The Pluriverse of Eco-social Justice

Overview

The Ecology and Society Workshop at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (ECOSOC, CES), with the support of the COST Action “Decolonizing Development” (DECOLDEV), and the H2020-ITN projects “Just transition to the Circular Economy” (JUST2CE); and “Listening to Citizen Voices for a Greener Europe” (PHOENIX), invite applications for the “Pluriverse of Eco-social Justice” Summer School, to be held July 11 to 16 in Coimbra, Portugal.

The Summer School aims to provide co-learning and co-production of knowledge at the intersections of social and ecological issues through a diversity of political-ecological lenses. It builds on the collective experience developed by ECOSOC over the last 10 years with engaged and insurgent research-action on environmental justice and labor environmentalism, the commons, ecofeminism, eco-Marxism, degrowth, alternatives to development, postcolonial/decolonial critique, and emancipatory pedagogies. The School is created through the ongoing collaborations within ECOSOC, and between its members and other projects and networks, including DECOLDEV, JUST2CE and PHOENIX, as well as social movement and community organizations in Portugal and transnationally. It thus brings together CES researchers with other local and international activists and scholars, to provide nurturing conceptual and practical tools for enacting alternative ecosocial horizons.

The backgrounds of ECOSOC and the associated projects provide the central thematic axis of transformations for more just and ecological worlds, in the context of the climate crisis and the so-called Anthropocene. The mainstream Anthropocene and Climate Change narratives identify a new (geologic) epoch in which the “human species” is the dominant geological force. These narratives have been criticized by scholars and activists who point out that the major changes in the biophysical forces of the planet are due to a particular political-economic system (Capitalism) coupled with its racialized, patriarchal, and colonial logics, in which a particular segment of humanity has caused this crisis. Thus it has been argued that it would be more precise to talk about Racial Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Anthro-Obscene, White Manthropocene, and to emphasize systemic change. These critical conversations point out the power of narratives, fragmenting the universalist and heteropatriarchal Anthropocene; while suggesting alternative imaginaries such as Just Transitions, New Eco-Social Pacts, Diverse economies, Post-Development, Chultucene, Pluriverse, and Abolitionism.

 

Themes

Our approach builds on the following “keywords and tools”:

• 
  Intersectional – bringing to the forefront the interconnections between systematic race, gender, class and coloniality oppressions; and the necessity of articulating the different struggles. Intersectionality envisions abolitionist futures, of justice as freedom from these interlocked structures of exploitation.
  
   
• 
  Postcolonial and decolonial – since colonial mentality and power relations have not been overcome with the end of colonialism but rather structure our present, the combination of critical analyses based on postcolonial studies toolboxes and a decolonial agenda committed to subvert power relations is necessary to combine and forge alternative epistemologies and practices.
  
   
• 
  Undisciplined encounters – interpersonal practices of dialogue meant to unlearn the boundaries that may keep us together or separate, and foster personal reflections within safe collectives of care for our struggles. In all aspects of life, navigating the ´disciplinary´ canons to subvert them may create spaces for encounters: new ways of thinking-feeling may emerge from these encounters with differences often expressed by unrecognized ‘authorities’ in testimonies, biographies, or art.
  
   
• 
  Commoning – we envision the school itself as a collective process of co-learning, co-production, and co-inspiration of thinking-feeling-action between all participants, in other words, making a commons together. We plan the school to offer spaces of critical debate, deliberation, of sharing of experiences, tools, visions, strategies, and wisdom.

Programme

The Programme organizes the school’s keywords, tools, and approaches across four core themes (one each day), plus introductory and closing days, as follows:

• 
  July 11 – Envisioning transformations and the pluriverse
• 
  July 12 – Eco-social justice and post-extractive futures
• 
  July 13 – Alternative economies
• 
  July 14 – Commons, commoning and care
• 
  July 15 – Unsettling Eco-citizenship and emancipatory practices
• 
  July 16 –  Reflecting, interweaving, and celebrating together

The detailed programme is available HERE.

Format

Classes will be co-produced as moments of collective encounters and knowledge co-production. The formats will be mixed. Participants will be in-person, and most events will be face-to-face, including classes in CES spaces and various outdoor spaces (gardens, associations, cultural spaces, coops, etc.).  We will use different co-teaching and co-learning methodologies, including roundtables, field visits, films, collaborative cooking and book-making, and deliberative group discussions. We also propose keeping a field diary and we invite the self-organization of collective essays, art or other materials reflecting on some of the main learnings emerging from the school.

Participants

The school is aimed for graduate students (Ph.D. and Masters), early-career/postdoctoral researchers,  civil society and social movement organization members, educators, and other interested candidates from the public at large. The school will accept a maximum of 25 applicants.

Executive Coordination

Ecology and Society Workshop (ECOSOC/CES), with DecolDev, PHOENIX and JUST2CE projects.

Contributors

* From ECOSOC-CES: Gustavo García-López, Gaia Giuliani (+DecolDev), Giacomo D’Alisa (+JUST2CE), and Irina Velicu (+PHOENIX), Lúcia Fernandes, Joana Vaz Sousa, Gea Piccardi, Begoña Dorronsoro, Jonas Van Vossole,  Rita Campos, Isabel Ferreira, Francisco Venes, Nuno Marques (+Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), Roberto Sciarelli, Hestia Delibas, Teresa Meira and Stefania Barca (+JUST2CE +University of Compostela).

* From other groups and institutions: Giovanni Allegretti (CES, +PHOENIX), Paola Minoia (University of Helsinki, +DecolDev), Yafa El Masri (University of Padova, +DecolDev), Mario Pansera (University of Vigo, +JUST2CE), Stefan Candea (European Investigative Collaborations), Andreea Bonea, Wagner Merije (Aquarela Brasileira), Diego Andreucci (International Institute of Social Studies- The Hague, +Undisciplined Environments), Selçuk Balamir (University of Amsterdam, +Shell Must Fall), members from Colectivo Miradas Críticas al Territorio desde el Feminismo, Cooperativa Integral Minga, ClimAção Centro, Casa de Esquina and other grassroots organizations, movements and collectives from various territories.

 

Languages: The school is open to English, Portuguese and Spanish. Peer-to-peer translations will be organized collectively as part of the school as needed.

Application Instructions: Send to ecosoc@ces.uc.pt by May 1, 2022, the following documents, in one single PDF:

• 
  Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• 
  250 words description of yourself, your relevant interests and experiences
• 
  750 words (max.) motivation letter, stating why you wish to participate in this Summer School, what you hope to gain and what you hope to contribute

Key Dates

• 
  May 1: Application deadline
• 
  May 15: Notification of acceptance
• 
  June 15: Registration deadline

Registration Fee

100 euros per participant.

The fee will cover 5 days of lunch and coffee breaks, 2 nights of dinner and transportation for field trips. We have a small number of fellowships for waiving registration fees and partly covering other costs, aimed at people traditionally underrepresented or excluded from these spaces. If you require a fee waiver, please let us know and elaborate an explanation in the email alongside your application.

Contact: For any questions, please contact ecosoc@ces.uc.pt

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Covid-19 contingency plan: This version of the program is somewhat preliminary and may be subject to changes, depending on the availability of collaborators, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. In the case in which the pandemic continues to affect travelling plans, international speakers may be delivering their lectures via Zoom. In the case in which the pandemic prohibits hosting events in person, national speakers would be delivering their contributions via Zoom, and planned social events would also be cancelled and replaced by Zoom working group sessions. In that case, registration fees for participants would be lowered and all speakers would be offered a honorarium.