Natura e società: una sfida per gli storici

Over the last two decades, reflections on the Anthropocene as a new opportunity to redefine the organization of knowledge in the face of the changing human capacity to intervene on the mechanisms that regulate the functioning of the entire planet, have been configured as one of the major scientific and political questions of our time. There is no doubt, in fact, that studies on the Anthropocene have the merit of having opened a new season of discussions on the relationship between hard sciences and humanities and social sciences and on the urgency of recognizing greater centrality to the latter. These notes aim to briefly depict how a particular historiographical address – the environmental history – has grasped the challenges not only scientific, but also political and social launched in the context of this debate, drawing an original path capable of responding to the needs of a greater dialogue between the sciences on which the new international and national programs for research are based with increasing insistence. It will also be seen how the transdisciplinary commitment of this historical field has enhanced its character as an instrument of knowledge and interpretation of the complexity of the present, at the same time strengthening the critical function which is proper to historiographic practice. But before addressing these aspects, some hints at the origins of this reflection are introduced.

Keywords: Anthropocene; Transdisciplinarity; Environmental history.