Practices of Care with the Anthropocene: Scenes from the 2019 Nebraska Flood

Abstract

This chapter, written not too long after the March 2019 US Midwestern floods, responds to those floods and the connective practices of care they created. Inspired by Gough’s (Shaking the treed, making a rhizome: Towards a nomadic geophilosophy of science education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 38(5), 625–645, 2006) call for more literary and artistic modes of representation in science education, this chapter offers an affect-rich account of the flood and learning to live in the Anthropocene. Drawing on a trip to the area in July 2019, newspaper articles, social media, and discussions with family and friends, this account follows the watery we’s—the connections between humans, nonhumans, and so much more—that the flood collected and the affective practices of care that the flood continues to generate. To do this work, I first situate the 2019 Midwestern flood, with a focus on Eastern Nebraska. Then, I share how I put Puig de la Bellacasa’s ( Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds. University of Minnesota Press, 2017) conception of care to work by examining moments that created different affect-rich currents in practices of care. This responsive work, told in more artistic modes of representation, aims to create resonating moments for careful thoughts about learning to live in the Anthropocene.