C-Urge: Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency

The overarching objective of this DN is to respond to a growing urgency expressed by European research councils and funding agencies, as well as by governments, publics and students, that the social sciences should contribute to our understanding of and engagement with climate change. We propose that the need for urgent action demands that social science attends to the notion of 'urgency' itself. We want to train doctoral candidates in understanding different perceptions on environmental and climatological urgency, their temporalities, and the political and environmental implications these understandings may have. 10 PhD students will carry out ethnographic research in Africa, Latin-America, Asia or Europe. The researchers will gain non-academic transferable skills in organisations that either disseminate scientific findings, or that work in political or development-related contexts. Experts of 5 European universities (KU Leuven University, University of Edinburgh, Halle University, Uppsala University, and the University of Catania) team up with 6 non-academic partners, and 10 members of the interdisciplinary advisory board in order to ensure that the 10 PhD candidates will receive excellent training opportunities both in academia and outside academia. This ensures the formation of a cohort of junior experts who will be able to contribute to the struggle against the disruptive effects of climate change. C-urge responds to the invitation described in the European Climate Pact to connect and share knowledge about climate change as well as develop, implement and scale up possible solutions and offers a qualitative, innovative, multi-sectoral as well as trans-disciplinary approach to the various degrees of urgency that global climate change inspires. The on-the-ground insights and knowledge that C-urge produces will ultimately strengthen European policy, innovation and responsiveness to climate change and its impacts across the globe.