“No research on a dead planet”: preserving the socio-ecological conditions for academia

Thierry, Aaron, Horn, Laura, von Hellermann, Pauline and Gardner, Charlie J. 2023. “No research on a dead planet”: preserving the socio-ecological conditions for academia. Frontiers in Education 8 , 1237076. 10.3389/feduc.2023.1237076

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Abstract

Despite thousands of higher education institutions (HEIs) having issued Climate Emergency declarations, most academics continue to operate according to ‘business-as-usual’. However, such passivity increases the risk of climate impacts so severe as to threaten the persistence of organized society, and thus HEIs themselves. This paper explores why a maladaptive cognitive-practice gap persists and asks what steps could be taken by members of HEIs to activate the academy. Drawing on insights from climate psychology and sociology, we argue that a process of ‘socially organized denial’ currently exists within universities, leading academics to experience a state of ‘double reality’ that inhibits feelings of accountability and agency, and this is self-reenforcing through the production of ‘pluralistic ignorance.’ We further argue that these processes serve to uphold the cultural hegemony of ‘business-as-usual’ and that this is worsened by the increasing neo-liberalization of modern universities. Escaping these dynamics will require deliberate efforts to break taboos, through frank conversations about what responding to a climate emergency means for universities’ – and individual academics’ – core values and goals.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	Frontiers Media
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 October 2023
Date of Acceptance:	19 September 2023
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2023 11:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/163417

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