The collapse of civilization, the end of the world as we know it, has long been a cultural imaginary, but has rarely been as topical as it is today. Beyond the phantasmagoria of violence, depression and despair, the conviction of being doomed has always been a challenge to imagine a new, post-apocalyptic world, be it utopian or dystopian. Beyond questions of immediate survival, there is a growing concern about how to educate humanity for a new life after the end of this world. In this volume, the editors, Michael A. Peters and Thomas Meier, renowned scholars of educational and apocalyptic studies, have brought together 31 contributions that offer a diversity of perspectives on such post-apocalyptic education, from abstract philosophical reflections to applied studies, from historical and political analyses of how we got into the current situation of global devastation to decolonial perspectives and essayistic explorations.
Civilizational Collapse and the Philosophy of Post-Apocalyptical Survival – An Introduction Michael A Peters & Thomas Meier Collapse Apocalypse: Postdigital Readings and Response Petar Jandrić The Transcendental Aesthetic as Simulacrum: Truth, Preppers, and the End of the World as we Know It Ruth Irwin Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and the civilizational collapse João José R.L. de Almeida Günther Anders’ Apocalypse Blindness and the Post-Apocalyptic Babette Babich Machinic subjectivity Paulo Ghiraldelli Surplus Fascism and the Post-Digital Apocalypse in the Age of Anti-Woke Terrorism Peter McLaren Decolonial The Cosmopolitics of Apocalyptic Thought Marianna Papastephanou The fifth horseman of the apocalypse Antonio Miguel, Carolina Tamayo & Elizabeth Gomes Souza Māori in the Post-Apocalypse Makere Stewart-Harawira & Georgina Tuari Stewart Adventures from the Rubble: The (Post-)Apocalypse as a Mode of Play in Tabletop Role-Playing Games Adrian Hermann Ecology Living at the Edge of Chaos David A. Turner Ecological Civilization: Engaging the complexity of ecological crisis Benjamin Green Without a Possible Vaccine, Ecopedagogical Paradigm Shift Vital to Avoid Ecological Collapse Greg William Misiaszek Reflections on environmental ethics of boundary and domain -- Based on the Taoist View of nature Zhou Guowen & Cai Xinyi Margins with the central role: an archaeology of living with toxics and pollution Maryam Dezhamhooy & Leila Papoli-Yazdi Education Education, the Far Future, and the End of Times Trevor Norris Earth centered – an invitation to relational transgressive learning as a counter-hegemonic force in times of systemic global dysfunction Arjen E.J. Wals Is this the promised end? Low end theory, education and the illusion of survival Michael Jopling & Peter Bennett Cultivating Knowledge: The Anti-Apocalyptic Potential of Bildung Yi Chen & Boris Steipe (African) University Education Discourse in a Crisis: On the Brink of Collapse? Yusef Waghid Change An education for end times Steve Fuller Where Do We Stand? (Or How to Do Something in Particular) Sharon Rider Future Horizons: Doing Pedagogy at the Edge of Chaos Marek Tesar, Andrew Madjar & Adriano De Francesco International law and cooperation in times of crises Holger Hestermeyer Actualities The Nation as Lament: The Sars Corona in India and the Reshaping of the Social and the Political Shail Mayaram Xi’s Global Civilization Initiative Michael A. Peters Mass Shootings in the Age of the Apocalypse: Politics and the Ghosts of History Henry A. Giroux Never-ending ends: Present, past and future – a postscript Thomas Meier & Michael A. Peters Notes on the contributors
Michael A. Peters (FRSNZ) is Distinguished Professor at Beijing Normal University, and Emeritus Professor University of Illinois. He has published 120 books and 500 papers. He received the Social Science and Humanities Leader in China Award (2022, 2023) (Research.com) and is ranked 1st in China and 5th in Asia for Education, (AD Scientific Index, 2023). He has Honorary Doctorates from Aalborg University, Denmark and SUNY, NY. Thomas Meier has been trained as an archaeologist and holds a professorship in pre- and proto-history at Heidelberg University. He is director of the Käte Hamburger Center for Apocalyptic- and Post-Apocalyptic Studies at Heidelberg University. Over the years Thomas has focused more and more on the epistemology and conditions of academic reasoning with special focus on critical inquiry and materialities.
