Futuring for Sustainability Summer School
What we do in the present is profoundly influenced by our aspirations, expectations, and our collective dreams. But what if our societal aspirations cannot be reconciled with the dream of a sustainable future? In the Futuring for Sustainability Summer School 2024, we address this question precisely.
In this edition, we will investigate the tensions between an accelerating energy transition and the need for just, safe, and ecologically sustainable futures. How can we realise societal transformations towards sustainability; how can we live well, equitably, and within ecological means? How do we navigate the inevitable political and social conflicts such transformations inevitably bring? How can we understand the widespread backlash against climate policy? And what can environmentalists learn from the ideological machinations of far-right and conservative movements? In this one-week Futuring for Sustainability summer school, these are central questions. We will address them using futuring, a novel approach to future-making pioneered by the Urban Futures Studio.
How can we realise societal transformations towards sustainability; how can we live well, equitably, and within ecological means?
Application for 2024 is closed
Join us from 8 until 12 July 2024 in Utrecht for an interactive course addressing the search for sustainable futures. Investigate the tensions between an accelerating energy transition and the need for just, safe, and ecologically sustainable futures. Learn how Techniques of Futuring contribute to realising these societal transformations towards sustainability. Hear from lecturers from various disciplines what they deem crucial insights and cultural tools for building a more sustainable future.
In this summer school, the Urban Futures Studio and the Pathways to Sustainability Program collaborate to connect technical and environmental questions around sustainability to social questions around equality, democracy, and popular backlash. Finding pathways to sustainable futures is a social and cultural challenge. Deeply held values connect to even the most high-tech solutions. Drawing on a wide variety of literature, this summer school offers the Urban Futures Studio approach to shaping visions for desirable sustainable futures. We offer our interpretation of how to give those visions a social life, our take on making them affect processes in the real world. Throughout the summer school, questions of democracy and politics will be a central focus: who shapes sustainable futures, and how do they do so?
Please Note: This summer school will be entirely physical. We look forward to welcoming you to Utrecht and collaborating with you in person.
Some scholarships or fee waivers/reductions may be available for those doing their PhD or with limited funding. Please reach out to the course coordinators if you have any questions.
For questions, please get in touch with j.j.oomen@uu.nl and t.j.stacey@uu.nl.