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- Convenors:
-
Ludwig Weh
(Fraunhofer IMW)
Christine Richter (Fraunhofer IMW)
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- Format:
- Combined Format Open Panel
Short Abstract:
Diverse ways of knowing inform how we imagine environmental changes of the future, from empirical assessment to creative, speculative, more-than-human and non-Western approaches. This panel inquires underlying epistemologies and methods translating them into diverse images of environmental futures.
Long Abstract:
Environmental futures have integrated biophysical, socioeconomic, cultural and also political values in anticipating anthropogenic changes to the natural environment. Scientific fields such as geo- and biosciences, sustainability research, human ecology and also STS and futures studies have combined their methodologies to diversify this practice for better applicable results in praxis and stakeholder context.
When creating nature futures, underlying epistemologies may include: rational-analytical / empirical-predictive; ethical-normative / activist-emancipatory, creative-aesthetic / cultural-interpretative, visionary-imaginative / open-explorative, utopian-speculative / critical-poststructural.
Their methodological translations may include: data-based forecasts; ecosystem scenarios within integrated environmental assessments; cultural nature-futures; climate action research; environmental design futures; more-than-human, multi-species and non-human futures; climate fiction, solar punk; mixed-media, design- and art-based futures; interactive exhibitions or performances; non-Western ways of knowing like Indigenous practices.
To explore the epistemic range, methodical variety and diverse forms and expressions of environmental futures, this Combined Format Open Panel proposes a threefold structure:
- Session 1 (panel) invites a selected number of conference papers as case studies, innovative research projects and conceptual and methodical designs (science-art, quantitative-qualitative, biophysical-socioeconomic-cultural, design-based, …). These papers will encourage dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and illustrate epistemic and methodical continuities between different ways of knowing in creating environmental futures.
- Session 2 (interactive performance) will use elements of science theater as performative, co-creative, participatory approach to experiencing and reflecting anthropogenic impacts on nature: https://www.englishtheatreleipzig.de/etls-anthroposcene-where-theatre-meets-nature/
- Session 3 (workshop) will apply Causal Layered Analysis to open a reflexive space, questioning worldviews and underlying assumptions revealed in sessions 1 and 2. Tracing and critically reviewing the process of scientific knowledge production in environmental futures, its epistemic, methodical and outcome layers will be deconstructed and reframed/reconstructed for novel, integrative perspectives on making environmental futures.
Submissions are welcome as regular conference papers (session 1) and art-based/performative interventions (session 2); session 3 will be moderated by the organizers.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Kimberley Vandenhole (Ghent University and Université libre de Bruxelles) Thomas Block (Ghent University) Tom Bauler
Short abstract:
Sustainable futures are said to be ontologically pluriversal. We propose a 3-year research project "How can the universe be shifted towards a pluriverse?" and comprehensively discuss its research design. We elaborate on the distinct research methodologies/methods of each research phase.
Long abstract:
Sustainable futures are said to be pluriversal, i.e. drawing on ontological pluralism. Acknowledging the value and potential of diverse ways of being, thinking and knowing, a pluriverse is made of a multiplicity of mutually entangled and co-constituting but distinct ‘worlds’. We propose a 3-year research project "How can the universe (as a world in which just one ontology is allowed) be shifted and articulated towards a pluriverse, as to foster sustainable living?" and comprehensively discuss its research design. We elaborate on the distinct research methodologies and methods of each research phase: first, asking "What if the pluriverse would be seriously integrated into Sustainability Transitions Research?", we discuss the (in)compatibilities, challenges and potentialities of analytical-methodological integration of, i.a. the other-than-human, into an academic field build on different onto-epistemological affirmations ; second, asking "Where in the global North can threads for a pluriverse be found?", we discuss our operationalisation of an onto-epistemological, relational-procedural and non-dualistic research methodology in our empirical investigation of two community garden projects in Belgium that enable uncovering alternative ways of being, knowing and relating and analyse both the gardeners’ as our own researchers’ relation to, in- and exclusion of other-than-humans in our production of knowledge; third, asking "How can a pluriverse be fostered and stimulated?", we examine our research framework based on experimental and speculative fabulation techniques (i.a. walking methods) with students and stakeholders in a Belgian city, enabling opening up space for the emergence, creation and sparkling of transformative collective imaginations towards more sustainable worlds.
Daniel Cooper (California State University San Marcos) Nina Kruglikova (University of Oxford)
Short abstract:
This paper presents a novel framework for the analysis of cultural interaction that goes beyond conceptualizations of syncretism and revitalization in order to interpret the overlapping influence of diverse spheres of influence.
Long abstract:
Alleluia is an Indigenous Christian religion headquartered in Amokokupai, Guyana within the Upper Mazaruni River basin of the Pakaraima Mountains in South America. Scholars have characterized Alleluia as syncretic, a highland phenomenon, an example of Indigenous revitalization, and a form of resistance to colonial and post-colonial intrusion. It has a miraculous origin story that begins with a voyage on a ship to England followed by a succession of visionary encounters, sacred objects, prophet leaders, and migration from the lowlands to the highlands where it was reborn with unique holidays, countless songs, circle dances, and sacred sites. There are approximately 26 Alleluia churches among the Akawaio, Arekuna, Makushi, Ingarikó, Patamona, and Taurepan peoples in the circum-Mount Roraima landscape that transcends Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela. This case study uses historical, ecological, spiritual, and ethno-geographic approaches to critically analyze the village of Amokokupai and the wider Alleluia penumbra, a contested marginal space that is blended, blurred, and indefinite. In the shadow of Mount Roraima, this village, movement, and porous border landscape serve as a basis for understanding the continuity and currents of change in an Indigenous Amazonian biome exposed to Christian missionary traditions, extractive industries, disease, and diverse political spheres of influence.
Bart Orr (The New School) Katinka Wijsman (Utrecht University) Kevin Grove (Florida International Iniversity)
Short abstract:
Through a case study of a participatory research network in Harlem, New York, we analyze the role of power and how it functions in resilience transitions, exploring questions around participatory and transdisciplinary research and its limits in the context of unequal power relations.
Long abstract:
In response to climate change and its unequally distributed impacts, researchers are engaging with historically marginalized urban communities in the development of local responses. Reflecting a critique of modernist modes of scientific inquiry, such efforts aim to co-produce knowledge through processes that are both participatory and transdisciplinary. While intended to give greater representation to alternative knowledges and collective ways of knowing that are often excluded from climate adaptation planning activities, they can however also inadvertently create spaces that reproduce various material and epistemological power inequalities. This paper analyzes a self-described transdisciplinary research network engaged in participatory research and urban resilience planning in Harlem, New York City, centered around a structured process to develop scenarios and desirable futures for climate resilience. Through this case study, we build upon recent research aiming to illuminate the role of power and how it functions in resilience and sustainability transitions, exploring questions around participatory and transdisciplinary research and its limits in the context of unequal power relations. Identifying key points of tension both among researchers and also between researchers and community members, we end with proposing the concept of epistemic humility as a necessary mode of doing research at the intersections of resilience/sustainability and justice.
Clyde Doyle (IADT) Justyna Doherty (Institute of Art, Design Technology Dún Laoghaire, Ireland)
Short abstract:
The workshop fosters critical optimism by reconnecting participants with nature and future generations (human and more-than-human) through sensory mapping. It encourages speculative activities to cultivate empathy, creativity, vision clarity, and purpose.
Long abstract:
Our workshop offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the future while rekindling cognitive ties with nature and future generations. At its core, our workshop centres on the climate crisis and integrates anticipatory memory, combined future literacy, and eco-literacy methods. We will build upon the "Future Forests" workshop held at the Department of Psychology at Rzeszow University, Poland, in December 2023, developed in response to the local emotional impact of the war in Ukraine, including the well-reported acts of ecocide and the times of uncertainty we live in.
This experimental two-stage workshop allows participants to develop eco-literacy and future literacy while cultivating critical optimism (De Chiro, 2021), crucial amidst the climate crisis. Using a diffractive sensory mapping tool, participants embark on a journey to reconnect with the natural world (Barad, 2007). Through this exploration, they foster nature connectedness, bonding with their environment. Subsequently, using data from this map, including memory triggered by sensory stimuli, they engage in a speculative world-building exercise envisioning future scenarios where they will generate a variety of visions of future worlds containing possible future ancestors and ecologies.
By finding solace in our relationship with nature and connecting with future generations (both human and more-than-human), participants reconsider existing anticipations, preparing for and shaping better futures, while embracing the complexity and uncertainty of the world they inhabit. We invite you to join us on this transformative journey towards envisioning and shaping a more resilient and empathetic future.
Aftab Mirzaei (York University)
Short abstract:
This paper explores speculative fabulation and aesthetic strategies as a means of sensing and attuning to more-than-meteorological microclimates. Using a number of case studies, I discuss specific methodological challenges and openings of atmospheric thinking and speculative research.
Long abstract:
This paper introduces the work of the SF-Microclimate Meteorological Institute, a bureau dedicated to speculative fabulation, situated feminisms, and string figures, with a focus on developing methodological toolkits for researching meteorological, metaphorical, and morphological atmospheres.
Recently, MMI researchers have explored microclimates using aesthetic strategies such as Speculative Landscaping, Micro Climate Fiction writing, and Ambient Composition. They are also engaged in experiments aimed at representing and communicating atmospheres to future worldlings. In the presentation, MMI research practitioners will share their experiential and speculative techniques—including play, experimentation, confabulation—in realms of affect and ambiance, as well as the weatherworld. They will also discuss their experiences and challenges in fostering intimacy and bodily resonances to sense, record, and represent the composition of more-than-meterological atmospheres.
More formally…
My paper presents case studies from workshops conducted with practitioners of ArtScience, computational arts, interactive architecture, creative writing and STS. I will discuss how atmospheric thinking and aesthetic strategies allow us to foreground relations and encounters across heterogenous scales and re-entangle bodies in their technological, environmental, affective and more-than-human relations. My paper will also focus on the specific methodological challenges and openings that arise when working with atmospheres as quasi-objects that are mediators and mediated and shape matters and methods through speculative and aesthetic means. Finally, I explore the values of atmospheric thinking as a mode for accessing SFs and characteristics of desirable futures-present.