Author: Admin

Letter from Teachers in Support of Students for Ending Fossil Fuels by 2030

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The School Strike for Climate – Lisbon is organizing a new wave of school occupations (including universities) from November 17–21. These actions respond to the fact that the Portuguese government has not presented a plan to phase out Fossil Fuels by 2030. A demonstration in Lisbon is scheduled for November 22.

The SSC-Lisbon has asked different sectors of society to take a public position on this issue. Several members of the JustFutures project helped write the Teachers Letter. You can read the Letter here.

JustFutures invites all teachers and researchers to sign it, share it with colleagues, and join the demonstration on November 22.

Letter webpage here.

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Daniela Ferreira da Silva presents at the CRIA Doctoral Students Meeting

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Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented a poster titled “Reimagining Political Agency: The Voice(s) of Youth in the Climate Change Debate” at the 1st CRIA* Doctoral Students Meeting (2025/26). The event took place at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon, on November 6, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
This work was developed in co-authorship with her advisory team.

The poster can be viewed here.

*Centre for Research in Anthropology

JUSTFUTURES in WTFUTURES

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The JUSTFUTURES project was invited to join a network of initiatives that explore young people’s climate imaginaries. The WTFutures project seeks to answer the question: “How do young people envision their future in relation to climate change?” The project has mapped 54 projects across 29 countries.

Researchers and professors Anabela Carvalho and Maria Fernandes-Jesus were interviewed for the initiative. A 15-minute audio recording can be found at the bottom of the page.

You can visit the page dedicated to JUSTFUTURES here.

We got an Excellent!

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The JustFutures project – funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) – which ran from 2021 to 2025, received an “excellent” evaluation from the Foundation on November 23, 2025. The institution made the following comment:

This project explored young people’s imaginaries of the climate future with multiple and extensive empirical research. The project included mapping of activist groups, survey of texts, focus group interviews, multi-sited ethnography and participatory workshop. Clearly the project was able to achieve and exceed even its initial goals of understanding young people´s agency and political imaginaries. Perhaps as a sign of scientific ambition and success, the project exceeded clearly its goals in international article publishing and was able to disseminate the result in high quality publications. The overall results, dissemination and activities of the project are impressive.

The project will remain active through its website (justfutures.pt), the publication of new outputs, and the research project “Reimagining Political Agency: Youth Voice(s) in the Climate Change Debate”, funded by the FCT (2024.02918.BD, 2024-2026). This initiative is led by PhD candidate Daniela Ferreira da Silva, under the supervision of Professors Anabela Carvalho and Maria Fernandes-Jesus.

The JustFutures team 

Daniela Ferreira da Silva presents at the 13th Portuguese Congress of Sociology at the University of the Azores

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Daniela Ferreira da Silva, in collaboration with Anabela Carvalho and Maria Fernandes-Jesus, presented her research at the 13th Portuguese Congress of Sociology, under the theme “Democracies Under Pressure: Risks and Uncertainties,” held at the University of the Azores from July 8 to 11, 2025.

The presentation, titled “Collaborative Workshops on Political Agency: How Can We Amplify Young People’s Voices in the Climate Change Debate?” was part of a parallel session on “Adaptation, Governance, and Development Models,” organized by the Environment and Society section.

The communication aimed to share the results of two collaborative workshops held in Porto and Lisbon between July and September 2024. These workshops were designed to encourage young people to think about ways to have a stronger voice in public and political discussions around climate change. The workshops highlighted the importance of creating safe, informal spaces where youth can share common experiences and diverse ideological perspectives. They also underscored the need to include young voices in climate discussions and demonstrated the transformative potential of collaborative action settings (read more here).

Chapter published: “Youth activism and the call for generational responsibility in climate politics” in the book “Routledge Handbook of Climate Crisis Communication”

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The latest chapter of the JustFutures project, entitled “Youth activism and the call for generational responsibility in climate politics”, was published in the “Routledge Handbook of Climate Crisis Communication” in May 2025.

The chapter provides an overview of literature examining how  youth-led climate action may have expanded the boundaries of discourse within climate  politics. Our analysis underscores one of the most relevant contributions of youth  activism: the moral imperative of generational responsibility, which has catalysed the  politicization of the present moment. Continuously excluded from political processes,  youth demand broader societal participation to formulate solutions and alternatives,  indirectly proposing ways to reconfiguring climate politics as more democratic and  pluralistic.

The chapter is currently under closed access and available only via institutional access.

Daniela Ferreira da Silva leads Workshop on “Environmental Action” in Porto

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Based on the Eco-Schools program with the theme “Climate Action, Outdoor Spaces, Biodiversity: Preserve and Regenerate,” PhD student Daniela Ferreira da Silva led the “Environmental Action” workshop at EB 2,3 Pêro Vaz de Caminha School (Porto) with class 9A and the Environmental Representatives from all 9th-grade classes on May 28, 2025.

The main goal of the workshop was to foster critical thinking around the political dimensions of climate change. Using photovoice methodology, mind mapping, and action strategy development, students explored ways to mitigate key environmental issues identified in their community: heavy traffic, excessive use of private cars, air pollution, and overcrowded bus stops.

Special thanks go to Professor Celeste Costa for her support in organizing and energizing the activity.

Daniela Ferreira da Silva presents at the project conference “Real Needs and Exploratory Approaches for Service-Learning”

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At the invitation of NUCLIO – the Interactive Astronomy and Education Innovation Center, Daniela Ferreira da Silva gave a presentation at the final conference of the EARN project – Exploratory Approaches and Real Needs in Service-Learning. The presentation was titled “Co-creating spaces of agency: climate activism and participatory research as learning spaces to political action”. It was developed in collaboration with her supervisory team – Anabela Carvalho and Maria Fernandes-Jesus. The final conference took place on May 15 at the Frei Gonçalo de Azevedo School in Cascais.

This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the following grants: the research project JUSTFUTURES – Climate Futures and Just Transformations: Young People’s Narratives and Political Imaginaries [PTDC/COM-OUT/7669/2020]; the research project Reimagining Political Agency: The Voice(s) of Young People in the Climate Change Debate [2024.02918.BD]; and the Centre for Research in Anthropology [UID/04038].

Published article: “Climate Activist Groups’ Discourses on Science and Knowledge: Merging Rhetorical Strategies with Political Visions”

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The recent article from the JustFutures project, titled “Climate Activist Groups’ Discourses on Science and Knowledge: Merging Rhetorical Strategies with Political Visions”, was published in the Environmental Communication journal on April 21, 2025. This study examines the discursive uses of science by three Portuguese youth-led climate groups — School Strike for Climate Portugal, Climáximo, and LIDERA. The study found that they have invoked science in three distinctive communicative moves: constructing science into a strategic ally; turning climate science into a political and ethical referee; and debating and pluralizing science. The authors argue that while climate groups can bolster mainstream science, some also foster critical perspectives and try to push science away from the dominant symbolic territory of “universalism” and “neutrality”.

Below, you can find the published version of this work, also available through this link.

Climate Activist Groups Discourses on Science and Knowledge Merging Rhetorical Strategies with Political VisionsDownload

Published article: “Young people’s conceptions of political agency in relation to climate change”

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The most recent article from the JustFutures project, titled “Young people’s conceptions of political agency in relation to climate change”, was published in Environmental Politics on April 15, 2025. This article examines how young people in Portugal understand and engage with political agency in the context of climate change. Through focus groups with 154 participants (aged 13 to 35), four main conceptions of political agency emerged: transformational collective agency, proto-political collective action, individualised action, and disempowered action. The authors suggest that young people’s political agency regarding climate change is shaped by both motivating and inhibiting factors, a desire for political influence and perceived power to bring about transformative change.

Below, you can find the open-access version of this work, also available through this link.

Rebelo et al. – Young people’s conceptions of political agency in relation to climate changeDownload