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.
The JUSTFUTURES project is looking for young university students (fluent in Portuguese) aged between 18 and 30 to participate in participatory workshops to discuss proposals on how to amplify the voice of young people in the climate change debate.
The JUSTFUTURES project: Climate Futures and Just Transformations: Youth Political Narratives and Imaginaries has been studying the youth climate movement in Portugal since 2021. Currently, the project is in the final phase of development—organizing participatory workshops with young activists and non-activists on the political agency of youth in the context of climate change. These workshops will include various activities that foster critical thinking, political agency, collective action, and the imagination of alternative futures.
Through these workshops, the project aims to reach young people who are less involved in the climate cause but have some interest in climate change issues, to critically discuss the political agency of youth in these matters.
The workshops will take place on September 20th and 21st (Friday and Saturday, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM) on the campus of ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon (building 4).
The project will offer Sonae gift cards worth €50 (usable at Continente, Worten, Zippy, MO, Sportzone, Wells, Bagga, Note!, Zu, and the online store continente.pt) to those who participate in both days, along with a certificate of participation.
If you are interested in participating in the workshops, contact the project via WhatsApp (919718866) or by email at danielasilva0497@gmail.com.
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.
On 9 May, Daniela Ferreira da Silva gave a presentation titled “The (re)construction of science in the discourses of climate activist groups” at SciComPT 2014 – Languages and voices for accessible science. The conference took place in Braga, at Uminho from 8-10 May. The presentation, co-authored with Anabela Carvalho, focused on research suggesting that identifying young activists merely or predominantly as ambassadors or communicators of the scientific message is a simplistic evaluation. In the analysis of results, a more nuanced form of the use of science by Portuguese activist groups was discussed.
On March 6, Anabela Carvalho was invited to share the collaborative work of herself, Tânia R. Santos, and Mehmet Ali Üzelgün at the Climate Journalism Seminar hosted by the School of Communication and Media Studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon (ESCS-IPL). The seminar included a series of presentations from researchers, professors, and journalists specializing in climate journalism.
During their presentation, titled “The Media and Citizen Engagement with Climate Change,” the JustFutures team discussed how media platforms represent young climate activists. The presentation provided data-driven insights into how youth-led climate movements are portrayed on television, highlighting key trends and discussing their implications for broader climate communication strategies.
