Just Futures? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cultural Climate Models

这个跨学科项目通过开发一种创新的方法来研究气候未来的文化模型，响应了对气候变化人文研究的呼吁。它特别侧重于代际正义的主题。项目组将文学研究、语言学、科学技术研究和文学教育学结合在一起，研究不同的文本类型——文学、社交媒体和教育背景下的文学接受等文化形式——如何在看似中性的气候事实（“模型”）和规范的社会价值（“模型”）之间移动。该项目由跨学科模型理论构建，该理论将模型理解为降低复杂性并服务于特定目的的现实表示。该项目的气候模型方法(1)将气候变化的定性文化模型理解为占主导地位的定量科学气候模型的必要补充；(2)对构成气候辩论的描述性和规范性组成部分的相互交织进行分析。三个密切相关的子项目研究了英语戏剧和散文（WP 1），社交媒体（WP 2）以及文学批评和教育（WP 3）的接受和传播中的气候变化和代际正义的辩论。该项目有两个主要目标：1。研究不同类型的文本如何参与（非）公正未来的文化建模；开发一种跨学科的方法来研究文化气候模型，这将对研究人员有广泛的好处。除了以特刊的形式公开项目成果，并在相关学科的各种期刊上发表文章外，动态项目网站（艺术总监：Jasmijn Visser）将记录研究过程，并将结果作为虚拟展览传播给更广泛的受众。申请人在项目的中心和补充主题和方法方面的国际领先出版物中都有记录：希金斯（PI UK）主要从事气候变化和环境人文文学研究；Hoydis （PI德国）在文学和风险理论和气候变化叙事；尤其是在气候变化的社交媒体表征中的图像分析的数字方法；Schwegler在多式联运可持续性传播领域的研究；Bartosch在环境素养模型的教育研究和一般的环境人文学科；以及Gurr在文学和文化研究模型理论领域以及跨学科研究背景下的文学研究领域的研究。该项目汇集了科隆大学（人文学科多学科环境研究[MESH]），利兹大学（普里斯特利国际气候中心），谢菲尔德大学（数字社会网络，数字方法）和杜伊斯堡-埃森大学（未来和转型叙事，人文学科的未来研究）的互补研究环境。申请人都是这些和相关倡议的核心参与者，因此很有可能在英国和德国之间的环境人文研究中建立持久和有影响力的合作。

This interdisciplinary project responds to calls for more humanities research on climate change by developing an innovative methodological approach to cultural models of climate futures. It focuses especially on the topic of intergenerational justice. The project group brings together literary studies, linguistics, science and technology studies and literature pedagogy to investigate how different text types - cultural forms such as literature, social media, and literature reception in educational contexts - move between seemingly neutral climate facts ("models of") and normative social values ("models for"). The project is framed by interdisciplinary model theory, which understands models as representations of reality that reduce complexity and serve specific purposes. The project's approach to climate models (1) understands qualitative cultural modelling of climate change as a necessary complement to the dominant quantitative scientific climate models, and (2) takes an analytical look at the intertwining of descriptive and normative components that constitutes climate debates. Three closely related sub-projects examine debates of climate change and intergenerational justice in Anglophone dramas and essays (WP 1), in social media (WP 2) and in the reception and communication of literature in criticism and education (WP 3).The project has two key objectives:1. to investigate how different kinds of texts engage in the cultural modelling of (un)just futures;2. to develop an interdisciplinary approach to cultural climate models that will be of wide benefit to researchers.In addition to the open access publication of project results in the form of a special issue and articles in various journals central to the disciplines involved, the dynamic project website (artistic director: Jasmijn Visser) will document the research process and disseminate the results as a virtual exhibition to a wider audience.The applicants each have a track record in internationally-leading publications on central and complementary thematic and methodological aspects of the project: Higgins (PI UK) primarily in literary studies research on climate change and in the Environmental Humanities generally; Hoydis (PI Germany) in literature and risk theory and climate change narratives; Pearce especially in digital methods of image analysis in social media representations of climate change; Schwegler in the field of multi-modal sustainability communication; Bartosch in educational research on the modelling of environmental literacy and in the Environmental Humanities generally; and Gurr in the field of model theory in literary and cultural studies and in literary studies in interdisciplinary research contexts. The project brings together the complementary research environments of the Universities of Cologne (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities [MESH]), Leeds (Priestley International Centre for Climate), Sheffield (Digital Society Network, digital methods) and Duisburg-Essen (future and transition narratives, futures research in the humanities). The applicants are all centrally involved in these and related initiatives, and are therefore well placed to build a lasting and influential collaboration in environmental humanities research between the UK and Germany.