Synchronizing Earthly Timescales - New Article by Sörlin and Isberg
Sverker Sörlin and Erik Isberg, both members of the SPHERE project, recently published the article "Synchronizing Earthly Timescales: Ice, Pollen, and the Making of Proto-Anthropocene Knowledge in the North Atlantic Region" in the scientific journal "Annals of the American Association of Geographers". The aim with the article is to historicize the Anthropocene concept, by tracing the early history of the processes of synchronizing human and geological timescales.
Abstract
The Anthropocene concept frames an emerging new understanding of the human–Earth relationship. It represents a profound temporal integration that brings historical periodization on a par with geological time and creates entanglements between timescales that were previously seen as detached. Because the Anthropocene gets this role of a unifying planetary concept, the ways in which vast geological timescales were incorporated into human history are often taken for granted. By tracing the early history of the processes of synchronizing human and geological timescales, this article aims to historicize the Anthropocene concept. The work of bridging divides between human and geological time was renegotiated and took new directions in physical geography and cognate sciences from the middle decades of the twentieth century. Through researchers such as Ahlmann (Sweden), Seligman (United Kingdom), and Dansgaard (Denmark) in geography and glaciology and Davis (United States) and Iversen (Denmark) in palynology and biogeography, methodologies that became used in synchronizing planetary timescales were discussed and practiced for integrative understanding well before the Anthropocene concept emerged. This article shows through studies of their theoretical assumptions and research practices that the Anthropocene could be conceived as a result of a longer history of production of integrative geo-anthropological time. It also shows the embedding of concepts and methodologies from neighboring fields of significance for geography. By situating and historicizing spaces and actors, texture is added to the Anthropocene, a concept that has hitherto often been detached from the specific contexts and geographies of the scientific work that enabled its emergence.
About the authors
Erik Isberg is a doctoral student at the Division with a M.A in the History of Ideas and Sciences from Lund University. His work is based within the research project SPHERE, and concerns the scientific construction of a global environment and, particularly, how planetary timescales were increasingly incorporated into human history and global environmental governance between 1950 and 1980. On top of this Erik is a huge consumer of poetry and literature. He was a member of the organizational committee of the Crosscuts Festival for Film & Text in 2019, where he among other things was responsible for the poetic acts with engaging performers and curating the sessions.
Sverker Sörlin is a professor of Environmental History at the Division, the PI of the SPHERE project, the supervisor of Erik Isberg among others, an author, writer, frequent debater and outdoor sports enthusiast with an inexhaustible source of energy. He has received several awards over the years, including the Swedish literature award the August Prize/Augustpriset (2004) as well as the Lars Salvius award (2012) which he recieved for his contributions to an increased understanding of environmental and climate issues and the role of the humanities in society.