Opportunities to foreground human embeddedness in the Anthropocene biosphereNatural Capital Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Biological Sciences and Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Earth Resilience Science Unit, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany; Department of Integrative Earth System Science, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany.
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (INCREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Goldin+Senneby, Stockholm, Sweden.
Grupo de Estudios Ambientales, San Luis Institute of Applied Mathematics (IMASL), Universidad Nacional de San Luis & National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), San Luis, Argentina.
Anthropocene Laboratory, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Global economic dynamics and the biosphere, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Anthropocene Laboratory, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden; Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan.
Anthropocene Laboratory, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
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2026 (English)In: Cell Reports Sustainability, ISSN 2949-7906, Vol. 3, no 7, article id 100734Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Dominant traditions in Western science have traditionally separated humans from nature, a division that is reproduced in the distinction between natural and social sciences. This rift has persistently hampered the ability of sustainability science to comprehensively understand and address the profound challenges of the Anthropocene. In this perspective, we aim to challenge entrenched separations between humans and nature by emphasizing the embeddedness of humans in the biosphere. We conceptualize embeddedness from a systems perspective and illustrate it using case studies on human microbiomes and freshwater availability. We discuss how a focus on embeddedness can increasingly be adopted in sustainability research through developments in sensing, modeling, and commoning practices. By highlighting these conceptual and practical opportunities for studying embeddedness in the biosphere, we seek to support transdisciplinary dialogues and practices toward sustainable futures.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier BV , 2026. Vol. 3, no 7, article id 100734
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Sustainability studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-383037DOI: 10.1016/j.crsus.2026.100734Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105045324880OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-383037DiVA, id: diva2:2066200
Note
QC 20260729
2026-06-042026-06-042026-07-29Bibliographically approved