€3.7 Million awarded for interdisciplinary project on hope and climate change

14-03-2023

One of the most urgent challenges of our time is to adequately respond to climate change. Climate change induces feelings of radical uncertainty, which in turn can easily lead to polarization and paralysis in academia and our society at large. One way to deal with a radical uncertain future is through the notion of hope. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Dr. Jan Jorrit Hasselaar; Dr. Johan Roeland), University of Twente (our GEMH Lab co-director Dr. Hanneke Scholten and Prof. Dr. Ernst Bohlmeijer) and the municipality of Amsterdam, have received 3.7 million euro's from the National Growth Fund to explore hope as a social response to climate change. 

Hope is about a collective journey in which individuals gradually learn how to open up and create trust and perspective that enable them to collaborate in shared practices. We aim to develop an interdisciplinary, theoretical and science-based framework of hope and a toolbox including mindsets and practices related to trust, how to deal with complexity, vulnerability and radical uncertainty in response to climate change.

More information about the project can be found here: 100 million to National Growth Fund project for future-proof living environment (utwente.nl) and here: 100 million for climate transition, VU researches 'hopeful cooperation' - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam


Author

Hanneke Scholten
Co-Director of GEMH Lab

Researcher, interdisciplinary work and collaboration, wants to understand the how's and why's, loves her high heels and coffee in the morning, walks and talks too fast.

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