Projects

With publishing the Climate Action Plan in March 2024, the MPG set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2035 and proclaimed to design a pathway towards being a leading example for a sustainable and climate-friendly research organization. This project takes this goal as a starting point for an analysis of the entire climate, biodiversity and sustainability research of the Max Planck Society. Next to taking stock of the relevant research carried out in all three sections of MPG, the analysis aims to support self-reflection in research as to which topics and collaborations within the MGP could be of interest in the future. more

Chemical industries play a major, yet in technology studies still underestimated role in the establishment of the technosphere and for the course of history in the Anthropocene. Artificial  fertilizers, ammunition, plastics, fuels, pharmaceuticals are drivers for paradigmatic Anthropocene dynamics in all spheres of the Earth- and socio-technical systems. (Great Acceleration Observatory). Via their industrial technicality, a large set of molecules need to be addresses as part of the technosphere. It is the ongoing „transformation of chemistry“ towards sustainable process structures, that calls for an understanding of the full scope of industrial chemicals for the actual historical condition.  more

How did a state shift in planetary conditions occur in the wake of local transformations and how does that state shift feed back to such localities, further spurring their transformations? Can we map, and thereby discern, the systemic drivers and their mutual interdependencies that mesh the global fabric of the Anthropocene? In the collaborative project Teleconnections we seek to develop a new visual grammar representing social, technological, and ecological transformations across space and time, helping to get an evolving technosphere into view. more

Analyzing narratives between science and policy involves examining the complex interplay and communication strategies that bridge the gap between scientific research and policy-making. more

The project explores the innovative approach of utilizing games as educational tools to enhance understanding and skills in complex system thinking. Complex systems, characterized by their intricate and interdependent components, pose significant challenges in comprehension and analysis. Games, with their interactive and engaging nature, offer a unique platform for learners to experiment with and understand the dynamics of such systems in a risk-free environment. more

Simulations have emerged as a powerful tool for source criticism, offering a novel approach to evaluate and understand historical, scientific, and media sources. more

Analyzing social tipping dynamics within the context of structural language evolution offers a novel lens through which to understand the mechanisms driving societal change. more

The concept of bioeconomy, defined as an economic system utilizing renewable raw materials to foster sustainable practices across sectors, has garnered significant attention amidst ongoing climate crises. Since around 2009, supranational entities like the OECD and various governments have promoted bioeconomy as a pivotal solution. This has led to an unusual convergence of interests between industry stakeholders and social movements, uniting former adversaries such as environmental activists and the biotech industry. However, the central question persists: Can the bio-transformation of industrial production serve as a viable alternative to oil dependency, or will it exacerbate resource overexploitation? This research seeks to elucidate the historical roots and ongoing tensions in the bioeconomic field by examining its evolution from the 1960s to the 2000s. more

"Science and Responsibility" is the working title for a book project on the history of the life sciences in the Max Planck Society (MPG) between 1948 and 2002. The focus is on the agricultural sciences and molecular biology in the MPG and their different reactions to the social problems of their time. The contrasting development of these sciences in the MPG is described with a view to fundamental epistemic contradictions in the life sciences, power relations and social networks within the scientific organisation and different relationships to business and politics. It deals with fundamental decision-making situations in science and research that are of long-term significance for the relationship between humans and their environment and are the subject of geo-anthropology. more

By analyzing existing publications from the last three decades with methods from the framework of socio-epistemic networks, the project aims at uncovering the historical roots of the emergent science of Geoanthropology. more

This project explores changing epistemes among surveyors during Old Babylonian period, or the early second millennium BCE in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It asks, “How and to what extend did knowledge change in this community?” “Who affected this change?” and “What impact did this change have on the surveyor’s themselves and on other communities?” more

Peter Damerow was a vital figure in the decipherment of proto-cuneiform, while his work on numbers and numeracy have only recently been updated. more

The starting point for the project, conducted in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, is existing initiatives in Indigenous and traditional territories in South America and Europe, that work to regenerate relationships between many species, human and non-human, based on the ways of life of Forest Peoples. more

PhD project by Carlina Rossée (since April 2024) more

The project aims at reconstructing building blocks of the Anthropocene engine by building a collection of reduced agent-based models that simulate key aspects behind the so-called great acceleration. more

This project maps forest cover loss, alongside the forms of political resistance that have obstructed deforestation, during the era of global capitalist expansion from the late 1400s onwards. more

Deep-learning-driven large scale information extraction from historical maps and high resolution aerial images more

The dissertation project explores the socio-ecological dynamics that contributed to the emergence of the technosphere, using the example of Western Kansas’ groundwater irrigation crisis. The project analyzes the physical, technological, and societal rebirth of Western Kansas at the inflection point of the Great Acceleration, following the extreme events of the 1930s and 1950s Dust Bowls. It examines the emergence and transformation of the cultural, economic, legal, and technological drivers that enabled this socio-ecological transformation. In this way, the geoanthropological study raises the question of whether the same drivers that enabled this transformation are now trapping Kansas in its technospheric present. more

The Anthropocene Commons (AC) is a network of researchers, educators, activists, artists, and scientists from all over the world working on the Anthropocene. By commoning their skills, knowledge, and resources, the community imagines and explores practices of transformative pedagogies and collective action. more

The Anthropocene Curriculum (AC) began in 2013 as a long-term initiative exploring frameworks for critical knowledge and education in our ongoing transition into a new, human-dominated geological epoch—the Anthropocene. The project has drawn together heterogeneous knowledge practices, inviting academics, artists, and activists from around the world to co-develop curricular experiments that collectively respond to this crisis of the customary. more