The Big Here and the Long Now

A spirited and engaging 'big picture' narrative of how we can reverse capitalism's relentless drive towards biocultural homogeneity

List of contents

Introduction: The big here and the long now

Part I. A global history of standardisation

1. Narratives of loss

2. Everything was not better before

3. The world after 1492

4. The global bulldozers: State and market

5. Global capitalism and flexibility loss

Part II. Overheating in the 21st century

6. The world after 1991

7. The Homogenocene

8. The smartphone and the container ship

9. The botanical garden - and the zoological one

10. Concrete

11. Soil

12. Invasions

13. Language

14. Food

15. The sensory system

16. Modules in an appified world

17. The good homogenisation

Part III. Miracles of creolisation

18. David and Goliath

19. Cracks in the concrete

20. Biocultural reconciliation

21. Crossing boundaries

22. Unclean diversity

23. The miracle of creolisation

24. TAMA

About the author

Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962 – 2024) was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and former President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). He was among the most highly cited anthropologists of his generation, and his classic and accessible textbook Small Places, Large Issues remains a cornerstone in anthropology courses. His later books, including Overheating, tackled the important issue of climate change within the discipline.

Product details

• Authors: Eriksen Thomas Hylland, Thomas Hylland Eriksen
• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 20.04.2026
• EAN: 9780745352220
• ISBN: 978-0-7453-5222-0
• No. of pages: 384
• Subjects: Globalization, Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Globalization, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Biodiversity, Social and cultural anthropology, Restoration ecology / rewilding, Biodiversity / Ecosystems