Applying the Environmental Humanities: Ten steps for action and implementation. Summary. (original) (raw)

2017, Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (saguf), Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS), Bern, Switzerland

There is a growing perception in society and among decision makers that addressing environmental problems requires fundamentally new approaches. This report is based upon a survey of practitioners who work in the field of Environmental Humanities. Environmental humanists – by bringing together scholars from the humanities, social sciences and arts, natural sciences, affected people, and activists – can play an important role in broadening the range of voices and ideas in environmental deliberations. They might achieve this by presenting their ideas, and listening to and observing those who have little voice, be these disadvantaged communities, developing countries or indigenous people. International science and science-policy bodies are becoming more open to proposals for supporting environmental humanities. Proponents of the environmental humanities have stressed the necessity of international networking, promoting interdisciplinarity, establishing multi-component research projects, and strengthening the voice of humanities in society and policy circles. But how can the humanities of and for the environment be strengthened? And how can it produce actual solutions on the ground? Can methodologies and concepts utilized by large natural science projects (e.g., inter- and transdisciplinarity, grand challenges, international institutions such as IPCC or Future Earth) be developed in, and in some cases transferred to the environmental humanities? What may be alternative methodologies and strategies for successfully applying insights of humanists who focus on the environment? The goal of this report is to highlight effective strategies for applying the insights from environmental humanities to environmental problem-solving. In so doing, we offer a sampling of current practitioners’ views of research, teaching, and outreach in their field.