Human-Environment Research in/for the Anthropocene: A land use perspective
This seminar focuses on land use change as a perspective on global environmental change in the Anthropocene. Starting in the dry tropical forests of the Chaco in Argentina, we move to the steep valleys of Colombia, enter Europe through the port of Rotterdam and via Denmark and arrive in the newly built 18th century Prussian castle in the heart of Berlin, Germany. Along this journey, land manifests as matter (land cover), as market (asset) and as meaning (home). In all these places rapid socialecological change is taking place that affects the planet as a whole. Professor Jörg Niewöhner tells a story of global assemblages and how they become known through scientific research in order to enter into a discussion of what universities can do to bring forth a wider public appreciation of planetary connectedness.
Apart from hopefully sparking productive discussions on the day, this talk showcases current research at the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) in Berlin with a view to entering into exchange and collaborative research with the University of Melbourne and beyond.
Professor Jörg Niewöhner is the director of IRI THESys. He holds a PhD in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia from 2001. In 2004, he joined the Institute of European Ethnology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin to develop the Collaboratory: Social Anthropology and Life Sciences. He now holds a chair in Social Anthropology of Human-Environment Relations. He conducts ethnographic research at the intersection of science and technology studies, social anthropology and environmental sciences focusing particularly on the qualities of urbanisation, social-ecological change and metabolic and market dynamics. He also serves on the board of the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies.