Experiencing soil perspectives – an interdisciplinary approach to transform soil science

How do soil scientists perceive and experience soils? They use a wide variety of devices and tools, such as microscopes, laboratory equipment and field campaigns, and they summarize their knowledge through publications, graphs, and tables. Approaching soils with this academic perspective is likely to cause scientists to have different relationships with soils than people without soil science training. Humans have relationships with soils, and in addition to the science-based ones, these relationships can be personal, artistic, cultural, sensorial and more. Clearly, soils matter at many levels since people and communities can feel a deep connection with the soil of their homeland, as a source of identity, sustenance and a sense of place and belonging. What we proposed during the Wageningen Soil Conference 2023 was to let soil scientists discover the diversity in ways that soils can be experienced and perceived so to facilitate a positive transformation on how do we do soil science. During these event we took participants beyond the scientific perspective in an informal and relaxed space where we engaged with soils in unexpected and creative ways. Seventeen ‘stations’ were dedicated to experiencing colors, smells, tastes, textures, sounds, visuals, emotions and feelings peculiar to soils. Each station was organized by either a scientist or an artist that was present to encourage discussions, conversations and sharing of stories to inspire to experience new soil perspectives. One of the goals of this exercise was to expand (transform) the, often narrow, view of soil scientists on soils and let them discover other dimensions which can allow them to better connect with society and inspire them to share their work and knowledge about soil. This event was just the beginning of our collaboration towards experiencing soil perspectives and more events using the same or a similar format for different stakeholder groups (non-soil scientist, general public) were organized. During the conference we will share our concept, experiences and reflection with a broader group of soil scientists also reflecting about the experiences derived from the course ‘Transformative soil science’ hold in November 2024. The course was grounded in transdisciplinary perspectives from natural and social sciences and the humanities, and helped early-career scientists to understand their own perspectives on soil, and how to connect with other perspectives in an integral way of knowledge generation that contributes to meaningful transformations.