Futuring for Sustainability Summer School

In this edition, we investigated the tensions between an accelerating energy transition and the need for just, safe, and ecologically sustainable futures. How can we realise societal transformations towards sustainability; how can we live well, equitably, and within ecological means? How do we navigate the inevitable political and social conflicts such transformations inevitably bring? How can we understand the widespread backlash against climate policy? And what can environmentalists learn from the ideological machinations of far-right and conservative movements? In this one-week Futuring for Sustainability summer school, these were central questions.

(Guest) lecturers

Read a reflection on the '23 summer school here.

What we do in the present is profoundly influenced by the expectations of our futures. The annual Sustainable Futures Summer School (formerly known as ‘Futuring for Sustainability’) is an interactive course held from July 3 - 7, 2023. During this one-week course, we teach students to appreciate different pathways to sustainability. How can we realise societal transformations towards sustainability, to living well equitably within ecological means? What does a sustainable world look like? In what type of sustainable future would you want to live? How can we prepare and collaboratively create a sustainable world? How do we navigate the inevitable political and social conflicts such transformations inevitably bring?

Our expectations about the future, dreams, and imaginations profoundly influence how we act in the present. Visions of plausible, possible, or desirable futures are fundamentally important in shaping our social and environmental futures. For example, consider the effects of novels such as George Orwell’s 1984, films such as Back to the Future, and artistic styles such as Afrofuturism and steampunk on how people feel about and prepare for the future. Unexpected downturns such as 9/11, the financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic had a similar effect. Technological and societal developments always rely on images of the future and people acting based on their imaginations and expectations. Expectations and visions are what make people act. In society, people and groups are always futuring, actively trying to shape expectations and dreams for the future. They are always trying to shape the future.

Drawing on a wide variety of literature, from political science to urban planning to integrated assessment modelling, this summer school offers the Urban Futures Studio approach to shaping visions for desirable sustainable futures. It also provides our interpretation of how to give those visions a social life, our take on making them affect processes in the real world. Throughout the summer school, questions of democracy and politics will be a central focus: who shapes sustainable futures, and how do they do so?

Learn how to imagine positive futures and mobilise to achieve them in a democratic and participatory fashion. Understand futuring techniques, including scenario planning, modelling, backcasting, experiential futuring, arts-based approaches, science fiction, and design. Learn to understand where our current sustainability discourse comes from - and how ‘the future’ became an object of study.

(Guest) lecturers

In 2022 the LERU summer school was hosted and organised by the Urban Futures Studio of Utrecht University. Its theme:The University of the Future, Rethinking the role of universities worldwide in the face of the challenges of the 21st century.

A group of 60 selected PhD students from LERU members and a number of UU partner universities got together for a week to listen to inspiring speakers and to work on a manifest.

Guest lecturers

Moving towards a sustainable future in which all can live well within ecological means is a deeply social challenge. What does a sustainable world look like? In what type of sustainable future would you want to live? How can we prepare and collaboratively create a sustainable world? In the Futuring for Sustainability summer school, these are central questions.

Our expectations about the future, and our dreams and imaginations for it, profoundly influence the way we act in the present. Visions of plausible, possible, or desirable futures are fundamentally important in shaping our social and environmental futures. Novels such as George Orwell’s 1984, films such as Back to the Future, and artistic styles such as Afrofuturism and steampunk, for example, have deeply influenced the way people feel about and prepare for the future. Technological and societal developments always rely on images of the future, on people acting based on their imaginations and expectations. Expectations and visions are what makes people act. In society, people and groups are always futuring, always actively trying to shape expectations and visions for the future. They are always trying to shape the future.

The most important challenge of the coming decades is the need to craft a sustainable future. A sustainable future that is also just, desirable, and democratic. In this summer school, the Urban Futures Studio and Pathways to Sustainability collaborate to connect technical and environmental questions around sustainability to social questions around equality, democracy, and participation. Drawing on a wide variety of literature, ranging from political science to urban planning to integrated assessment modelling, the summer school offers the Urban Futures Studio approach to shaping and creating visions for desirable sustainable futures. It also offers our interpretation of how to give those visions a social life, our take on making them affect processes in the real world.

Guest lecturers

• Prof. dr. Mark Swilling
• Prof. dr. Detlef van Vuuren
• Prof. dr. Aarti Gupta
• Prof. dr. Sverker Sörlin
• Prof. dr. Jenny Andersson
• Prof. dr. Heba Allah Khalil
• Dr. Dan Hassler-Forest
• Dr. Roy Bendor
• Dr. Lenneke Kuijer