Planetary Futures: On Life in Critical Times

Abstract

Based upon the opening keynote address at the German Congress of Geography held in Frankfurt am Main in 2023, this article traces the current debate on the planetary in the humanities, social sciences and Earth System Science in three parts. Instead of taking the concept of the planetary for granted, we explore the question of how it is reflected in our respective fields of research (cultural geography, social geography, and economic geography) and what potential it harbors for unearthing new insights. In particular, we consider the possibilities for a planetarily-oriented cultural geography beyond anthropocentrism, a social geography of housing that focuses on the concept of planetary habitability, and an economic geography that centers the trans-historical and trans-geographical impact of plantation logics. From our point of view, the planetary is not simply an additional scale but rather a style of thought that increasingly characterizes our present. Since natural and social science approaches meet here in a new way, it seems particularly relevant to ask how we as geographers might allow ourselves to be intrigued and unsettled by the planetary.