Oliganthropocene
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The current geological epoch, understood as characterised by the destructive effects of the behaviour of a small group of wealthy and powerful people.
"Many are concerned that the quasi-eschatological emphasis on the Anthropocene as epochal, planetary rupture can obscure the driving forces behind the "great acceleration" (basically, Western industrialization and capital, rather than "mankind"), and the fact that not everybody on the planet has had the same role in the story (Malm and Hornborg, 2014; Moore, 2014; Collard et al., 2015; Haraway, 2015). Capitalocene and Oliganthropocene – the variations polemically proposed by Jason Moore and Erik Swyngedouw – epitomize well such concerns."
Example
More examples"Many are concerned that the quasi-eschatological emphasis on the Anthropocene as epochal, planetary rupture can obscure the driving forces behind the "great acceleration" (basically, Western industrialization and capital, rather than "mankind"), and the fact that not everybody on the planet has had the same role in the story (Malm and Hornborg, 2014; Moore, 2014; Collard et al., 2015; Haraway, 2015). Capitalocene and Oliganthropocene – the variations polemically proposed by Jason Moore and Erik Swyngedouw – epitomize well such concerns."
Etymology
From olig- + Anthropocene, where olig- is understood to connote especially oligopoly and oligarchy. Coined by Belgian geographer Erik Swyngedouw in 2013.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.