Vital Matter Icy Liveliness in the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene epoch is one where human mastery has left an indelible mark on our planet's geological record. A grand narrative that foregrounds human domination over nature, the Anthropocene should, however, not foreclose agentive capacity beyond the human. This special issue of Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale explores engagements with ice, an iconic nonhuman element of the Anthropocene. The articles demonstrate how recognising ice's vitality and impact on humans challenges dominant epistemologies, transcends the life/death binary, confuses the boundaries of matter, and alters timescales, unsettling popular imaginaries about the climate. Specific in how its vitality is expressed, ice is also here universal as a substance enmeshed in earthly processes that transcend localities. Altogether, these accounts evoke a sense of humility in response to the vitality of ice, urging us to embrace the agency of the non-human, the lack of appreciation for which is indeed inherent to the very conditions of the Anthropocene.