La perspectiva de la Història Ambiental: de la sensibilitat verda a la radicalitat ecològica

In this issue of "Segle XX," we continue our commitment to present a section dedicated to dialogue among specialists, with the aim of providing readers with a nimble and useful tool to delve into and address issues related to various areas and purposes of historical study. In order to contribute to exploring the field of Environmental History from different national perspectives and backgrounds, in July 2023 we held the debate that we present on this occasion, featuring two historians with recognized careers: Marco Armiero (Institut d’Història de la Ciència, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona & Institución Catalana de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados-ICREA) and David Soto Fernández (Centro de Investigación Interuniversitario de los Paisajes Atlánticos Culturales-CISPAC, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela).

We understand that Environmental History represents a very fertile field, with great potential and addressing different historiographical areas, both thematically and spatially and chronologically. Additionally, we consider that Environmental History maintains in some cases a close relationship with militant criticism of capitalist development and inequalities between the North and South of the world, contributing to making visible the existing social conflicts at a regional and global level. Thus, in a way, the conversation presented here connects with others that we have organized previously in "Segle XX." For example, the debate Geopolitics of the Pandemic: Public Health in Historical Perspective between Joan Benach de Rovira and Esteban Rodríguez Ocaña in issue 14 of 2021. On that occasion, the proposal was a conversation that aimed to analytically address public health from a historical perspective and, at the same time, as a central issue in the present and future of society, presenting clear similarities regarding the importance of environmental issues on the agenda of current priorities.

From a methodological and thematic point of view, it is worth noting that Environmental History has significantly contributed to historiographical renewal in recent decades, sharing this role with other approaches such as Gender History, which we dedicated a debate to in this same section in issue 15 of 2022 of the magazine. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that once again some themes that arose regarding Gender History are at the center of the debate, starting with the rocky and unique trajectories of the specialists, given the scant academic recognition of the discipline and its possible relationship with a matrix of political activism.