built environment – Humus economicus

June 22, 2023

‘Below Ground with the Podcast Arwidsson Talks

Arwidsson Talks, a podcast focusing on sustainable urban development, got interested in Humus economicus’ concept ”soil blindness” and invited Malin Lobell and Jenny Lindblad from the research team for a conversation on soils in the city. The podcast is in Swedish and can be listened […]

ALL ACTIVITIES 21 sec read

April 30, 2023

Humus Economicus visiting ‘Taking Care!’ organized by the Swedish Anthropological Association

This April 27-29, Humus Economicus visited the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, where the Swedish Anthropological Association held its yearly conference on the theme of Taking Care. The presentations in the conference engaged with diverse caring practices focusing on buildings, ocean creatures, street-vendors, tree canopies, […]

NEWS 1 min read

June 21, 2021

The Soil Celebration Continues – Workshops with Germund Sellgren

Above: Erika, one of the participant at Bäckedal Folkhögskola, 19 June 2021. During the Soil Celebration in April, we visited urban gardeners and soil stewards to talk about living soils and sustainable relationships. They showed what climate action and social commitment could look like in […]

ALL ACTIVITIES 55 sec read

June 15, 2021

Soil Layers and Laws – Surface Values and Deep Values of Soils in the City

How are soils made present in urban planning processes, documents, and laws? This is one of the questions we attend to in this project’s exploration of relations between people and soils in the urban landscape. In what forms are soils taken into account? In our […]

ALL ACTIVITIES 55 sec read

June 8, 2021

Between Earthworms and Satellites

For Sentinel-1, a satellite pair orbiting planet Earth to meticulously and regularly scan its surface, my allotment garden covers four pixels, almost. The pixels have a resolution of 10 x 10 meters. The essential thing about these pixels is that they are not sealed with […]

ALL ACTIVITIES 1 min read

April 12, 2021

See the Soil! A Soil Celebration in Malmö and Lund, 9-11 April 2021

During two intense and inspiring days, Karin Wegsjö, Janna Holmstedt, and Malin Lobell visited urban farms, community gardens, and other soil related initiatives. They met soil stewards in the city and its hinterlands, where conversations on living soils and sustainable relations unfolded. In the photo […]

ALL ACTIVITIES 34 sec read

February 1, 2021

Welcome! Launching a four-year art and research project

Humus economicus is an art and research initiative that investigate the future and value of soil in urbanised landscapes. It is initiated by artist and environmental humanities researcher Janna Holmstedt, National Historical Museums, Sweden. The project mobilizes a team of artists, environmental-, urban-, gender-, and […]

NEWS 33 sec read

Soils have slowly emerged from their hibernation in society’s cultural imagination and in research. A growing body of research has brought soils onto the climate crisis agenda suggesting the urgency of transforming society-soil relations and manage soils for health and biodiversity. This in turn demands a shift in how soils are perceived and integrated in sustainability work and society at large, where nature is not separated from culture, or social life from ecology. The relational approach we seek to cultivate in the research initiative ‘Humus economicus’ is sensitive to place-based practices, cultures of care, and multispecies conviviality. Explore the fascinating naturecultures of soils with us, across art, science and the humanities!

Humus economicus