Out of time: ghost criminology and nonlinear approaches to climate catastrophe

• In Event: New Directions in Cultural Criminology

Abstract

The threat of climate catastrophe sees us running out of time. As global temperatures rise possible futures are closed off. They are replaced by a series of endpoints as we reach the limits of our collective ability to adapt. The events and phenomena associated with climate catastrophe also push us out of time. They are temporally ‘weird’. Past and future environmental harms come to spectrally resonate within the present.

This paper – drawing upon the hauntologically-informed approach established by ghost criminology – seeks to unpack notions of environmental harms and justice when we are out(side) of time. The paper itself will be delivered nonlinearly to both illustrate and reflect our exploration of differing temporal registers. We will explore disputed pasts and lost futures, apocalyptic ends that are unevenly distributed and beginnings that loop, repeat and recycle time. Using real-world case studies, we will explore differing experiences of temporal speeds and scales to produce a hauntologically-informed framework for addressing environmental justice.

Author

• Michael Fiddler, University of Greenwich