Format:
Onsite

Coordinators:
Verena Gresz, University of Tübingen, verena.gresz@student.uni-tuebingen.de
Riccarda Flemmer, University of Tübingen, riccarda.flemmer@uni-tuebingen.de

Abstract:
This working group brings together knowledge producers at the intersections of art, academia and UNFCCC international climate policymaking for a trans-disciplinary exchange onsite at the This working group brings together knowledge producers at the intersections of art, academia and UNFCCC international climate policymaking for a trans-disciplinary exchange onsite at the Development Days 2025 conference in Helsinki, Finland from 27th to 28th February 2025 on how to make visible how maldevelopment has led to the climate crisis and how it persists in global climate change governance, discuss possibilities for reparative action and hold an open dialogue on strategies for worlding just transitions into equitable climate futures. Alliances between science, activism and art have been recognized by Climate Justice scholars, NGO networks and UN bodies alike to be necessary to inform more critical and practice-based understandings of the harmful impacts of climate change. Especially the role of culture and art in the co-production of climate change knowledge, grounded in the lived experiences of those most affected by environmental crises, has become a central concern for academic reports as well as for translating these outputs into climate policies. Finding new answers to the question of how to put climate action to work therefore requires to critically rethink the current ways of how to make the lived experiences of environmental harm “known” in global politics.

To deepen this dialogue, we call for contributions from researchers, activists and/or artists working between and beyond transdisciplinary intersections of climate science, climate politics and artistic practices who address questions such as:

• How do science, politics, artistic practices, and other ways of knowing, such as Indigenous Knowledge relate to each other within the current UNFCCC climate regime?
• How political are climate science and artistic practices within the UNFCCC or should/shouldn’t be?
• How scientific are artistic practices addressing global climate politics or should/shouldn’t be?
• What role do art and culture play in knowing and making visible maldevelopment in the context of the UNFCCC climate regime?
• Who engages in research-based art and arts-based research in the context of the UNFCCC climate regime and who are their audiences?
• Where does research-based art and arts-based research on global climate politics take place and what kind of spaces do practitioners occupy?
• How can alliances between scientific and artistic practices help to address and expose maldevelopment in the UNFCCC and how can they support the worlding of just transitions into equitable climate futures?

Please submit your paper abstracts, or any inquiries, to the following email: verena.gresz@student.uni-tuebingen.de

Word count for abstract submission: 300