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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

Oct 6

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@Guardian, noted that a group of 38 researchers published an article titled ‘Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes: Young generations are severely threatened by climate change’ in the journal Science. Newborns in 2020 are projected to experience 2-7 times more extreme events globally under current climate pledges than someone born in 1960. There are significant variations for those born between 2016 and 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa compared to those in Europe and central Asia, highlighting the disproportionate climate change burden for young people in the global south. We are in this crisis together, but we are not One and the same.⁠ ⁠ See: ⁠ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/27/children-set-for-more-climate-disasters-than-their-grandparents-research-shows⁠ ⁠ #intergenerationaljustice #intergenerational #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #sustainablefutures #sustainable #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity #regeneration #regenerative #regenerativefutures⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/2vjA2sK0hWA⁠ Photo by Ben Douglas on Unsplash

Oct 3

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@damon.gameau screen director of his new film, #regeneratingaustralia stated in The Guardian about the film ‘”I think it’s so perfect for this moment” It’s this, “yeah, don’t shy away from the reality. It’s bleak”. But let’s also focus on the exciting things we could do, because I think we’re going to have to regenerate regardless’. Gameau understands the catastrophic consequences of climate change but wants us ‘to keep leaning towards—in the words of American essayist, Rebecca Solnit—finding “hope in the dark”’.⁠ ⁠ See: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/03/the-hope-and-climate-catastrophe-roadshow-theres-just-this-thirst-for-optimistic-story⁠ ⁠ #intergenerationaljustice #intergenerational #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #sustainablefutures #sustainable #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity #regeneration #regenerative #regenerativefutures⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/DXyUu-e8PZc⁠ Photo by Heiko Otto on Unsplash

Sep 30

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@damon.gameau screen director of his new film #regeneratingaustralia imagining the world’s problems solved. The film is set in December 2029, a mix of mockumentary and documentary that looks back on a decade where the economy is booming as Australia runs on 90% renewables and exports green steel, individuals communities have energy security and cheap power from their own micro-grids, tenants lower their power bills by renting solar panels for other roofs; and electric vehicle owners earn cash by using their batteries as storage for the grid. Is this what hope looks like for young people?⁠ ⁠ See: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/03/the-hope-and-climate-catastrophe-roadshow-theres-just-this-thirst-for-optimistic-story⁠ ⁠ #intergenerationaljustice #intergenerational #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #sustainablefutures #sustainable #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity #regeneration #regenerative #regenerativefutures⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/5c8fczgvar0⁠ Photo by Manuel Meurisse on Unsplash

Sep 27

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Building on our September theme of intergenerational justice, our story in October/November is about young people and regenerative futures, and thinking about what might come after the concept of sustainable development.⁠ ⁠ #intergenerationaljustice #intergenerational #socialjustice #culturaljustice #climatejustice #politicaljustice #justice #climate #youngpeople #youth #youthvoice #anthropocene #socioecology #futures #codesign #ethical #sustainablefutures #sustainable #covid19 #diversity #inclusion #covid19recovery #youthled #generationrestoration #actnow #biodiversity #regeneration #regenerative #regenerativefutures⁠ ⁠ Media Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/mErj011Eoqg⁠ Photo by Pat Whelen on Unsplash

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