Children & the Chthulu: What child-authored books reveal about the Anthropocene

This research sheds light on Indian children’s process of meaning-making of the Anthropocene using place-ecological meaning. It explores how children creatively expressed their understanding of human and more-than-human under the Anthropocene in books they authored. The children’s books were the primary source of data; additional data from creative writing responses, journals and interviews was elicited, and the analysed using thematic analysis. Results reveal that the children used their experiences with place-based nature to develop a strong place-ecological meaning, which inspired a striking critique of the necropolitical and geontopolitical regime of the Anthropocene. Children’s own sense of marginalization in an adult world forged empathy with the more-than-human, children, and marginalized humans, countering the hegemonic narratives that drive the Anthropocene, and fostering a sense of collective activism and resistance. In the books, the more-than-human entities became agents rather than objects centred around humans, shaping an exchange and co-merging with children. The results of this research reinforce theoretical and empirical work on the process of place-ecological meaning with additional significance as a qualitative study that foregrounds the voices of children in the Global South and their meaning-making of the Anthropocene. The study roots universal knowledge of the Anthropocene in familiar spaces using experiences, places and local ecologies. It recommends adding place-ecological meaning as a criterion for adjudging children’s environmental literature. It also recommends revising the place-ecological meaning scale to include ways to assess meaning-making of the Anthropocene.