EXTINCTION AND THE END OF FUTURES*
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Extinction, in biological terms, is the end of an evolutionary line, a potential future cutoff. It involves a transition between the historical past in which a species was biologically alive and a future in which it isn't, a transition from extant to extinct. In this contribution to the “Historical Futures” series, I examine two aspects of extinction histories: transition and anticipation. First, I argue that scholars need to understand extinction as a process with a prolonged and even possibly reversible transition between extant and extinct rather than a definitive end point. Second, I analyze conservation as a practice of anticipatory extinction that tries to create futures for extant species. Extinction, as a nonlinear process, demands that we consider the coterminous past, present, and future. The end of futures for a species requires rethinking how we conceptualize historical (future) endings under times of rapid environmental change.
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Jørgensen's notions of how conservation work is often disproportionately driven by anticipation of future extinction speak to some of the shortcomings experienced by Indigenous whalers.
“Jørgensen’s poignant notions of how conservation work is often disproportionately driven by anticipation of future extinction speak to some of the shortcoming experienced by Indigenous whalers.”
From On the edges of extinction: Indigenous whaling governance, the 1977 “bowhead controversy” and its legacy (2024) · cites this paper as Jørgensen, 2022
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Research works printed but not linked: 10
- Michael E. Soulé, "What Is Conservation Biology?" BioScience 35, no. 11 (1985), 727-34. 24. Ibid., 730. 25. Ibid., 733.
- See David Sepkoski, Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity from Darwin to the Anthropocene (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), chapter 6.
- Ursula K. Heise, Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).
- Only James Hatley's chapter on the Honshu wolf of Japan centers a certain extinction. See
- Juno Salazar Parreñas, Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilita- tion (Durham: Duke University Press, 2018) and Deborah Bird Rose, Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011).
- On ecological anxiety, see Paul Robbins and Sarah A. Moore, "Ecological Anxiety Disorder: Diagnosing the Politics of the Anthropocene," Cultural Geographies 20, no. 1 (2013), 3-19, and Susan Clayton, Christie Manning, Kirra Krygsman, and Meighen Speiser, Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance (Washington, DC: American Psychological Associa- tion and ecoAmerica, 2017).
- Jan E. Dizard, "Uneasy Relationships Between Ecology, History, and Restoration," in Restora- tion and History: The Search for a Usable Environmental Past, ed. Marcus Hall (New York: Routledge, 2010), 154-63.
- Mitchell, "Revitalizing Laws"; Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016).
- Audra Mitchell, "Beyond Biodiversity and Species: Problematizing Extinction," Theory, Cul- ture & Society 33, no. 5 (2016), 23-42.
- Michelle Bastian, "Fatally Confused: Telling the Time in the Midst of Ecological Crises," En- vironmental Philosophy 9, no.1 (2012), 23-48. 41. Ibid., 27.
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Åman, S. (2024) · Cambridge Prisms: Extinction · doi:10.1017/ext.2024.14
- Authors
- JØRGENSEN, D.
- Affiliations
- The Research Council of Norway (NO)
- Corresponding author
- JØRGENSEN, DOLLY
- ORCID
- JØRGENSEN, DOLLY
- Venue
- History and Theory
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2022-04-26
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 209-218
- ISSN
- 0018-2656 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-2303
- OpenAlex
- W4224996617
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 108.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- History and Theory (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Norges Forskningsråd (rcn-foriss-283523)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Philosophy, History, and Historiography
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Environmental Philosophy and Ethics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
- Keywords
- extinction, conservation, nonlinear processes, environmental change
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