Young sustainability activists as public educators: An aesthetic approach

Abstract

In recent years we have seen increasing youth activism on climate and other sustainability issues. This paper presents a theoretical framework for further research on young sustainability activists as public educators. The point of departure is taken in Latour’s argumentation concerning the need to create new attachments to the Earth. In line with this, we highlight the importance of aesthetics and experiences conceived as integrated sense-perceptional, emotional and intellectual faculties. The second part of the paper moves into social movement theory, to explore what role the Youth for Sustainability movement may have in creating new attachments to the Earth. Drawing on Melucci, emphasis is put on the movement’s collective identity making. Furthermore, following Rancière, the ability to interrupt the distribution of the senses is stressed. Examples of youth activism for sustainability are presented and interpreted, which points to the potential of children and young people to act successfully. The last part of the paper moves into pedagogical theories to explore how this kind of youth activism fostering new attachments to the Earth can be conceived as public pedagogy. We thereby refer to Biesta’s distinction between pedagogy for the public, pedagogy of the public and pedagogy for publicness.

Towards an understanding of how school climate strikes work as public pedagogy

“…1. See for example Wildemeersch et al . (2021), O'Malley and Nelson (2013), Priyadharshini (2021) and Mayes and Center (2023).…”

Science education in the Anthropocene: the aesthetics of climate change education in an epoch of uncertainty

“…Youth activism is a site where taken-for-granted ways of relating to each other and to the world are being questioned and where young people learn from their peers and from informed adults about what is currently at stake and, through their practices, learn how to deal with these challenges. (Wildemeersch et al, 2022, p. 421) Wildemeersch et al (2022) make clear that in order to understand, appreciate and contribute to this revolutionary movement that it is essential to recognize the aesthetic nature of what is taking place; the environmental, educational and aesthetic elements are intimately intertwined. They draw on Latour's and Stark's (1999) work and Latour's later musings Latour (2018) to consider "new attachments to the Earth" (Wildemeersch et al, 2022, p. 421) as they seek to frame the aesthetic nature of these youth movements in relation to the environment and education.…”

“…The process of determining what is a "good" or "bad" attachment is all about value judgments and thus is a matter of aesthetics. Wildemeersch et al (2022) highlight that aesthetics is not simply a cognitive process but also emotional, bodily and transactional (i.e., ongoing interchange between objects and subjects) in nature as grounded in our everyday experiences. As Todd (2020Todd ( , p. 1110) points out, education ought to be "a way of creating encounters of the world that educate about the climate emergency while also giving time for climate sorrow" on the path to "a living relationship to the more-thanhuman world" (Todd, 2020(Todd, , p. 1112.…”

“…As Todd (2020Todd ( , p. 1110) points out, education ought to be "a way of creating encounters of the world that educate about the climate emergency while also giving time for climate sorrow" on the path to "a living relationship to the more-thanhuman world" (Todd, 2020(Todd, , p. 1112. Wildemeersch et al (2022) propose that the aim of the Youth for Sustainability/School Strike 4 Climate movements is to realize "good" new attachments of humans to non-humans (and, presumably, humans to humans). As such, these revolutionary actions of young people are intended by them to educate themselves and others in the value judgments that will save the planet.…”

Public pedagogy and leadership in sports organisations: Futebol dá força for sustainability?

“…Public pedagogy has become a driving force for exploring and theorising the nexus of culture, learning, education and social change. Research has been interested in different forms, processes, sites and pedagogical practices beyond formal schooling, such as learning in museums, zoos, popular culture, (social) media, literature, commercial spaces, the internet, sites of social movements and political activism (Burdick et al, 2014;Cooper and Sandlin, 2020;Sandlin et al, 2010Sandlin et al, , 2017Wildemeersch et al, 2021). A phenomenon that has so far not been explored in the field of public pedagogy, and hardly at all in sport for development (SFD), is pedagogical leadership.…”