Habitats of the Mind: How Cultural Life Shapes the Built Environment

The anthroposphere is a term that refers to the part of the Earth system made or modified by humans for our species’ needs and activities. It typically designates physical materials, such as the volume of soil shifted artificially or the weight of the built structures that displace that soil. Much literature focuses on the waste and burden of these materials, corresponding to significant research into developing more sustainable materials, either novel and synthetic, or natural and appropriated, for ongoing and future construction of the anthroposphere. However, the anthroposphere is not just a material habitat that supports our biological survival. It is also where we participate in social, cultural, and intellectual life. Thus, the shape, size, design, and durability of the anthroposphere is largely determined by the needs, interests, and constructions of interacting human minds.

The sphere of the human mind was identified and termed the “noosphere” by soil scientist Vladimir Vernadsky (who also popularized the term “biosphere” and is considered one of the founders of biogeochemistry) and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. To calculate accurate mass balances in forecasts of the anthroposphere and Earth system, our conceptual models must better incorporate the motivations of the noosphere.

Some examples of the noosphere impacting the anthroposphere include:

• public discourse and the marketplace: public discussion and commerce are moving to the Internet, resulting in more data centers; these data centers draw heavily on water and energy resources.

• education: books are increasingly digital; library buildings are appraised and redesigned for energy efficiency (e.g., LEED certification); university classes are increasingly digital, with campuses reappropriating their built infrastructure.

• information exchange: information and communications technology infrastructure (including terrestrial and submarine telecommunications cables, satellite systems in Low Earth Orbit, and cellular base stations) proliferates to support intensifying global exchange of information and affect.

• work spaces: work spaces are increasingly privatized; there is an advent of coworking spaces and virtual networking.

• entertainment: monumental infrastructure for sporting, musical, and other forms of entertainment are hubs for recreation, commerce, and consumption.

• sprawl: stargazing is a universal cultural heritage; campgrounds for natural appreciation have very little artificial disturbance, but are impacted by encroaching light and noise pollution.

We invite manuscripts that address the following (or similar) questions to further understanding of human social, cultural, and intellectual life and their interactions with the environment:

• How does our membership in cultural institutions and our participation in cultural activities impact or inform our conceptualization of the environment?

• What are positive/negative interactions of cultural life and the environment?

• Which activities of the noosphere are migrating to digital formats, either partially or completely?

• What are new ways to measure the impact of the noosphere on the natural or built environments?

• How do living labs test all of these realities?

We invite all available types of manuscripts, including: Original Research; Systematic Review; Methods; Review; Mini Review; Policy and Practice Reviews; Hypothesis and Theory; Perspective; Conceptual Analysis; Data Report; Policy Brief; Brief Research Report; Opinion

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: noosphere, built environment, sustainability, data centers, urban sprawl, light pollution

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.