RC4 New Approaches to Past Futures and the Anthropocene explores visions of societal development and the impact of the Anthropocene on global history. RC4 examines the concept of past futures and the consequences of past and present globalization projects. RC4 consists of two research themes (RC4a and RC4b) and links up with the three other RCs.
- RC4a. Past Futures and Societal Development, uses the categories of territory and scale to investigate discourses societal development. Past futures proceeds from the idea that every future has a history, which is a written account in the present, based on traces inherited from the past.
- RC4b. The Anthropocene and Climate Change, uses the categories of scale and place to investigate the challenge that climate change. Arguably, it is necessary for global historians to gather insights from scholars who consider the past from a long perspective and take global environmental questions seriously and engage with the idea of Anthropocene.