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ToolsMcLaren, Duncan P., Anderson, Christine, Barry, John, Castán Broto, Vanesa, de Cheveigné, Suzanne, Chilvers, Jason, Crowther, Alison, Hupé, Jean-Michel, Kalaugher, Liz, Labussiere, Olivier, Rothery, Tina L., Nadai, Alain, Ortar, Nathalie, Raine, Jordan, Smith, Graham, Wallenborn, Grégoire and Walker, Gordon (2024) Developing a minifesta for effective academic-activist collaboration in the context of the climate emergency. Frontiers in Education, 9. ISSN 2504-284X
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Abstract
Justice-oriented climate activism is proliferating. Many scholars aspire to deliver research that supports activism. However, measures of impact for research evaluation and funding purposes place little weight on the use of research by activists. Here we consider how academics and academia might effectively support and enable climate activism. We report outcomes from a series of online deliberative workshops involving both activists and academics from several European countries. The workshops were facilitated to create space for discussion, sharing of experiences and the development of proposals for the future. The outcomes take the form of a set of principles (a “minifesta”) for academic-activist engagement generated by the group. In discussing the process and outputs, we argue that a focus on inclusion can support politically transformative change of the scale and urgency required. We suggest that this also demands a shift in attitudes toward the role of activism and activists in collaborative processes. We further discuss the inevitable incompleteness of this process, arguing that incompleteness is, itself, a feature of inclusive engagement. We conclude that scholars working on climate issues in any discipline could benefit from increasing mutually supportive collaboration with activists; and that such collaboration and inclusion could help liberate democracy from authoritarian tendencies and market influences. Collaborative engagements generate legitimate, rich, and impactful outcomes even with the limitations posed by COVID19. We, therefore, commend both the model of engagement and the principles it generated for our colleagues and peers.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Data availability statement: The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the data collected took the form of recordings and transcripts collected under conditions of anonymity. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to mclaren@law.ucla.edu. Funding information: The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The workshops reported here were supported by the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS) through the International Research Network “ENGAGE: Climate-Energy, Engaging Social Sciences”. |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Feb 2025 13:30 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Feb 2025 07:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98416 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614 |
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