The blurring of distinctions between Earth processes and human history requires us to be “transdisciplinary” and sometimes even “undisciplinary” – in order to combine the knowledge base and research capacities of a wide variety of stakeholders.

The blurring of distinctions between Earth processes and human history requires us to be “transdisciplinary” and sometimes even “undisciplinary” – to learn how to go beyond traditional disciplinary forms of knowledge production in order to combine the knowledge base and research capacities of a wide variety of stakeholders.

The Anthropocene incites us to learn new habits and practices of knowledge production. It requires us to be “multidisciplinary” and “interdisciplinary” – not to throw out deep disciplinarity, but to make better use of it, combining knowledge from diverse disciplines across the natural and social sciences, and the arts and humanities. But it also requires us to be reflexive – to be aware of the way that all forms of knowledge production are shaped by historical and social context, by instrumentation and by social practices, and can thereby make certain things visible while hiding others. The idea of the seminar was to explore these issues through diverse kinds of collaborative activity. We looked at the range of existing knowledge-skills and their relevance for the Anthropocene. What does it mean to “know” something, individually or collectively? In which ways does “knowing in the Anthropocene” centrally involve issues of non-knowledge in all its diverse forms, including “known unknowns” and the like?