgency requires taking the time to critique capitalist temporalities. At various timescales including daily, lifetime, macroeconomic and deep times, I argue that capitalocentric temporalities can be conceptualized as "uchronia." Fetishizing time as capitalist futurity (eu-chronos), these temporalities disconnect us from our times (ou-chronos). At stake is the contestation of hegemonic capitalocentric temporalities and a reversal of common dismissals of environmentalist critiques as "utopian." Also at stake is an exhortation for environmental thought to quit self-proclaiming a green "utopianism" detrimental to its credibility. Finally, nature and the human must be rethought beyond capitalo-telic terms and to overcome optimism and pessimism.