Narrating climate future - ASG, Pufendorf IAS

Grappling with the challenge of climate change requires action in the present that addresses how we want the future to unfold. This requires foresight of alternative futures and how our actions can shape the world to come. There are a range of techniques to this end – from modelling and scenario techniques, demonstration and experimentation, to cultural interventions (art installations, literature, film etc.). Some of these come from the science community, some are drawn from a broader economic, social and cultural realms. While these techniques (e.g. modelling, urban experiments, scenarios, art and fiction) differ significantly in terms of the disciplines that they draw upon, the types of knowledge they seek to create, the agents involved, the audiences reached, and the methods and practices through which they are undertaken, they all rely on forms of narrative: of telling compelling stories about the nature of a world that changes because of climate change. The development and use of such narrative techniques is now rapidly multiplying in a context where society seeks both to negotiate international climate change agreements and to establish new sites of climate action, from the city hall and the boardroom to the school and in the ordinary practices of everyday life.

The aim of the Pufendorf IAS Advanced Study Group "Narrating Climate Futures" is to create a forum through which to activate a whole new conversation about the potential and limitations of these techniques as a means through which to catalyse the forms of political, economic and cultural response required for a climate changed world, and in particular the prospects for crafting a low carbon – or low carbon emission – society. The Advanced Study Group brings together scholars ranging from climate science, ecology and engineering to social science and the humanities.

Advanced Study Group (ASG) at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies