Seeing and Knowing the Earth as a System

An Effective History of Global Environmental Change Research as Scientific and Political Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID5811502
AuthorsOla Uhrqvist (0000-0001-5532-4633, corresponding author)
Year2014
Publication date2014-09-26
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSeeing and Knowing the Earth as a System (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherLinköping University Electronic Press (PUBLISHER • SE)
DOI10.3384/diss.diva-110654
OpenAlexW142364219
ISBN9789175192369
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited42

This thesis traces the history of the Earth System as an object of concern in global environmental change research.In focus are the ways of seeing and knowing the global environment that the Earth System perspective rests upon, and the fields of possible action it may produce in science and policy.The study is primarily based on archival analyses of program and project documentation produced by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the International Human Dimensions Programme of Global Environmental Change (IHDP).Together these two programmes represent a wide network of global change research that over the course of 30 years has engaged with the Earth System as object of analysis, and global change as problem of government.The studied period spans from the planning of the IGBP in 1983 until 2013 when Future Earth was established as the new scientific hub for global change research.The thesis studies the effects of the IGBP's strategy to use predictive Earth system models as a tool for global change research coordination and integration.The results demonstrate the historicity of the present Earth system outlook.In particular it examines how the introduction of ecological and social complexity into Earth System modelling has altered the understanding of human-environment relations and the problem of global change.The thesis concludes that the Earth system outlook is the result of a productive and unsolved tension between the top-down gaze of global modelling, and bottom-up understandings of socio-ecological dynamics

Earth system science · Environmental change · Global change · Historicity (philosophy · Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution · Global Energy and Sustainability Research · Science and Climate Studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access