Whether hope concerning climate change is something positive or negative for our ability to mitigate and adapt to this problem is a frequently discussed topic, both in the public debate and in scientific outlets. Some perceive climate-change hope as merely wishful thinking, something that makes people reluctant to put in effort to fight the problem, while others see it as a vital motivational force for climate actions and perhaps even transformative learning among the broader public.
In this presentation I will take my starting point in both theoretical and empirical research about climate-change hope, not least my own work in the context of how young people cope with climate change. I will focus on different forms of climate-change hope (hope as an existential must, hope as a feeling, hope as a cognitive concept, defiant hope, hope as agency work). I will emphasize the importance of capturing different sources of climate-change hope to be able to understand if hope will be a motivational factor or not.
Finally, I will argue that researchers need to broaden their perspective on what outcomes of climate-change hope are important for a more sustainable society.
About Maria Ojala
Maria Ojala is professor in socio-ecological resilience at the FRONT (Frontiers of Arctic and Global Resilience) program and the Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Oulu, Finland. She also works part time as an associate professor in psychology at Örebro University in Sweden. Maria has a master’s degree in psychology (including social science subjects in general) from Lund University, Sweden, and a PhD in psychology (with an environmental psychology focus) from Örebro University. She has also worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Education at Uppsala University, Sweden. Maria’s main research interest concerns how young people think, feel, cope, act, learn, and communicate about global environmental problems, with a specific focus on climate change. She has conducted qualitative, quantitative and theoretical research about, for example, meaning-focused coping, climate-change hope, and the importance of focusing on critical emotional awareness in climate-change education.
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When: 05 March 2025
Where: DIAS Auditorium
Admission: Open for all, no registration needed
- Arrangør: DIAS
- Adresse: Fioniavej 34, 5230 Odense M
- Kapacitet: 180
- Kontakt Email: meetingsdias@sdu.dk
- Tilføj til din kalender: https://eom.sdu.dk:443/events/ical/fb7d31bf-c119-4079-a948-1fcacd0c71eb