Geographies of Knowledge(s) and the Earth

This paper problematizes the conceptualization of the Earth (“geo”) within the “geo-epistemic perspective” of geographies of knowledge. It contrasts two distinct Earth-descriptions. The first, rooted in Modern geography and the socio-spatial tradition, reduces the Earth to a stable, mute surface (a Holocene perspective separating Society and Nature). The second description confronts the actual, mutating biophysical planet of the Anthropocene, conceptualized as an active Earth System. The paper argues that modern higher education remains problematically tethered to the obsolete, stable-Earth ontology, rendering it ill-equipped for the ongoing climate and ecological breakdown. To address this, the article resurrects the concept of the Earth’s surface as a dynamic, biophysical habitable zone. It proposes the “Geoversity,” a reimagined educational institution that places the reality of the mutating Earth at its core, aiming to equip becoming planetary citizens with essential geographies of and for planetary habitability.