futures Archives

Transdisciplinary Experiments

Transdisciplinary Experiments: Research, teaching and institutionalisation explores how experimental approaches can reshape research, education, and institutions in higher education to better respond to today’s complex and interconnected challenges. The book is grounded in the idea of ‘the experiment’ as a way to open up new possibilities, whether in knowledge-creation, teaching and learning, or institutional structures and initiatives. It examines how these experiments can inspire meaningful change across disciplines, sectors and cultures.

International contributors – scholars, artists, scientists, teachers, curators, community and academic leaders – offer diverse perspectives blending practical strategies with theoretical insights. These contributions advance the framing of transdisciplinarity and its implications for practice. The book engages with project-based teaching, flexible course and programme designs, and new forms of organisation. In doing so, it converges on a common goal of rethinking how we create and share knowledge in ways that are more collaborative and adaptive, and aligned with the needs of a rapidly changing world. A section titled ‘Provocations’ offers further reflections from four contributors on leadership challenges, failures and possibilities for creative interventions.

By connecting curiosity with action and experimentation with institutionalisation, Transdisciplinary Experiments offers a vision of what higher education research, teaching, learning and leadership can look like when driven by creativity, openness and a commitment to building more resilient futures.

Universities and Climate Action

Universities have a pivotal role to play in addressing the climate crisis, not only educating an increasingly large proportion of the global population, but also through scientific breakthroughs, technological innovation and raising public awareness. Higher education is particularly important given the roots of ecological and social breakdown in our models of civilisation, culture and knowledge. Yet its potential has not always been realised, and universities have historically been implicated in the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment and human communities. A transformation is thus needed in higher education, with institutions reorienting their activities towards positive engagement with climate.

Universities and Climate Action presents an original framework for understanding the impact of universities on climate change. It explores the interactions of education, research, services, public debate and campus operations on society and the ecosphere, and the complex interplay of influences on local, national and global levels. It provides in-depth discussions of ways of engaging with climate in teaching and learning and the curriculum, in research agendas, in governance and management of estates, and in engaging with external communities. The theoretical models are contextualised with examples of climate action in universities around the world. This book provides vital tools for analysis and action for researchers and practitioners working with and within the higher education sector.

Arcticness

Climate change and globalisation are opening up the Arctic for exploitation by the world – or so we are told. But what about the views, interests and needs of the peoples who live in the region? This volume explores the opportunities and limitations in engaging with the Arctic under change, and the Arctic peoples experiencing the changes, socially and physically.

With essays by both academics and Arctic peoples, integrating multiple perspectives and multiple disciplines, the book covers social, legal, political, geographical, scientific and creative questions related to Arcticness, to address the challenges faced by the Arctic as a region and specifically by local communities. As well as academic essays, the contributions to the book include personal reflections, a graphic essay, and poetry, to ensure wide and varied coverage of the Arctic experience – what the contributions all have in common is the fundamental human perspective.

Topics covered in the essays include indigenous identity and livelihoods such as reindeer herding, and adapting to modern identities; a graphic essay on the experience of Arctic indigenous peoples in residential schools; the effects of climate change; energy in the Arctic; and extractive industries and their impacts on local communities.

The book includes reflections on the future of Arcticness, engaging with communities to ensure meaningful representation and as a counterpoint to the primacy of environmental, national and global issues.