PhD defence

Making space for hope? Privilege and prefiguration in collective responses to the climate crisis in the Netherlands

PhD candidate TA (Tom) Rowe MSc
Promotor prof.dr. EH (Edward) Huijbens
Co-promotor dr. ME (Meghann) Ormond
Organisation Wageningen University, Cultural Geography
Date

Fri 21 March 2025 13:00 to 14:00

Venue Omnia, building number 105
Hoge Steeg 2
105
6708 PH Wageningen
+31 (0) 317 - 484500
Room Auditorium

Summary

In this thesis, I explore how privileged groups in the Netherlands create and sustain hope through practices of collective political organisation amidst a context of climate crisis. I use a prefigurative lens to examine how such practices enact alternative spaces of thinking, doing and being in response to climate change. I analyse three distinct spaces, which are variously defined by privilege: the activist movement Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, the art project The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes, and the academic collective Scientists 4 Future Wageningen. Each case study brings to light important emotional, narrative and practical dimensions of hoping in times of climate crisis, highlighting how hope is tied to the labour of making space in the realms of activism, art and academia. In doing so, this thesis makes a significant contribution to geographic literature on climate activism, climate justice, and prefigurative politics.