Author: JustFutures

Daniela Ferreira da Silva, in collaboration with Anabela Carvalho and Maria Fernandes-Jesus, presented at the latest Research Days of the Institute of Sociology of UPorto, which took place between October 10 and 11 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FLUP) of the University of Porto.

The presentation, entitled “JustFutures: Political Imaginaries in the Portuguese Youth Climate Movement”, was part of Table 12 of the conference, “Territories, Climate and Environment”. The researcher presented a brief overview of the main outputs of the JUSTFUTURES project and a presentation on the political imaginaries of youth climate movements in Portugal. The abstract can be read here: https://isociologia.up.pt/en/events/research-days 

Having already had a communication accepted at the previous edition of the biennial ECREA conference, JUSTFUTURES was represented at ECREA2024—’10th European Communication Conference’, with an analysis of recent forms of climate activism in public spaces. The presentation, by Anabela Carvalho, was titled ‘Young people, political imaginaries, and climate change: On transgressing normality and re-scripting agentic roles.’ The conference took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from September 24 to 27, 2024.

More information at: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/

The XV LUSOCOM – Congress of the Lusophone Federation of Communication Sciences (https://www.lusocom.net/acesse-a-programacao-da-lusocom-2024/), held at the University of Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI), Brazil, between September 2 and 3, hosted another presentation by JUSTFUTURES (via Zoom). The presentation, at the invitation of the organization, was titled “Climate Change and Activism in the Media” and aimed to analyze how media discourse has contributed to the reproduction of destructive logics and whether it has provided space and legitimacy to youth climate activism.

Daniela Ferreira da Silva, in collaboration with Anabela Carvalho, presented their research at the 16th Conference of the European Sociological Association, themed “Tension, Trust, and Transformation,” held at the University of Porto from August 27-30.

Their presentation, titled “Climate Groups’ Discourses On Science: (Re)Constructing Scientific Knowledge in Light of Political Visions,” was featured in a parallel session on “Digital Media and Public Engagement in Environmental Campaigns,” organised by Research Network 12: Environment and Society. The work critiques the simplistic view that contemporary environmental groups are merely “ambassadors of the scientific message,” “amplifiers of scientific practices,” or “mobilisers of the IPCC’s work.” The research offers a more nuanced understanding of how these groups, in Portugal, incorporate science into their narratives. The authors focused on challenging this oversimplified perspective while also addressing the risks and challenges associated with integrating science into activist discourses.

Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented an e-poster titled “Political Imaginaries in the Climate Movement: Youth-Led Activist Groups Building Plural Visions of the Future” at the Encontro Ciência 2024. This work was co-authored with Anabela Carvalho and Maria Fernandes-Jesus. The Encontro Ciência 2024 event was organised by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) at Alfândega do Porto, under the theme “+Science for One Health and Global Well-being.” The e-poster was part of the Science and Technology showcase.

On June 27, Maria Fernandes-Jesus presented a webinar for the Climate, Environment, and Psychology Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa entitled “Shaping Our Collective Futures: Radical Political Imagination Towards Climate Justice.” In this presentation, the researcher discussed the work developed through focus group discussions with various engaged and non-engaged youths with climate action, exploring political imaginaries and their impact towards just social transformations.

On June 26, the JustFutures team collectively presented work developed across various work packages of the project during the monthly seminar on Social Movements and Political Seminar, organised by Guya Accornero and Tiago Carvalho. This seminar was online and in-person in the University Institute of Lisbon. Tânia R. Santos, Dora Rebelo, Daniela Ferreira da Silva, Mehmet Ali Uzelgun, and Anabela Carvalho presented and discussed research related to youth political agency, the political imaginaries of activist groups and their emotional/affective dimensions, and how mainstream television represents and legitimises different political imaginaries and different types of youth climate activism.

A recording of the seminar will be available on the CIES-Iscte youtube channel soon.

Tânia R. Santos presented a communication titled: “Young climate activists and the discursive limits of climate politics: analysing the diversity of voices of the movement and their media portrayal” during the international and interdisciplinary scientific conference on “Overcoming Obstacles to Climate Change Mitigation:a cross-cutting approach by human and social sciences”. This conference took place in UCLouvain in a hybrid format on 23-24 May 2024. Tânia R. Santos presented online on the topic of how different political imaginaries of youth climate collectives in Portugal are differently presented on television. On mainstream media outlets, a clear distinction (and preference) is given to dutiful dissent without fully discussing the political imaginaries proposed by disruptive dissent, such as  school and university occupations. This work was jointly elaborated with Daniela Ferreira da Silva and Anabela Carvalho.