Index

Acting



Composing












Fluxing






Inhabiting





Metamorphosing




Navigating







Othering




Processing










Regulating










Resonating













Agency
Environing

Landing


Blackboxing
Cosmology
Cosmotechnics
Cosmogram
Cosmopolitics

Envelope
Figure-Ground
Immanence
Institution
Network
New Climatic Regime

Biosphere
Entropy
Great Acceleration
Protocol

Technosphere
Tipping Point


Critical Zone
Earthbound
Habitat
Oikos
Territory

Animism
Holobiont
Strata
Vital Materialism

Anthropocene
Deep Time
Global
Multiplicity
Planetary
Pluriverse
Terrestrial


Ghost Acreage
Modernity
Substitute
Zomia

Computation
Internet of Things
Layer
Model
Operational
Representational
res extensa
Scale
Simulation
Tabula Rasa


Contingency

Cybernetics
Earth System
Feedback Loop
Gaia
Gaia Device
Heterarchy

Recursivity
Stay-Out Zones
World-systems

Futurity
Horizon

Image
Resolution
Sample
Sensor
Synchronisation


Term Critical Zone
Contributor Lucia Rebolino

Bruno Latour explores the concept of the Critical Zone in Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (2018) and Critical Zones: The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth (2020), developed in collaboration with scientists. He describes the Critical Zone as a fragile, thin layer of Earth where life, human activity, and environmental processes intersect—a delicate shell where biological, geological, and technological systems collide. Latour presents the Critical Zone not only as a physical layer but also as a conceptual, interdisciplinary space. It serves as a framework for collaboration across fields such as ecology, geology, anthropology, and political science to understand the interconnected and fragile systems that support life. Latour emphasized the Critical Zone as a “landing space” where scientific and humanistic disciplines meet, fostering a holistic approach to studying the impact of human activities on our shared environment.