The research team of the JUSTFUTURES project has released a report analyzing 22 focused groups with 154 young people aged between 13 and 34. The focused groups took place between September 2022 and April 2023 in Braga, Greater Porto, Greater Lisbon, Olhão, and Faro. The participants discussed how they deal with climate issues, their perspectives on climate activism, and their imaginaries of future political alternatives, as well as their role in shaping them. We hope that this analysis offers interesting perspectives to reflect on diverse forms of participation and political engagement regarding climate issues, based on the current and future visions of the young participants.
Category: Outputs EN
Ana Garcia and Daniela Ferreira da Silva present at the XII Portuguese Congress of Sociology
Ana Garcia and Daniela Ferreira da Silva attended the XII Portuguese Congress of Sociology, which took place from 4 to 6 April 2023 at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. Both researchers of the project were included in Panel 7 of “Environment and Society” on “Environmental imaginaries, discourses and activism”. The speakers were grateful for audience input that fuelled the debate after their presentations.
Ana Garcia presented “Political agency and youth climate activism: perspectives and political imaginaries of young people on climate futures” showing preliminary results of task 4 of the project, particularly, on the analysis of focus groups with young climate activists in Lisbon, Porto and Braga and the how they understand their political agency.
Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented “What social transformations and visions for the future? Discourses and narratives of young climate activists in Portugal” on the analysis within the scope of task 2 of the project, analysing the online contents produced by various collectives of the youth climate movement in Portugal, in order to understand their prospects for the future and how to achieve them.
Dora Rebelo presents at the 73rd Political Studies Association Annual Conference
Dora Rebelo participated as an oral speaker at the 73rd Political Studies Association Annual Conference on “Political Futures” that was held in the University of Liverpool from 3-5 April 2023. She presented during the panel “Environmental Activism in Britain and Beyond” that was chaired by Dr. Ozge Zihnioglu. Dora’s presentation entitled “Young people’s Political Imaginaries: Discussing Climate Futures and Just Transformations”, with the collaboration of the co-PI Maria Fernandes-Jesus, discussed preliminary analysis from task 4 of the project. This analysis explores political imaginaries as articulated by young people with different degrees of involvement with the climate movement during focus group discussions.
JustFutures’ researchers present their work at the curricular unit Contemporary Debates on Journalism
Researchers Daniela Ferreira da Silva and Tânia R Santos were invited by Professor Carla Cerqueira to participate in the curricular unit “Contemporary Debates on Journalism”, an optional UC of the Degree in Communication Sciences, at Universidade Lusófona do Porto. The discussion took place on March 29, 2023 at the Bonfim Business Center, where the second-year International Relations class with Professor Célia Taborda also joined.
Daniela and Tânia had the opportunity to present the results of tasks 2 and 3 of the project, which include the analysis of the political imaginaries of young climate activists and the analysis of the representation of the youth climate movement on Portuguese television.
Anabela Carvalho guest speaker in the curricular unit Social and Environmental Psychology
Anabela Carvalho participated, as a guest speaker, in the curricular unit Social and Environmental Psychology of the Master’s programme in Social and Organizational Psychology, at ISCTE-IUL on February 15, 2023. The presentation focused on the planned tasks and the work carried out by JustFutures project.
JustFutures team at the 8th National Meeting for Climate Justice
On February 11, 2022, the 8th National Meeting for Climate Justice was held in Coimbra, which was attended by the JustFutures Team. It was an extremely interesting day where several activist groups were able to share and reflect on the state of climate action in Portugal.
Commentary published on Nature Climate Change
On the January edition of Nature Climate Change, volume 13, Anabela Carvalho published a commentary emphasising how discourses matter in climate change and their potential for creating alternative futures. The full commentary can be read here.
Anabela Carvalho interviewed on Antena 2
On the 12th of December, an interview was aired during Ciência, on Antena 2, with the principal investigator (PI) of the project, Anabela Carvalho. The PI had the opportunity to present the relevance of the JustFutures project in the national panorama. She also presented some results derived from the mapping of the climate movement, and the tasks still in progress. These are: analysis of climate activism groups’ discourses, analysis of the representation of these groups in the mainstream media, creation of discussion groups with young people on how they envision climate change and an ethnographic study that follows the groups of the youth climate movement.
The conversation can be heard here.
Daniela Ferreira da Silva and Tânia R. Santos presented at the VIII Internacional Congress on Cultures
The researchers of the JustFutures project, Daniela Ferreira da Silva and Tânia R. Santos, presented their work at the VIII International Congress on Cultures that took place in Braga, at the ICS-Universidade do Minho from 5 to 7 December. Tânia R. Santos was part of the working group “Journalism, (in)visibilities and activism” where she presented an analysis of the television representation of youth climate activism. Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented an analysis on the uses of science in the communication of young climate activists on digital platforms as part of the working group on “Media literacy, activism and new technologies”.
Report on Climate Activism in Portugal released #onthemedia
On November 8, the Report on Climate Activism in Portugal developed by the JustFutures team was disseminated by Público newspaper. Anabela Carvalho, the principal investigator interviewed for this piece, reflects on the identified climate activism groups in Portugal and their diversity. The article was integrated into the newspaper’s new information section, Azul, which aims to discuss issues related to the environment and sustainability.
Access the article in Portuguese How strong is the climate movement in Portugal?