Urban Space, Environment and Capital Accumulation in the Anthropocene Era

By introducing the current socio-ecological state that has led to the proposal of the Anthropocene epoch, but also to other conceptualizations such as the global environmental change and the (ecological) planetary boundaries, this paper briefly analyses the theoretical-conceptual scope and limitations of the idea of the Anthropocene. It continues with a critical reading of the challenges that the expansion of urban space brings with it under the logic of capital accumulation; indeed, the main configuration of space under the so-called Anthropocene epoch. The speculative character of contemporary production of urban space and its main socioecological implications, which take place in an uneven manner, are thus discussed from a critical perspective of urban political geography and urban political ecology. The paper concludes with a deliberation on the basic characteristics of an eventual urban transition towards environmentally less devastating and socially fairer and more inclusive modalities of urban space production.