Patchwork Vectors for the Anthropocene: The Role of Creative Ecologies

Qualitative social inquiry into action on climate change involves understanding the intersections between contemporary social life and the technological development for environmental matters that work in this context. Thus, this article presents a solution in two parts about how to do qualitative research into the climate change action of human populations. Part 1 unravels the complex political and technological situation that we find ourselves embroiled within, and specifically with respect to climate change. The resultant patchwork vector theory of this article comes from Deleuze/Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus and lays out the expansionist system of global capitalism in terms of speeds, flows, and thresholds. Second, the creative ecologies theorized here examine the reality of social-political organization in response to climate change. In sum, these creative ecologies are arranged to pry into the qualitative principles of the patchworks through a combination of Bookchin’s social ecology, Guattari’s Three ecologies, and Harris’ creative agency. In combination, the dual strands of patchwork theory and creative ecologies in this article gives rise to a new qualitative methodology, suitable for social investigation under climate change and here applied to (a) play and (b) water.