Greentopia: Methods of Environmental Imagination in the Anthropocene

Even though the concept of greentopia results from a juxtaposition of ‘green’ and ‘utopia’, this contribution argues that it is short-sighted to interpret greentopia accordingly. Instead, greentopia presents itself as an exercise in imagination that focuses on the interface of human agency and nature in the Anthropocene. In this age, the interface presents itself as a space of friction and as disruption. Against this background, greentopia is explained as a method to cope not only with uncertainty, but also with a lack of imagination. This contribution explains how greentopian thought relates to the current standstill and the inability to imagine a green future. We then elaborate on how greentopia takes up a new utopianism that has already moved away from classical utopia-telling, and how it attempts to cope with friction and disruption. At the end of this contribution, we show that greentopia—although primarily a method of imagination—calls for action; even rebellion.