Historicising Earth System Governance:
International Organisations, the Environment and the Geopolitics of Expertise, 1950s–1990s
Our project
Funded via the British Academy’s scheme for International Interdisciplinary Research Projects, HESG investigates how international organisations, scientific expertise and geopolitical contexts shaped the development of governance related to planetary environmental challenges from the 1950s to 1990s. Tackling these challenges has been long been understood to be beyond the capacity of any single state actor, requiring meaningful international cooperation. Focusing on architecture and agency – two key domains of earth system governance – this project considers the geopolitical dimensions of historical cases involving Earth sciences and environmental expertise.
The project is built around three international initiatives, each of which represented a distinct approach to cooperation in earth system governance: the International Council of Scientific Unions-coordinated International Geophysical Year programme (1957–8); UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme (launched in 1971); and the interplay between non-governmental and intergovernmental actors in the Arctic region (with a focus on the 1980s and 1990s). Run by a multidisciplinary, international six-member team, the project situates these influential initiatives within the geopolitical circumstances of their origins and development.
Alongside the join preparation of various publications (including a co-authored monograph), the team members will organise an international conference as well as hosting activities on the relationship between environmental governance and democracy.
Our three case studies
The International Geophysical Year (IGY)
Launched by the International Council of Scientific Unions and held in 1957–58, the International Geophysical Year was framed as a scientific venture. However, it also depended on extensive diplomatic negotiation, institutional coordination and political agreement, thereby blurring the boundaries between scientific collaboration and geopolitical strategy. Rather than relying on a supranational political structure, the IGY coordinated planetary-scale observation through shared standards, agreed protocols, logistical interdependence and commitments to knowledge exchange.
The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme
Launched in 1971, UNESCO’s ‘Man and the Biosphere’ programme was an early operationalisation of the ‘Earth as a system’. It represents a pioneering institutional attempt to govern human–environment relations on a planetary scale, while still working through regionally embedded sites (biosphere reserves). MAB explicitly integrated ecological science, development policy and international coordination. It thus provides a historical example of how scientific expertise was mobilised to produce governance frameworks on different scales: local–national–global.
Environmental and Indigenous Rights in the Arctic
Having originated in a conference held in 1977, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) was formally established in 1980. Its history illustrates how the pursuit of justice and representation figured in emerging governance regimes on the environment. The ICC campaigns on behalf of Indigenous people from across the Arctic region. While the protection and promotion of Indigenous cultures is a central component of its work, environmental rights have also been a major feature of its activities. The project traces the ICC’s interactions with ventures such as the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (launched in 1989) and the Arctic Council (founded in 1996).
Funded by
Partner Institutions
