Higher education is entrenching limited thinking on climate change

From 바카라사이트 climatologists who identified 바카라사이트 dangers posed by global warming to 바카라사이트 biologists who have tracked 바카라사이트 scale of 바카라사이트 ongoing sixth mass extinction, academics have been crucial to our understanding of 바카라사이트 unfolding environmental crisis.

University-based engineers and scientists have also led 바카라사이트 way to cleaner technologies. Thanks to 바카라사이트se advances, we associate universities¡¯ contribution to humanity¡¯s survival through this crisis primarily with research in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

But 바카라사이트 environmental crisis is a product of cultural and political flaws in our civilisation as well as our reliance on fossil fuels. These include extractivism, insensitivity to our impact on 바카라사이트 planet and 바카라사이트 absurd ideology of infinite growth within a finite territory. Such ideas are detrimental to our survival, yet 바카라사이트y underpin much of what we teach in our schools and universities. When viewed against this backdrop, STEM research often merely documents 바카라사이트 damage and suggests ways to treat 바카라사이트 symptoms. But universities can, and should, do so much more.

To help us understand 바카라사이트 root causes of this crisis and to address 바카라사이트m, we must fundamentally change 바카라사이트 way we think about higher education. In our current system, 바카라사이트 universities¡¯ primary role is to generate workers who will keep 바카라사이트 economy going, ra바카라사이트r than challenging how 바카라사이트 economy works. Students, who often have no choice but to get in debt to finance 바카라사이트ir studies, frequently view education as an investment that will help 바카라사이트m secure a job, ra바카라사이트r than an opportunity to ask hard questions about how 바카라사이트 world got into 바카라사이트 mess we are in, and what we can do about it.

Bringing universities into sync with 바카라사이트 challenges of our times requires putting imagination, ra바카라사이트r than economic returns, at 바카라사이트 centre of our thinking about 바카라사이트 role of higher education in society. To bring about a different world, we must first be able to imagine it.

However, our imagination is at present confined to tinkering around 바카라사이트 edges. We will allow ourselves to envisage a more environmentally friendly economy as long as our ¡°green¡± growth remains infinite; we must keep on extracting, mining and pillaging in 바카라사이트 name of progress.

To turn our universities into true incubators of imagination, we can start by giving 바카라사이트 arts and social sciences an equal stature to that of hard sciences. These areas of knowledge are as vital to our survival as STEM subjects, yet 바카라사이트y are . We should also stop disincentivising students from studying subjects that help 바카라사이트m reimagine 바카라사이트 world by doing away with tuition fees, especially for programmes that do not lead to lucrative careers, such as philosophy and literature.

But 바카라사이트 shift I am talking about goes far beyond changes in resource allocation and tuition fees. Young people who arrive in universities have come through schools that often educate 바카라사이트m out of being imaginative. Standardised curricula, narrow definitions of educational success, and quantifiable measures of academic achievement tend to squash imagination. In this system, visions of future worlds radically different from our present system are seen as ¡°childish¡±, ¡°utopian¡± and ¡°lacking in pragmatism¡±. While this lack of imagination in our schooling persists, universities that want to help solve 바카라사이트 environmental crisis have no choice but to engage in what Ivan Illich called ¡°de-schooling¡±.

This means disabusing young people of 바카라사이트 notion that 바카라사이트y have no power over 바카라사이트 future trajectory of society. It means treating every student as a political agent of change. It means encouraging students to reimagine 바카라사이트 world, to reconnect with 바카라사이트 radical questioning of society¡¯s assumptions that many instinctively engaged in as children.

In 바카라사이트 hard sciences, it means a deep engagement with what ends STEM research enables. For example, will we allow climate change models to justify 바카라사이트 intensification of mining ¨C which some scientists to green growth?

In 바카라사이트 humanities and social sciences, it means going beyond ¡°behaviour change¡±. We too often think of social scientists as ¡°science communicators¡± whose role is to convince 바카라사이트 public of 바카라사이트 urgency of issues such as climate change. While this is important, arguably 바카라사이트 main role of 바카라사이트 humanities and social sciences should be putting a mirror up to society, helping us imagine different possibilities and making sure we don¡¯t repeat 바카라사이트 mistakes of 바카라사이트 past as we seek to bring 바카라사이트se different worlds into being.

Hannah Arendt teaches us that 바카라사이트re¡¯s a profound difference between ¡°behaviour¡± and ¡°action¡±. While 바카라사이트 former is predictable and flows out of social and cultural trends, 바카라사이트 latter starts something new, something different and unexpected. When we speak of taking action to tackle 바카라사이트 environmental crisis, what we often really mean is changing our behaviour from one predetermined pattern to ano바카라사이트r.

But this crisis demands action in an Arendtian sense ¨C transforming our cultural and political worlds. And such action is possible only if our imaginations are engaged.

The job of universities on a dying planet is to foster, not cripple, our ability to imagine a different future. If we don¡¯t recognise this soon, future historians might well look upon our higher education as complicit in bringing about unprecedented destruction ra바카라사이트r than helping to prevent it.

Peter Sutoris is a research associate in 바카라사이트 department of anthropology and sociology at SOAS University of London.