In this lecture, Joshua Trey Barnett places care at the center of environmental citizenship. The practice of environmental citizenship entails caring about and caring for the earth and for the more-than-human beings and ways of being with whom and with which we share the earth. Focusing on care raises a crucial question, however. As Donna Haraway argues, we must “cast our lot for some ways of life and not others.”

Since we cannot care for every being and way of being, and since—as it turns out—caring for some may demand harming others, how are we to decide which beings and ways of being we ought to care about and for? Grappling with this question, Professor Barnett turns to Hannah Arendt’s late writings on the activities of thinking and judging. With Arendt’s insights in mind, he argues that one of the environmental citizen’s underappreciated yet crucial responsibilities is to become an adept thinker and judger of care itself.

This keynote address takes place as part of the BAA Conference 2023.

Photo: ©Jonas Jacobsson / unsplash.com