Is Geo-logy the New Umbrella for All the Sciences? Hints for a Neo-Humboldtian University

In this chapter, originally presented as a lecture at Cornell University in 2016, Latour extends his inquiry into how we inhabit the territory of the earth, and how we must position ourselves to live in the strange space of an earth made perilously new by our actions. The first part of this chapter is an extended rumination on our earthliness and how this is to be understood and lived—and indeed expressed in language. In searching for an adequate descriptor of life in the world made strange through human action which is also a world in ruins, and how this is to be negotiated, Latour mobilizes the idea of critical zone—as in the Critical Zone Observatories (CZOS)—as a metaphor for how we might learn to see the world in the new way required to survive. Latour then turns to some considerations of what this means for universities. The post-Humboldtian hints reference the role of the Humboldtian model of the university in driving industrialization, whereas a decidedly post-Humboldtian vision is required to ensure our survival in the world in ruins. Three major hints are provided: the need for universities to organize themselves around the principle of outreach: the needs for new literacies in politics, performance, design, and communication, especially the communication and visualization of big data; and the urgent need for new disciplinary formations and co-locations to enable the kind of science required for planetary survival. Latour concludes with an invitation to university educators to take up this challenge.