Conference Agenda

What might human geography look like if we truly take the planetary seriously—not just as backdrop or scale, but as a fundamental shift in how we understand space, knowledge, and responsibility? In this keynote, I explore how the “planetary turn” challenges us to rethink not only our geographies, but also the ways in which we produce and legitimize knowledge itself. Drawing on the visual and conceptual power of planetary imaginaries—from the iconic “blue marble” to the debris-strewn landscapes of the Anthropocene—I trace how planetary thinking destabilizes inherited binaries such as global/local, nature/culture, and subject/object. This opens the door to a reimagined human geography: one that is attuned to entangled temporalities, responsive to deep relationalities, and committed to pluriversal, situated knowledge practices and “tentacular thinking” (Haraway). While the planetary turn itself is far from uncontested—raising critical questions about universality, positionality, scale, and power—it nonetheless offers a provocative lens for rethinking the role of geography today. In light of escalating ecological and epistemic crises, this is less a call for ready-made answers than an invitation to critically reflect on our modes of knowledge and to explore new, perhaps still uncertain, ways of engaging with a shared and fragile planet.