DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.22617.2 ISSN: 2732-5121

Cosmoecology: a literature review and conceptual synthesis for transdisciplinary research lines

Alessandra MANZINI
Show PDF Cite
This review examines the term “cosmoecology” a polysemous neologism used across multiple disciplines to bridge the relationship between Cosmos and ecology. Tracing its intellectual history, the paper identifies three primary lineages: Bohdan Kiełczewski’s organic metaphor regarding cosmic influences on Earthly life, Michael Mautner’s astrobiological vision for seeding the universe, and the relational multispecies entanglements proposed by Vinciane Despret and Michel Meuret. Building on these foundations and drawing from the SPIRAL project’s cross-cultural data, this paper proposes a new conceptualization of cosmoecology as a “relational ontoepistemology.” Methodologically, this paper adopts an integrative conceptual review approach. Literature was selected through a qualitative genealogical tracing of the neologism ‘cosmoecology’ across philosophy, astrobiology, science and technology studies (STS), African postcolonial thought, and human geography to synthesize its polysemous usages and theoretical trajectories. The novel conceptual framework poses a new perspective on the entanglement of worldviews and ecospiritual practices, shifting prevailing paradigms of sustainability and territorial governance in the Anthropocene toward plural onto-epistemologies. Ultimately, synthesizing these diverse traditions provides a theoretical foundation for transdisciplinary research that honors the deep interconnectedness of cosmic, planetary, and localized human, non-human, and more-than-human relations.

More from our Archive