Geography and the Anthropocene: Critical approaches needed

Abstract

“The Anthropocene” currently serves as a framework to acknowledge global human influences on the earth systems. Different prominent authors call for geographers and especially physical geographers to intensify their involvement in the discussions on the theme. A bibliometric analysis shows that geographers are already one of the leading contributors to the keyword Anthropocene in journal articles. While we generally support the standpoint of increased engagement with the topic, we want to emphasize that we need to do more than only attaching the “Anthropocene” label to our daily research practice. A critical engagement with and reflection of the research questions and contexts is needed to play a vital role as discussant in the debate. We should take advantage of the diverse themes, topics and viewpoints of our subject by actively following a more critical approach to our research practices in order to find those geographic ties that join us and our discipline and that enable us to contribute more substantially to the Anthropocene debate.

Critical physical geographies of air, atmosphere, and climate

“…In doing so, it has emerged as an integrated geographic approach that can question commonly held assumptions about how human-environment interactions change over time (Anderson et al 2022;Biermann, Kelley and Lave 2021;Blue and Brierley 2016;Bruno 2022;Colucci et al 2021;Engel-Di Mauro 2014;Greer et al 2018;Lane 2017;Lave 2014Lave , 2015Lave et al 2014Lave et al , 2018McClintock 2015;Tadaki 2017;Tadaki et al 2015). Moreover, physical geographers have recognized it as a "promising approach to achieving a more reflective perspective" (Knitter et al 2019) on the Anthropocene, and the relationship between societies and environments. Key to critical physical geography approaches is ongoing dialogue and research practices between social and physical scientists that mutually transform the thinking behind and influencing environmental planning and policy (Lave 2014).…”

Whither physical geography Redux: Revisiting the place of physical geography in the United States

“…A common annoyance among physical geographers is the manufacture by human geographers of perspectives on Geography, usually by title, that completely or almost wholly ignore physical geography. Over the past 20 years, the enormous growth in Geographic Information Science, a new technological constituent of Geography (Goodchild, 2004), as well as the recent self-promotion by geographers of their field as relevant to concerns of the Anthropocene (Derickson, 2018; Ellis, 2017; Gibson-Graham et al, 2019; Knitter et al, 2019; Lorimer, 2012), has shifted the social-science centering slightly, but not necessarily in favor of physical geography.…”

Pragmatisch-integrative Geographie für Sekundarschul-Lehrpersonen? Ein konkretes Beispiel aus der Hochschullehre

“…B. Crutzen 2002;Johnson & Morehouse 2014;Geist 2018;Knitter et al 2019) die Debatte mit neuen Impulsen angeregt hat (siehe hierzu Kapitel 2.2). Auch oder gerade die Geographiedidaktik kann sich der Grundsatzdebatte schlichtweg nicht entziehen, weil sie einen konkreten Ausbildungsauftrag für die Schule bzw.…”