This chapter examines some of the challenges of unlearning anthropocentrism - i.e. the deep-seated cultural, psychological and enacted prejudices of human specialness - in nature-based early childhood education programs. We begin with a critical exploration of recent trends in environmental philosophy and the conservation sciences that seek to move beyond the so-called archaic notions of “wilderness” and “nature” towards more managerial models of human dominion over planetary “ecosystem services.” We suggest the trouble with these discursive moves is that they shirk from the courageous conversations required from environmental education in a time of ecological emergency. We conclude by drawing on research at nature-based schools in the Netherlands and Canada to illustrate the tenacity of anthropocentric “common-sense” and suggest the beginnings of pedagogy of childhoodnatures guided by notions of rewilding and ecological humility. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_40-1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Inclusief onderwijs staat hoog op de agenda van De Haagse Hogeschool. Sinds januari 2021 is Naomi van Stapele lector Inclusive Education bij het kenniscentrum Global & Inclusive Learning. In deze intreerede van september 2022 wordt o.a. ingegaan op onzekerheid, de drie leidende beginselen van inclusief onderwijs, de ethische politiek van inclusiviteit, etc.
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Empowerment has become a hegemonic moral horizon and key modality of governance across the global South and the global North. Whether in the realm of development or in that of welfare and urban governance, a broad range of actors, from local NGOs to social professionals and international donors, now envision the empowerment of local communities as a crucial condition and means for achieving good governance and social justice (Cruikshank 1999; Rose 1996). Anthropologists and development scholars – including ourselves – often find themselves ambivalently positioned in relation to such projects of empowerment. In this essay, we turn to the hesitancies and experimental practices of our research interlocuters in two urban settings saturated by a ‘will to empower’ (Cruikshank 1999). During ten months in the year 2017, Anick followed the everyday practices of family workers in three community centers and neighborhood associations in the northeast of Paris, who were tasked to help working-class and migrant-background parents regain confidence and agency vis-à-vis state institutions. Like the parents with whom they worked, many of these family workers hailed from the banlieue themselves and were of migrant backgrounds. Naomi worked with 15 male former gang leaders in Mombasa (Kenya) who sought to reform themselves to escape police violence. Naomi’s interlocutors were between 16 and 28 years old and worked closely with their friend Hasso during 2019 and 2022. In this period, Naomi conducted eight months of ethnographic fieldwork with these young men and with Hasso, during which she observed their weekly meetings and the individual lives of several group members, and she conducted life history interviews with five of them. These two cases thus figure actors who were differently positioned in relation to the will to empower.
DOCUMENT
Climate change adaptation has influenced river management through an anticipatory governance paradigm. As such, futures and the power of knowing the future has become increasingly influential in water management. Yet, multiple future imaginaries co-exist, where some are more dominant that others. In this PhD research, I focus on deconstructing the future making process in climate change adaptation by asking ‘What river imaginaries exist and what future imaginaries dominate climate change adaptation in riverine infrastructure projects of the Meuse and Magdalena river?’. I firstly explore existing river imaginaries in a case study of the river Meuse. Secondly, I explore imaginaries as materialised in numerical models for the Meuse and Magdalena river. Thirdly, I explore the integration and negotiation of imaginaries in participatory modelling practices in the Magdalena river. Fourthly, I explore contesting and alternative imaginaries and look at how these are mobilised in climate change adaptation for the Magdalena and Meuse river. Multiple concepts stemming from Science and Technology Studies and Political Ecology will guide me to theorise the case study findings. Finally, I reflect on my own positionality in action-research which will be an iterative process of learning and unlearning while navigating between the natural and social sciences.
In this project I conduct a combination of both artistic and design research that produces an intervention in the domains of Photography and BioArt. BioArt is an art practice where artists work and/or collaborate with living organisms and life processes to create works of art and/or artistic processes. This research connects to the description of the ‘Arts + Creative PD programme’ on the basis that this – again: both artistic as well as design – research responds to a question arisen from the very centre of my own creative practice, but that its relevance focuses on an intervention in specific social-political contexts. Further detail on this can be found in the ‘Praktijkprobleem’-section and in the ‘Domeinspecifieke onderdelen’- section of this proposal. The research is grounded in a combining of artistic, design and scientific (microbiological) methodologies, resulting in an intervention not only into the practice, but also in the ethical foundations of the domains of Photography and BioArt.
