Interdisciplinarity and the Earth Sciences : Knowledge at the Threshold

Clark, Nigel and Szerszynski, Bronislaw (2025) Interdisciplinarity and the Earth Sciences : Knowledge at the Threshold. In: Handbook of Environmental Political Theory in the Anthropocene :. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham and Camberley. ISBN 9781802208948

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Abstract

While the origins of the Anthropocene idea are profoundly interdisciplinary, the concept has also generated conflicts between disciplines. This chapter explores both the possibilities and the perplexities of Anthropocene interdisciplinarity along with the promise of contestation or agonism. We set out by reviewing the development of the Earth sciences qua disciplines, leading up to the recent interdisciplinary turn to the study of Earth systems. From there we take a closer look at the role that interdisciplinarity has played in the articulation of the Anthropocene hypothesis and explore ongoing tensions at the metadisciplinary juncture between the natural and social sciences. But we are also keen to hold onto the geoscience insight that the Earth has the capacity to shift between operating states. This leads us to consider the interdisciplinary implications of conceiving of ourselves and our knowledge formations as situated on the threshold between a familiar and an unknowable Earth.