Descrizione del progetto
Rimettersi in contatto con le stagioni che cambiano
I rapidi cambiamenti climatici, naturali e sociali stanno conducendo le rappresentazioni delle stagioni a una mancata sincronia con il tempo atmosferico: ad esempio, un «bianco Natale» è ora un ricordo distante in molte parti del mondo. Questo è solo un esempio di rappresentazione delle stagioni, che può assumere diverse forme quali storie, immagini, esperienze, previsioni scientifiche, segni naturali, proverbi o pratiche. Il progetto CALENDARS, finanziato dall’UE, studierà il modo in cui i cambiamenti climatici potrebbero minacciare le idee o le rappresentazioni delle stagioni così come le conosciamo. L’ipotesi è che le perone non possano adattarsi bene al cambiamento delle stagioni se vivono con idee obsolete e inaccurate delle stesse. Ciò è importante considerando che tutte le nostre istituzioni, dalle scuole agli ospedali e dal governo ai club sportivi, programmano le attività sulla base di rappresentazioni delle stagioni diverse.
Obiettivo
Climate change may be undermining the stock of seasonal representations that society draws on to understand and live according to the weather. The CALENDARS project studies how modern society represents seasons, and how these representations shape institutions and help people live with seasonal change. The project opens an important emerging field in climate adaptation research by examining the representations of ‘normal’ seasons underlying key institutions, assesses their quality for successful adaptation to rapid climate change, and analyses facilitators and barriers to adopting representations more flexibly to new climates. It contributes a novel perspective on how to transform our institutions – from schools to farmer cooperatives – from the foundational culture and representations up, to better fit the changing seasonal cycles we are experiencing.
CALENDARS empirically explores the relationship between different institutions’ ideas of seasons and their successful adaptation through an in-depth comparative study of a set of institutions in two local communities, in Norway and New Zealand. It is steered by an overall objective to: ‘Advance knowledge and understanding of how seasonal representations shape and are shaped by institutions, and critically appraise the quality of these representations for contributing to successful adaptation to seasonal change’.
Conceptually, CALENDARS looks at representations as continuously ‘co-produced’ at the boundary of nature and society, and society and institutions. It tests a novel reconceptualisation of co-production as a prism; with each of the project’s three phases looking at the complex processes by which representations emerge through different ‘lenses’ of co-production. Methodologically, the project tests the feasibility of a novel basket of bespoke methods spanning narrative interviews, calendar boundary objects and collaborative sustainability science.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
5020 Bergen
Norvegia