McLaren, D.P., Anderson, C., Barry, J. et al. (14 more authors) (2024) Developing a minifesta for effective academic-activist collaboration in the context of the climate emergency. Frontiers in Education, 9. ISSN 2504-284X
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 McLaren, Anderson, Barry, Castán Broto, de Cheveigné, Chilvers, Crowther, Hupé, Kalaugher, Labussiere, Rothery, Nadai, Ortar, Raine, Smith, Wallenborn and Walker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | climate justice; climate activism; minifesta; academic responsibilities; deliberative engagement; academic-activist collaboration; democracy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Jul 2024 15:43 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jul 2024 15:43 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media SA |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:214284 |