[Paper Review] Conceptualizing 'Multiple Anthropocenes' Based on Anthropocene Discourse Classification

Paper: "Conceptualizing 'Multiple Anthropocene' Based on Classification of Anthropocene Discourse" (Jeong Chae-yeon, 2025). "Anthropocene" — the new geological epoch where human activity fundamentally transforms Earth''s geological and ecological processes — though the International Commission on Stratigraphy decided not to officially adopt it as a geological age, its discussion continues expanding in humanities and social sciences. Han Sang-jin''s research systematically classifies Anthropocene discourse while pointing out the limitations of the single "dominant Anthropocene" narrative based on Western modernity. The author criticizes the colonialist temporality and inequality concealed under the name of universality, proposing "Multiple Anthropocene" (multi-scale conceptualization) and "Korean Anthropocene" as its subcategory. Four-quadrant classification (two axes: degree of anthropocentrism × attitude toward future): (1) Neo-anthropocentric restorationism — ecological modernism/green growth; human technology and management capability can solve environmental crises and achieve continued growth; (2) Neo-anthropocentric catastrophism — Ulrich Beck/Haraway perspective; acknowledges Anthropocene catastrophe but treats it as catalyst for new social reflection and "emancipatory catastrophe"; (3) Post-anthropocentric restorationism — indigenous knowledge and multi-species perspective; abandoning human privilege to restore ecological balance; (4) Post-anthropocentric catastrophism — Anthropocene as already irreversible collapse; requires building entirely new civilizational foundations. Korean Anthropocene: Korea achieved rapid industrialization and economic growth; now a minority of affluent, carbon-intensive lifestyle consumers within a population experiencing significant inequality in environmental burdens; the "Korean Anthropocene" concept asks how a society that rapidly transitioned from victim to perpetrator of global environmental problems should conceptualize its own Anthropocene moment differently from Western societies that industrialized gradually over centuries.