Anthropocene Metabolisms

This working paper considers the concept of metabolism in the context of contemporary scholarship on the Anthropocene. It takes up Bonneuil and Fressoz’s idea that metabolism constitutes one of the six environmental grammars inherited from modernity and traces additional genealogies than the one depicted by the two authors. More specifically, the paper considers the use of metabolism by Sanctorius Sanctorius, Theodor Schwann, and Karl Marx. The discussion concludes by pointing out directions for further research into the genealogy of metabolism.