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Growing Out of the Modernity Metacrisis – A Sensing Heuristic for Seeding Alternative Futures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2026

Karen Cieri
Affiliation:
Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
Yin Paradies*
Affiliation:
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
*
Corresponding author: Yin Paradies; Email: yin.paradies@deakin.edu.au
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Abstract

We are in a metacrisis caused by exponential growth, extraction and entitlement. When we strive to abolish the abundant absurdities of the current system (i.e., modernity) with rehabilitative or reformist responses, we risk reproducing, even reinforcing, the very dynamics we seek to transform. The sensing seed is a visual heuristic and practice of resonant embodied ethics to aid in unravelling the machinations of modernity. The seed identifies three polarities that reflect salient patterns of modernity: separateness, linearity and abstraction. The sensing seed is designed to surface the many materialisations of modernity while elucidating ethical entrées that are decolonially discordant with dominant dispositions by enabling reflexive, visceral and committed praxes of the many adjacent alternatives available, but largely imperceptible, even unimaginable, to modern humans. Through radical acceptance, attention to aesthesis and action, we can show up, cultivate connexion, kindle kin, grow groundward, tarry with trouble, abide in aporias and wallow in wiser lifeways akin to those of our pre-modern (i.e., primal) ancestors.

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Type
Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australian Association for Environmental Education
Figure 0

Figure 1. Simplified sensing seed.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Detailed sensing seed.