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We are a collaborative research lab for co-designing young people’s sustainable futures in times of crisis and disruption.

Featured Projects

Greater Geelong

The project will provide Geelong region stakeholders with a strong evidence base over 3 years to co-design innovative interventions to foster the education and employment aspirations of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Geelong.

Whittlesea

This project supports neurodiverse young people in completing a Micro-Credential in Co-Design for Diversity and Inclusion and to evaluate their progress in successfully achieving this in Whittlesea.
More Projects

Blog

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Intergenerational Justice, the Climate Crisis and Young People’s Futures

In the context of the climate crisis, current ideas about intergenerational justice are focussed on contemporary populations of young people, and as yet un-born generations, and the futures that our past and present actions will visit on these generations.
8 September 2022
Geelong

Young People’s Voices and Participation and the Beginnings of ‘Co-Design’

In their recent book – Youth rising?: The politics of youth in the global economy – Mayssoun Sukarieh and Stuart Tannock (2014, p. 143) reflect on the problematic character of young people’s voices and participation in movements against such things as the climate crisis, war, and racism, and their encounters with the institutionalised promise of ‘youth participation’.
10 March 2022
More blogs

Sep 25

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Optimism? Pessimism? Hope?⁠ Rosi Braidotti -@rosibraidottiofficial - has argued that hope is an ‘anticipatory virtue’ that can be used to structure an affirmative ethics and politics that can reimagine regenerative, sustainable futures⁠ ⁠ So, let’s stop using words such as pessimistic and optimistic when we discuss futures and the promise of intergenerational climate justice – and frame the conversations and actions that might deliver on that promise for young people through a radical politics of hope!!⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #optimism #pesimism #hope⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/_AjqGGafofE⁠ Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash

Sep 23

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Building young people’s capabilities to deal with these entanglements of pasts, presents and futures seems fundamentally unjust! We are saying to them, You live with and clean up our mess!⁠ ⁠ So, any education for sustainable, or regenerative, or environmentally just futures should think about a number of things, including:⁠ ⁠ Moving beyond human exceptionalism – the ideas that humans occupy a privileged place in thinking and acting as we deal with the legacies of our pasts and presents and imagine our futures ⁠ ⁠ Exploring what lies beyond a methodological individualism – moving from the idea of individuals as discrete, autonomous, responsible organisms to consider what it means to be ‘entangled’ with others – the human, the biotic and the abiotic stuff of the bio-sphere and the cosmos.⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #environment #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/gPnHi8AmO5k⁠ Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Sep 21

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Nick Cave - @nickcaveofficial - talks about the ‘indifference of the universe’. So much of the stuff of the bio-sphere and the cosmos – from the quantum scale to the forces driving the increasingly faster expansion of the universe - is ‘indifferent’ to how we think and feel about some of these issues.⁠ ⁠ So, we are faced with the fundamental challenge of scale. What temporal and spatial scales are we working with in thinking about pasts, presents and futures, and the relationships between places, eco-systems, earth systems, the bio-sphere, and the planet - 7 generations? 2050? 1000 years?⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity #nickcave⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/tJPrz7S-dsE⁠ Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Sep 19

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Philipa Duthie, of the RSA, observes that these young people ‘are the vanguard of a global youth-led environmental justice movement. Their efforts have firmly established climate action as an issue of intergenerational ethics; part of the current generations’ duty toward future generations.’ Current generations are ‘trustees with an obligation to preserve its natural resources and ecology so that future generations can benefit from them’.⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #environment #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/y5d2fT1srs8⁠ Photo by Bethany Zwag on Unsplash

Sep 17

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In a recent blog, Reclaiming the future, Philipa Duthie, the Oceania Director for the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) highlighted the ways in which groups of young people in Australia, Portugal, Canada and elsewhere, have taken legal action (often unsuccessful) to try to force governments to recognise the ethical, moral and governmental ‘duty of care to protect young people against future environmental risks’.⁠ https://www.thersa.org/blog/2021/04/reclaiming-the-future ⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #environment #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/2hM5_1i2k3U⁠ Photo by Sam Ladley on Unsplash

Sep 15

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A blogpost on Future Planet outlines how ‘The Seventh Generation Principle is based on an ancient Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) philosophy that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future.’⁠ As that post suggests: ‘Think about that for a minute, if you were to consider how your actions today would impact the world 7 generations hence, how would that change what you do? Think about it.’⁠ ⁠ #intergenerationaljustice, #climatecrisis, #sevengenerations, #Haudenosaunee, @FuturePlanet #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/REL986jyuX4⁠ Photo by Adrien Converse on Unsplash

Sep 15

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In Victoria, Australia the @danielandrewsmp government has announced that Nursing and Midwifery programs will become free for those enrolling in 2023 and 2024. Including, scholarships to support students with study and living expenses.⁠ ⁠ Hannah is currently studying Nursing in regional Victoria. Hannah has her say. ⁠ ⁠ The COVID-19 pandemic, uncertain futures, anxieties, fears, hopes and aspirations. For further stories, articles and videos, check out the link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ #youngpeople #youthvoice #geelongyouth #codesign #ethicalinnovation #sustainablefutures #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #geelong #anthonycostafoundation #skillingthebay #2021 #youthled #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #nursing #midwifery⁠

Sep 13

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William Mackaskill suggests that long term thinking - which is the basis of intergenerational justice - goes against the grain in rapidly changing, short-term cultures such as those shaped by global capitalism. But in different First Nations contexts, which have long held traditions, there is evidence of longer term thinking: ‘The Iroquois in their oral constitution advocated concern for future generations…It seems like this was true for many Indigenous philosophies in Africa as well’. @Guardian⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #environment #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/Z4RvGiREzKA⁠ Photo by gryffyn m on Unsplash

Sep 11

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In commentary on William MacKaskill’s new book What We Owe the Future: A Million-Year View, @Guardian observes ‘that we seem incapable of thinking, or even contemplating, 5,000 years in the future. That lies in the realm of science fiction’. ⁠ ⁠ But MacKaskill’s estimate that 8 trillion humans are yet to be born, means that ‘how long we last as a species and what kind of state of wellbeing we achieve…may have a lot to do with what decisions we make and actions we take at the moment and in the foreseeable future’.⁠ ⁠ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/21/william-macaskill-what-we-owe-the-future-philosopher-interview ⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #environment #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/5RLnlS71N3g⁠ Photo by Iva Rajović on Unsplash

Sep 9

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In the context of the climate crisis and the crisis of capitalism, what responsibilities do we owe to young people and future generations? In a recent article in @Guardian, noted moral philosopher William MacAskill argues that we need to develop much longer term views to our moral obligations to future generations and the planet that they will live on.⁠ ⁠ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/21/william-macaskill-what-we-owe-the-future-philosopher-interview ⁠ ⁠ #intergenerational #generations #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #innovation #sustainablefuture #sustainable #sustainability #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #education #environment #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity⁠ ⁠ Find out more about our current projects and blogs at the Young People Sustainable Futures Lab, link in Bio.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/MMJx78V7xS8⁠ Photo by Steven Kamenar on Unsplash