Biocultural Homogenization: A Wicked Problem in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Wicked problems are difficult or impossible to solve. To overcome this dilemma, I propose an approach to better understand and contribute to solve a wicked problem that is particularly pervasive in the Anthropocene: biocultural homogenization. This approach can also help to guide biocultural conservation processes. Toward this aim, I propose to use the “3Hs” conceptual framework of the biocultural ethic that values the vital links among unique life habits of co-inhabitants who share specific habitats. A first outcome is the identification of feedback processes entailing interwoven losses of biological and cultural diversity. Then, I organize these feedback processes in a hierarchical sequence of increasing structural complexity. Analysis of these processes offers a theoretical framework for understanding the interrelations between the homogenization of habits and habitats and the consequences of biocultural homogenization for the lives of diverse human and other-than-human co-inhabitants. Co-inhabitants are subjects (not objects). They co-constitute their identities and share habitats that they co-structure through co-inhabitation relationships of complementarity and reciprocity. Habitats are the condition of possibility for the existence and well-being of the co-inhabitants. I have introduced the notion of co-inhabitants as an ethical justification to oppose biocultural homogenization and to demand biocultural conservation in terms of socio-environmental justice.