BRIDGES Thematic Hub, University of Cologne

BRIDGES Thematic Hub for Planetary Wellbeing, University of Cologne

This BRIDGES Thematic Hub for Planetary Wellbeing is anchored in two leading research institutions at the University of Cologne (UoC): the research initiative for Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH) and the Global South Studies Center ( GSSC). It is also supported by the Global Responsibility Unit at UoC and the European University for Wellbeing (EUniWell), which is funded by the European Commission.

Focused on Planetary Wellbeing, the Cologne Hub addresses the interconnections amongst human health and wellbeing, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation and ecological regeneration. As such, this Hub is concerned with enhancing the wellbeing of both humans and nonhumans, recognising that their essential needs interrelate in ways that can create intractable conflicts as well as mutual benefits. Bringing the insights and understandings of the environmental humanities to the One Health concept, the Hub approaches wellbeing from a perspective that prioritises multispecies conviviality and ecological flourishing in a shared Planet Earth for present and future generations. We understand this planet not only as a materialentity, but also as an ethicalhorizon, entailing moral obligations towards more-than-human others. These include ways of maintaining and re-inventing forms of living well together in a world that is becoming increasingly less habitable for many earthlings.

While wellbeing may be defined in different ways, this hub considers “sharing” as a common denominator for Planetary Wellbeing. Accordingly, one of the flagship research initiatives of this hub is the initiative “Sharing a Planet in Peril” (SAPP) which brings together researchers from GSSC and MESH with a wide network of international partners, especially scholars and affected communities from the Global South, to address life-threatening environmental concerns and questions that define our current epoch and planetary futures. Drawing on environmental humanities and social sciences, SAPP advances actionable knowledge concerning the socio-cultural dimensions of global environmental change, seeking to uncover in particular the potential of a range of ideas and activities related to ‘sharing’ to ensure more equitable, ecological and convivial lifeways for current and future generations.

Situated within a capacious network of European research partners, but extending its scope and reach to include collaborators from the Global South in order to advance North-South-South eco-humanities interventions, this Hub explores and connects diverse concepts, methodologies and policies connected to Planetary Wellbeing, including intergenerational justice and mental health, art and literature, spirituality and value systems, indigenous and traditional knowledge systems, foresight and futures thinking, as well as discursive and other practices of more-than-human conviviality and collaboration such as Buen Vivir, Ubuntu and the Rights of Nature.