Futuring for Sustainability Summer School

Group of ufs summer school participants listening to speaker during fieldtrip to a farm
Participants on a fieldtrip during the 2024 summer school (by Hilde Segond von Banchet)

You can apply until 1 April to the Futuring for Sustainability summer school 2025, organised by the Urban Futures Studio and aimed at graduate students, postdocs and practitioners interested in futuring and sustainability. This year, we will zoom in on the tensions between accelerating transitions in energy, food, and lifestyles, the increasing call for global justice, and what is proving a highly effective backlash against these developments. In this 5-day interactive course, we set out to find new connections between the scientific need for a sustainable future and the political search for belonging and comfort in uncertain times.

How do we navigate sustainability issues in an era of political backlash and democratic decline?

In the Futuring for Sustainability summer school, we connect technical knowledge and expertise around sustainability to social questions such as: how do we navigate sustainability issues in an era of political backlash and democratic decline? And what can environmentalists learn from the ideological strategies of far-right and conservative movements? We will address these questions using futuring, a novel approach to future-making pioneered by the Urban Futures Studio, and dramaturgy.

Practical information

  • Dates: 7 July 2025 - 11 July 2025
  • Location: Utrecht, the Netherlands
  • Course fee: €1000 (Some scholarships or fee waivers/reductions may be available for those doing their PhD or with limited funding. Please reach out to the course coordinators if you have any questions.)
  • Registration deadline: 1 April 2025
  • Level: PhD

For questions, please get in touch with course directors Jeroen Oomen (j.j.oomen@uu.nl) and Timothy Stacey (t.j.stacey@uu.nl).

Application for course

For this course you are required to upload the following documents when applying:

  • Motivation letter
  • C.V.
Upload via utrechtsummerschool.nl

Previous editions

  • Flor Avelino lecturing in greenhouse at the UU botanical gardens
  • ufs summer school participants listening to lecture
  • ufs summer school participant giving a presentation
  • Timothy Stacey reacting during uf summer school discussion
  • Maarten Hajer and Christina Klubert presenting during ufs summer school
  • Summer school participants in green house at UU Botanical Gardens