Writing Planetary Futures: Plants, Loss, and Intersections of STS and Anthropology in Germany

A concern with the environment and contemporary political contestations of environmental crisis animates this paper. This planetary moment is a starting point for my reflections about future trajectories for anthropology (in German-speaking countries) as is my recent ethnographic fieldwork with plant molecular biologists in Uganda. I wrote this paper in the spirit of opening up new conversations. I sketch three promising strands of debate that have a direct bearing on how anthropologists write “planetary futures”: 1) the study of nonhuman or more-than-human lives that were long ignored; 2) intellectual stances between hope and loss that relate to our planetary ecological predicament and what to do about it; and 3) intersections of science and technology studies (STS) and anthropology in Germany that are gaining relevance as more anthropologists are grappling with environmental topics and the research of natural scientists.