Hope in the Anthropocene Workshop

This half-day capstone workshop, led by graduate-student rapporteurs, will bring together UBC and other local sustainability experts to assimilate, critique, synthesize and supplement the findings and insights of the lecture and discussion series that has run at the College over the past year, in collaboration with UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES). The workshop will open with an exploration of the meaning of “hope in the Anthropocene,” including consideration of what such hope might entail in practical terms; of its potential and limitations; and of whose hope is included or foregrounded in various conceptualizations. The remainder of the workshop will focus on specific sources of hope in the Anthropocene and on strategies for fostering and actioning hope, with discussion of the conditions under which hope is useful for engendering change.

The workshop will draw on the diverse perspectives and questions presented by contributors to the lecture series, including:

• Social perspectives. Decolonizing hope and decolonization as a strategy for hope. The central role of grassroots political organizing.
• Technological perspectives. How do we develop and implement technical solutions in ways that promote justice and equity? How does technical and social innovation relate to larger structural change?
• Communications perspectives. How can we meaningfully engage parties on the other side of a polar division of views, to promote social and environmental sustainability? How can we foster scientifically-informed public discourse in diverse contexts?
• Psychological perspectives. Can hope foster unrealistic expectations, lessening the urgency for action in the Anthropocene? If so, what counter-measures are possible?

These discussions are designed to contribute to the development of an “agenda for hope” for the wider environment and sustainability community, to be produced as an outcome of the workshop.

Pre-registration required. Those wishing to attend should email gc.events@ubc.ca by Tuesday 3 April, with a paragraph of self-introduction. Places are limited.

British environmental scientist Tim O’Riordan will give a public talk at Green College as a curtain-raiser to this event, at 5pm on Thursday, April 19, to which all are welcome.

Hope in the Anthropocene is co-sponsored by the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) at UBC.