The History and Culture of Environments (HCE)

The History and Culture of Environments (HCE)

HCE is an interdisciplinary research group at NTNU employing historical and cultural perspectives to address current environmental challenges.


With the acknowledgment that we have entered the Anthropocene, the idea of nature as a pure and timeless place characterized by the absence of humans has become problematic. We are now painstakingly aware of the human fingerprints on every part of our planet’s environments – from large oceanic and climatic systems to small insects and tiny microorganisms. Rather than lamenting this development as the end of nature, we should grasp the opportunities that lie in the realization that nature and human culture are tightly interwoven. If nature is not timeless, it has a history. If humans have thoroughly affected all planetary environments, this is also a human history – and a cultural history. A history that we should study and learn from.


The environmental challenges we currently face are very real, grave, and not rarely induced by modern humans. Finding sustainable solutions to them feature high on the international agenda. But where do the problems come from? In order to tackle current challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution and degrading natural resources, we should address the recent and distant past to understand their roots. We should learn from the failures and successes of past initiatives to tackle environmental problems. We should delve deeply into the cultural conditions and conceptualizations of nature and humans that enabled, and made reasonable, environmental degradation. We should also examine human-nature interactions that proved sustainable, and that might show us a way to live with and off nature past our own lifetimes. We should investigate the entangled dynamics of cultural and environmental processes over time. And we should address the temporality of our current society and environment, to comprehend properly that we have a past that we need to relate to – and a future that we need to attend to.
 

Illustrasjon

Illustration: Butterfly and flowers

Events

Events

Title:
“Ecosystem services as an integrative framework: integrating who and what?”
 
Gunhild Setten is Professor and Deputy Head of Department for research at the Department of Geography, NTNU. Her research addresses how people morally regulate and enact spaces and places through what they do - or not. Setten has used empirical material from e.g. the cultural heritage management sector, outdoor recreation, and agri-cultures in order to demonstrate the production and effects of different moral geographies.
Title:
“Is rewilding a good framing for wildlife conservation in Europe (and a little beyond): a story of wolves and asses”
 
John Linnell is Senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, based in Trondheim, and is well-known internationally for his research. He works on multiple disciplinary approaches to studying the complex relationships between humans and wildlife, especially large carnivores and large herbivores. His research has been conducted in many countries, including Norway, Macedonia, Albania, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, India and Myanmar.

Summary of HCE launching seminar

The seminar was organized by Assoc. Prof. Håkon B. Stokland (Dept. of Interdisciplinary studies of Culture, KULT), Prof. Gunnar Austrheim (Dept. of Natural History, NTNU VM) and Prof. Per Østby (KULT). The aim of this first seminar was to explore the broader perspectives on research activities across departments at NTNU: What can interdisciplinary research addressing current environmental challenges learn from the entangled dynamics of cultural and environmental processes over time? How can historical and cultural perspectives contribute to a more sustainable management of the environment?

We also used the opportunity to welcome others interested in these topics to join the group.

Head of KULT, Prof. Margrethe Aune, opened the seminar. This was followed by a short welcome by Stokland. Senior lecturer, Dr. Marcus Hall (University of Zurich) held the opening lecture. It was titled “Developing Ecologies for the Anthropocene: Restoration, Invasion, and Disease.” Hall discussed the cultural conceptualizations at play in current and recent management of nature. He examined the idea of origin states, or baseline years, in efforts to restore or rewild nature. He then tied this to efforts to counter invasive species and vector-borne disease such as malaria, as well as conservation of cultural heritage. Overall, the lecture illuminated the complexity and cultural underpinnings involved in the management and conservation of nature.
After a short break, Stokland and Austrheim presented previous research from their respective departments, and two currently submitted project proposals: “Warranty for a better world? The current role and future potential of certificates for a sustainable bioeconomy (WARRANTY)” and “Governing nature: The environmental history of certificates, conventions, quotas and borders”.
Then 8 invited researchers presented from their research activities.

 

  • Assoc. Prof. Hilde Bjørkhaug (Dept. of Sociology and Political Science) presented a research project on conservation of agricultural areas with a focus on food production in rural societies.
  • Asoc. Prof. Jennifer Branlat (KULT) presented a current initiative concerning ecofeminism and gender perspectives on environmental issues.
  • Prof. Francesco Cherubini (Industrial Ecology Programme) presented the quantitative and systemic approaches often employed at his department which focus on the user side (industry) and their potential for a more sustainable production.
  • Prof. Espen Moe (Dept. of Sociology and Political Science) presented a more institutional approach, and dicussed barriers and opportunities to mitigate climate change.
  • Assoc. Prof. Jan Ketil Simonsen and Assoc. Prof. Lorenzo Cañás Bottos (Dept. of Social Anthropology) presented a project on how pig production affect the surrounding environment in Spanish Dehesa - a diverse multifunctional, agrosylvopastoral system.
  • Prof. Hans Stenøien (Dept. of Natural History) presented an evolutionary approach to understand human history and their impact on biodiversity in a long term perspective.
  • Researcher Ingrid Ystgaard (Dept. of Archaeology and Cultural History) presented a project on environmental effects on pre-historic settlement patterns in a coastal community (Ørland, Trøndelag).