Just Futures? Approaching Cultural Climate Models

Climate change - what images of the future are conjured up in peoples heads? And where do they come from? Scientific models explain the background, but ideas about the future are also formulated and discussed in literary texts, essays and social media. An international research project by researchers from Austria, Germany and Great Britain is now taking a closer look at them from a cultural studies perspective. It is being funded for three years with a total of 750,000 euros. Just Futures?" is led by Prof. Dr. Julia Hoydis (Klagenfurt) and Prof. Dr. David Higgins (Leeds), both working in the fields of literary studies and environmental humanities research. Project partners are Prof. Dr. Roman Bartosch (Cologne), Dr. Carolin Schwegler (Cologne), Prof. Dr. Jens Martin Gurr (Duisburg-Essen), and Dr. Warren Pearce (Sheffield). In addition, artist Jasmijn Visser (RCC Munich) accompanies the work of the group and will design an interactive website (www-cultural-climate- models.org). Whats special: the humanities approach as well as the cross-national cutting-edge research. The collaborative project is supported by the FWF, the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the German Research Foundation (DFG). Literary studies, linguistics, science and technology studies, and literature pedagogy didactics come together in the interdisciplinary project group. It analyzes how different types of texts such as dramas and essays, social media posts, and teaching materials move between descriptive statements about climate change and ethical and political demands. How do such works describe our future? Doomsday scenarios, tipping points, or ordinary lives and conflicts - the texts portray climate change differently than scientific articles. "We are interested in exploring how different media and text types imagine climate futures and make them tangible," explains Hoydis. Climate research is still largely dominated by mathematical, mostly abstract calculations. Researchers have been calling for more humanities-centered approaches for some time. This project responds to this and seeks to enrich climate change communication with a literary and cultural studies perspective. The focus is on the question of how different texts negotiate intergenerational conflicts and what ideas they develop for just futures in this regard. The project aims to pool expertise to address urgent global challenges. Without doubt, in times of climate change, these include questions of intergenerational justice and future-making. To answer these questions, the project is developing an innovative methodological approach to analyze cultural modeling of climate futures in narrative texts, social media posts, and educational materials. The results and models should also be applicable to other disciplines.