C-URGE
The urgency of actions to meet targets of the reduction of greenhouse gases is frequently considered through the narrow lens of technical, economic, and policy drivers. Such a lens overlooks the nature of urgency itself.
C-URGE is an interdisciplinary doctoral network of Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency in 2023-2027. The project is a collaboration between four European universities in Leuven (Belgium), Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), Catania (Italy), and Uppsala (Sweden) in partnership with six non-academic partners and the support of a prominent advisory board to train 10 early stage researchers in understanding different perspectives on environmental and climatological urgency, their temporalities, and the political and environmental implications these understandings may have.
Coordinator:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Partners:
Università Di Catania
Università Di Yale
Uppsala Universitet
Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg
Centre National de Coopération au Développement (Belgium)
Stiftelsen: Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden)
Ferropolis Industriekultur GmbH (Germany)
Indian Ocean Commission (Maldive)
Institut Royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique (Belgium)
The Hub Sicilia Società Cooperativa (Italy)
Sicily, 30 August - 7 September
Social Innovation For Climate Action
The C-URGE mid term event themed “Social innovation for Climate Action” is organised by the University of Catania, Department of Political and Social Science (DSPS).
The first part of the event brings together doctoral researchers, supervisors, and invited guests in a collective exploration at sea. It is organized by the Catania-based C-URGE team in collaboration with Ermenautica. This offshore seminar unfolds aboard two sailboats navigating from the Sicilian coast to the Aeolian Islands. During this part of the meeting, the Doctoral Students (DCs) and their supervisors (SPs) as well as two members of the interdisciplinary advisory board will embark on a 6 days knowledge exchange. The experience is supported and accompanied by the Ermenautica group, an anthropological project that uses the sailing boat intimate experience to create innovative, face-to-face, and horizontal forms of interaction and collaborative learning.
In the second phase of the event, participants will engage in a dense two-day program of collaborative exploration, public dialogue, and situated experimentation. HIMBY (Hot in My Backyard) will facilitate a two-part World Climate Café, guiding participants in connecting planetary crisis with personal, local, and emotional realities. Impact Hub Sicily curates moments of co-creation, including an Open Space workshop. A collaborative ethnographic session on ecological reparation, co-led by Luisa Mohr and research participants from Augusta, will close the symposium, grounding academic reflection in field-based relationships and shared responsibility. By including local civil society and academic actors and Sicilian research participants, the event fosters cultural exchange with tangible local impact.
Impact Hub Sicily, an associated partner of the C-URGE network, during the onshore symposium will host an Open Space workshop as well as informal networking moments, using collaborative tools to surface shared questions, initiatives, and imaginaries to explore the following dimensions:
- How can research be porous to society?
- How can we move from critique to construction?
- How can a network of practitioners, researchers, and change-makers co-create resilient pathways in and beyond academia?
The Impact Hub sessions will invite DCs and guests to map possible futures together, guided by trust, courage, and cooperation.
