The Art of Changing Habits: Aesthetic Research to Ecologize our Lifestyles
(Presentation of Projects and Workshop)
Convenors/track chairs:
Joachim Froese, Dr., Artist/Lecturer for Photography, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University & Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
York Kautt, PD Dr., Institute for Sociology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany
Susanne Walter, Design and Permaculture, Berlin, Germany
As empirical studies show, people are clinging to their unsustainable lifestyles against better knowledge (eg, Kennedy et al., 2009, Entzian 2015, Bleys 2018). Keeping in mind that democratic systems will have limited influence on lifestyles in the future, it becomes clear that the voluntary change of lifestyles (next and related to political measures) represents a central challenge of (world-)society towards sustainable living. Promising are approaches that do not strive for more knowledge, but for social processes and aesthetic practices, with which individuals jointly experience, discuss and develop solutions that affect the real behavior (e.g. Fields & Sulaiman 2017).
The track brings together organizers and participants from disciplines such as nutrition, sociology, sufficiency research, art, journalism, permaculture and sustainable business development, to present and discuss ideas, concepts and projects that have been carried out or that have to be designed. The unifying, transdisciplinary focus is the search for social and aesthetic processes and practices that seek to transform our everyday behaviors. "Aesthetic practice" is understood in the widest sense as a practice bound to actions and experiences, which includes perceptions, emotions, interactions and creative processes as well as different materials, communication media, settings and actor constellations.
The first part of the event will discuss (participatory) practices and methods of sustainability transformation in education, science and politics. This will be followed by contributions from the fields of art, journalism and sustainable business development. Finally, a permaculture workshop will offer all participants the opportunity to get to know a field of action that integrates some of the discussed transformation dimensions.
References:
Barone, T. & Eisner, E. (2011). Arts based research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bleys, B., Defloor, B., Van Ootegem, L., & Verhofstadt, E. (2018). The environmental impact of individual behavior: Self-assessment versus the ecological footprint. Environment and Behavior, 50 (2), 187-212. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916517693046.
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Entzian, Annett. (2015). Denn sie tun nicht, was sie wissen. Eine Studie zu ökologischem Bewußtsein und Handeln. München: oekom.
Fields, Z. & Sulaiman O. A. (2017). Collective Green Creativity and Eco-Innovation as Key Drivers of Sustainable Business Solutions in Organizations. In: Z. Fields (Ed.). Collective creativity for responsible and sustainable business practice, pp. 1-25. Hershey: IGI Global.
Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). 2018: Global warming of 1.5 °C – The IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 https://www.de-ipcc.de/256.php
Kennedy, E. H., T. M. Beckley, B.L. McFarlane & S. Nadeau. (2009). Why don’t we >walk the talk<: Understanding the environmental values/behavior gap in Canada. Human ecology Review, 16, 151-160.
Lawrence, R. L. 2012. Bodies of knowledge: embodied learning in adult education, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass/Wiley.
Varela, F. J., Rosch, E. & Thompson, E. 1991. The embodied mind: cognitive science and human experience, Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press.
Wheeler, W. 2006. The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture, London, Lawrence & Wishart.
World Wildlife Found (WWF). (2018). Living Planet Report 2018: Aiming higher. https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_publications/living_planet_report_2018/
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