Between Science and Resistance: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis
In light of the increasing severity of the climate crisis, the Green Office at the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin (IPU) is organizing a series of events this winter semester, from early October to late November. These events will explore the climate crisis through the lenses of psychoanalysis, sociology, and economics/politics.
Through a variety of formats – lectures, panel discussions, and workshops – current and compelling topics will be addressed, providing space for questions about the state of the modern subject within the climate crisis.
We will address questions like:
What is the current state of scientific knowledge? Where do we stand concerning the so-called tipping points? What are ecological limits, and where is potential room for change? How do children and adolescents view the climate crisis – what (unconscious) feelings and fantasies accompany growing up and coming of age under these circumstances? To what extent do children and adolescents influence their future, and what are their visions in this regard? How are capitalist logics and functions connected to the loss of natural livelihoods and the increasing depletion of resources? What alternative economic systems exist to counteract the destructive consequences of capitalism? How can one understand the sometimes subtle but powerful logics of neoliberal performance ethics – ethics of performativity – and how do they relate to fundamental (unconscious) psychic processes and emotional states of the modern subject? What form of activism has what effect? What impacts do protest movements have on social change? And what does working with climate activists look like?
To approach these questions, we have prepared a variety of lectures with subsequent discussions, a workshop, and a discussion round. We look forward to many curious and interested faces and an engaging exchange.