To support the dialogue between science and society, as well as researchers across different disciplines, IRI THESys holds both external and internal events. This includes lecture series, summer universities and panel discussions open to the public, and participative workshops, colloquiums and activities for IRI THESys. Browse through our past and upcoming events to find out more.
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Feb132026
Pluralising the Anthropocene – From Grand Narratives to Grounded Practices
13 February 2026, 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: IRI THESys, Rudower Chaussee 12B, room 3.25An Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Richard Balme, Eva Lövbrand, Katharina Kalmbach and Annette Mehlhorn
This IRI THESys Interdisciplinary Dialogue (ID) explores how the Anthropocene is not only a scientific concept rooted in geology and Earth System Analysis, but also a lived, debated, and narrated reality that shapes environmental research across disciplines and governance processes. Instead of rehashing questions like “What is the Anthropocene?” or “When did it start?”, the session investigates how different ways of understanding the Anthropocene and its multiple crises influence which knowledge forms are valued, whose voices are heard, and which futures are imagined – and vice versa.
We will look at different knowledge practices and ask:
- How do metaphors and narratives such as planetary stewardship, ecological collapse, or global citizenship shape sustainability research and political action?
- How can researchers and political actors engage with diverse forms of knowledge – scientific, local, Indigenous, artistic – without flattening their differences?
- How do integrative and plural approaches to interdisciplinary research differ in terms of knowledge production and the usability of the knowledge produced?
- How can researchers navigate the many challenges of communicating complex and contested environmental change?
The ID invites participants from across disciplines to reflect on the role of storytelling, power, and positionality in shaping environmental research and policies. It provides a fruitful forum for those working on global environmental change, related sustainability governance issues, and the politics of knowledge production.
Panel members:
- Professor Richard Balme, Sciences Po, Paris – environmental & climate governance, institutions, and public policy
- Professor Eva Lövbrand, Linköping University – Anthropocene narratives, power, and knowledge politics of the environment
- Dr Karena Kalmbach, Futurium, Berlin – history of science and Anthropocene literacy
- Dr Annette Mehlhorn, IRI THESys, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – environmental justice and local & Indigenous knowledge