Theories & Practices of Transformation from Reform to Revolution
Join us in the North of Ireland at Queen’s University Belfast Wednesday 19th November 2-5pm for an interactive workshop – this in person event is free to attend but registration is required. You can register at this link.
In our increasingly turbulent times, both politically/geopolitically and in terms of the worsening and accelerating climate and ecological crisis, how should we respond? Who is the ‘we’ that should be responding? Where should we focus? What needs to change or transform? Such questions are central to thinking through and providing solutions or strategies to address our planetary crisis, that some call a ‘polycrisis’ or ‘planetary emergency’. The Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action together with Climate Justice Universities Union invites you to come along to this interactive workshop to listen to our invited speakers, discuss and debate the different perspectives on these pressing issues. The speakers will offer insights from their own personal experiences about their approaches to working for change, working with others, organising and successes, what works and what doesn’t and what gives them hope to ‘keep on keeping on’. The workshop will hear from:
Emma River-Roberts, Co-Director of the WCCA and Goldsmiths University – ‘Trade Unions, Resilience and Burnout: The Highs and Lows of Working Class Organising’
Calum McGeown, Queen’s University Belfast – ‘‘Green Politics and the Black Panther Party: Lessons in Revolution for a World on Fire’
Calum is an interdisciplinary researcher from Belfast, Ireland. His work engages with theories and processes of social change in the context of the planetary crisis. His main areas of interest include revolutionary green politics, state theory, post-growth political economy, democratisation, social movement strategy and the role and ethics of (non)violent forms of emancipatory political struggle. Calum is a co-founding member of the Climate Justice Universities Union.
Rebecca Willis, Lancaster University – ‘The inside track: Some personal reflections on quite a few years of working with politicians and governments on climate’
Rebecca runs the Climate Citizens research group at Lancaster University, which examines the role of public engagement in energy and climate governance. She is an Expert Adviser to the Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK Parliament and Government. In 2019-2020, she was an Expert Lead to Climate Assembly UK, the first national Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change. Previously she was Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising the Prime Minister and First Ministers of the devolved administrations. Her book, Too Hot To Handle? The democratic challenge of climate change, was published by Bristol University Press in March 2020.
John Barry, Ollscoil an Banriona Béal Feirste – ‘’Behind Enemy Lines’ in the Molehills of Power: Lessons From 7 Years as a Green Councillor’
John is a father of two, a recovering politician and Professor of Green Political Economy. He is co-director of the Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action and one of the founding members of the Climate Justice Universities Union. He is the author of a number of books, including Environment and Social Theory (Routledge, 2007) and The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability (Oxford, 2012). He is current working on a book entitled, Resistance is Fertile not Futile: The Planetary Crisis and ‘Failing Forward’ in Politics and the Academy.
The WCCA 