What visual means do activists of the global climate movements Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion use to make climate change understandable and show that it poses a threat to human, national and global security? How do visual representations of climate futures influence the identity, goals and motives of climate movements? Dr David Shim from the University of Groningen and Dr Delf Rothe from the University of Hamburg will deal with these issues in a joint research project called SECIMA starting in October 2022.
The full title of the project is: “Between fear and hope: Security imaginaries of climate change and emotions in the Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion campaigns” (SECIMA). The project will contribute to the emerging scholarly debate on visual narratives in global politics, on the (self-)legitimisation of social movements as global political actors and on visual methods in research on international relations.
For this purpose, the researchers are breaking new ground: instead of analysing visual discourses and presentations from a distance, David Shim and Delf Rothe will be working directly with activists to analyse both movements in a participatory way.
The project has a duration of 6 month and is funded by the University of Hamburg and Groningen with a start-up funding of 8,000 EURO.
Besides, SECIMA is part of the horizontal research focus “doing peace!“ at the IFSH. Please click here to find out more about “doing peace!“.