May 2026

​​​Soil Publications

How can we understand the relationship between soil and belonging? Focusing on urban growers in Leicester, UK, this article suggests that the practice of caring for soil can strengthen "ecological belonging" that is about building affective and ethical more-than-human relationships, rather than a straightforward connection to place. In another paper, belonging to the soil is explored through an intergenerational lens as embodied and sensory knowing of land.

This article looks at microscopy as a somatic praxis that makes it possible to feel the soil foodweb, potentially changing how we understand ourselves as well as soils.

​​This article explores the role of farmers’ emotional connection to soil as a factor of engagement in soil conservation practice, and outlines what is specific to connection to soil compared to connection to nature.

This paper examines land managers’ decisions in the context of voluntary Agri-Environmental Schemes. They highlight the misalignment between policy assumptions of economic rationality and the multidimensional value worlds within which land managers operate.

Drawing on 16 years’ experience in participatory research, this article proposes 10 principles, drawn from an argued review of pragmatic philosophy, for leading an agroecological transition in the field and form a normative theory of action for implementing agroecology.

Call for Papers

Have a look at the Curiosiol project newsletter providing latest information on the Curiosol Community of Practice and related initiatives.

A Call for Papers is opened until the 4th of May for the conference of the Land Transition Chair: “Beyond Land Use: Designing a Soil-Based Approach in Urban Planning” to be held in Paris on the 3rd and 4th of December 2026.

Oldies but Goodies

Marlon Cline, the Cornell pedologist, wrote in 1961 in a Soil Science Society of America Proceedings paper entitled, “The Changing Model of Soil”, about how the post-World War II “Green Revolution” had shifted the human relationship to the soil. Cline contrasted how soil productivity and soil fertility had been conceived in the 1930’s, as a concept of the soil having an inherent capacity to produce. By the 1960s, Cline observed that we were thinking of the soil in much different terms. For example, we ask what input must be used on a given soil to produce a given yield? This implied to Cline that the soil was no longer used in its inherent form, with farmers accepting inherent limitations a soil may have. Instead, it implied that we can remake the soil to suit our needs. Cline concluded that this change in thinking that soil can be “remade” was nothing less than Promethean!!! Here is a reflection paper.

Soil Events

Last chance to attend the SOIL x ActualizeGroup Exhibition “Service/Symbiosis” in Seattle, WA, before it closes on May 2nd. Bringing together a broad spectrum of material, practice, meaning, and expressions, the 27 artists in this exhibition are accomplices in experimentation and interpretation. Whether working in service of, or in symbiosis with, each other and their work, the fruits of creative partnership and art space community building are on full display.

The SOILSCAPE project organizes the 1st European Soils & Arts Festival on May 22 and 23, 2026 in Angers, France. It brings together arts, science, and outreach around soils, sharing soil science in a sensory and accessible way — making it vivid, engaging, and within everyone's reach.

SAVE THE DATE The Soils for Europe conference 'Healthy Soils for a Sustainable Future' will be held in Coimbra, Portugal, on 7–11 September 2026. One of the conference themes is dedicated to improving soil literacy and citizen engagement — promoting awareness, education, and citizen science initiatives.

SAVE THE DATE Mission Soil Investment Forum will be held on 30 June 2026 in Brussels, Belgium. The Forum will gather investors, policymakers, financial institutions, researchers, and key stakeholders to discuss and promote soil health investment opportunities, co-design innovative investment mechanisms, build strategic partnerships to accelerate the transition to healthy soils.

Soil Documentaries

Here's an interview with the director, Mark Verkerk, director of the new, "Planet Soil". An absolutely brilliant documentary that took four years to make.