Overview

The Ecology and Society Workshop of the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (ECOSOC-CES), in co-organization with the COST Action "Decolonizing Development" (DECOLDEV), and with the support of the H2020 projects "Just transition to the Circular Economy" (JUST2CE); "The Rise of Citizens Voices for a Greener Europe" (PHOENIX); “Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin” (ECO) and "Prince Claus Chair in Equity and Development 2019-2021" (PCC), 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, PHOENIX and ECO, 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 - Navigating the river and anti-extractivisms
• July 13 - Care and the city
• July 14 - Commoning (in) the forest
• July 15 - Performing unsettled citizens, ACTing together as Pluriverse
• July 16 - Reflecting and celebrating together

The final detailed programme is available HERE.

Format

Sessions will be co-produced as moments of collective encounters and knowledge co-production. The formats will be mixed. Participants will be in-person, and events will be face-to-face, including discussions in CES spaces and various outdoor locations (forests, river, parks, cultural, community and student centers, city streets. etc.). We will use different co-teaching and co-learning methodologies, including roundtables, field visits, films, board games, 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.

Executive Coordination: Ecology and Society Workshop (ECOSOC/CES)

Contributors

From ECOSOC-CES: Aline Simões Leite, Arianna Porrone (+University of Macerata), Diana Viveiros, Gaia Giuliani (+DECOLDEV), Gea Piccardi, Giacomo D'Alisa (+JUST2CE+PHOENIX), Gustavo García-López (+ISS- The Hague, +Undisciplined Environments), Hestia Delibas, Irina Velicu (+PHOENIX), Isabel Ferreira, Joana Vaz Sousa (+JUST2CE), Jonas Van Vossole, Lúcia Fernandes, Rita Serra, Roberto Sciarelli, Sérgio Pedro (+JUST2CE, +PHOENIX), Stefania Barca (+University of Compostela, +JUST2CE), and Teresa Meira.  

From CES: Luciane Lucas do Santos (ECOSOL-CES), Beatriz Caitana (ECOSOL-CES, +URBINAT), Teresa Cunha (CES, +Centro de Investigación por la Paz Gernika Gogoratuz, +CODESIRA), Giovanni Allegretti (+PHOENIX), Priscilla Delgado (+PHOENIX), Patrícia Vieira (+ECO), Roberta Scatolini (+FLUC), CES Summer Schools Coordination, and all the CES staff.

From other groups and institutions: Paola Minoia (University of Helsinki, +DECOLDEV), Yafa El Masri (University of Padova, +DECOLDEV), Miguel Diaz (ClimAção Centro), Nik Volker (Mining Watch Portugal), Fátima Teixeira (Juntos Pelo Sudoeste, +Tamera Eco-Village), Paulo Constantino (PROTejo), Vera Silva (CRIA-UC, +Coletivo Vozes de Dentro), Carmo Gê Pereira (University of Porto, +Lóbula), Gabriela Rocha (República Rosa Luxemburgo), Francesca Esposito (University of Westminster, +Abolish Detention Hassockfield), Joana Lages (DINAMIA’CET- ISCTE), Sara Moreira (Open University of Barcelona, +Univ do Porto,+AMAP Porto, +Regenerar), Jorge Gonçalves (Minga Cooperativa Integral, +JUST2CE), Ruxandra Ivan (Univ. of Bucharest), Alice Iancu (SNSPA-Bucharest), Andreea Bonea (Independent Yoga Teacher and Performer), Wagner Merije (Aquarela Brasileira), Tatiana Roa Avendaño (CENSAT-Agua Viva Colombia, CEDLA- Univ. of Amsterdam), Joey Ayoub (The Fire These Times) O Pioneiro do Mondego, Gremio Operario de Coimbra, Fernando Antunes Amaral (visual anthropologist), Carla Gomes (Unidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso), Jorge Vilas (Centro Social e Comunitário da Relvinha), Sara Rocha (Actuar), União de Freguesia de Coimbra, União de Freguesias de Eiras e São Paulo de Frades, António Ferreira e Jorge Patrício (Movimento pela Conservação e Desenvolvimento dos Baldios de Serpins), Conselho Diretivo da Comunidade Local dos Baldios da Freguesia de Serpins, Agricultura familiar e biológica da Quintinha das Travessas, Restaurant of Instituto Universitário Justiça e Paz, SASUC-UC, Taberna do Aires, O Burrito, Casa do Pão, Padaria Sonho doce, Greenside Restaurant , Verdejar, Casa do Cinema de Coimbra, BE Coimbra Hostel, Melanie and Jens (Serpins), José João Rodrigues (Casa do Sal), Sandra and Filipa Alves, Amélia and Julia, Maria Carlos and Maria Rocha (Casa de Esquina).

Selected by the call: Aline Simões Leite, Diana Viveiros and Anastasia Oprea (CES); Ada Cristina Pontes Aguiar (TRAMAS-UFC, +CES); Anoushka Zoob Carter (Institute of Development Studies, UK), Arianna Pasquini (Sapienza Università di Roma), Baris Can Sever (Middle East Technical University, +University of Helsinki), Bethany Wilson (Utrecht University), Federico Cintrón Moscoso (El Puente), Federico Comollo (University of Trento, +Il Lavoro Culturale), Gabriela Vélez Agosto (Amigxs del M.A.R., +University of Barcelona), İpek Ronahi Gündüz (Boğaziçi University, +CES), Josephine Becker (University of Vigo- Prospera), Lucas Santiago Barrero García (ICTA-UAB), Lucas Sebastián Worsdell (Independent), Lucia Alexandra Popartan (Universitat de Girona), Lucía Muñoz Sueiro (ICTA-UAB), Mariana Paterlini (University of Warwick), Mary Ann Manahan (Ghent University), Nina Djukanovic (University of Oxford), Patricia Schmid (CDE, University of Bern), Saad Ismail Amira (University of Basel), Sahana Subramanian (Lund University), Violeta Múnera Guerrero (COMUNA Caribe).

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
• July 11-16: Summer School

Co-funded by:

• DECOLDEV: Decolonizing Development (2020-2024, GA: 19129);
• PHOENIX: The Rise of Citizens Voices for a Greener Europe (2022-2025) (GA 101037328)
• JUST2CE: A Just Inclusive Transition to Circular Economy (2021-2024) (GA 101003491) https://just2ce.eu/
• Prince Claus Chair in Equity and Development (2019-2021)
• ECO: Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin (2022-2026) (GA 101002359)

Inclusive mobilities and other particular needs: In case of any diverse mobilities or other special needs for attending this activity, please let us know in advance and we will find inclusive solutions together.

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

Photo Credits: Protest against the false narrative of “green mining”, May 5, 2021, Lisbon. The banner, made by residents of Covas de Barroso, a region threatened by lithium mining, reads "BARROSO IS THE ONE THAT IS GREEN" ("VERDE É O BARROSO"). Photo by Guilhotina.info

_{Photo Credits: Protest against the false narrative of “green mining”, May 5, 2021, Lisbon. The banner, made by residents of Covas de Barroso, a region threatened by lithium mining, reads "BARROSO IS THE ONE THAT IS GREEN" ("VERDE É O BARROSO"). Photo by Guilhotina.info}

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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.