Researchers at the School of Education at the University of Iceland, the University of Iceland’s Research Centre in Þingeyjarsveit and Brunel University in London recently received a £294,842 grant from the British Academy for studying the role of Icelandic families in climate action.
Verkefnið nefnist Fókus á fjölskyldur í réttlátum umskipum (Centring Families in Iceland’s Just Transition). Utsa Mukherjee, dósent í menntavísindum við Brunel-háskóla, stýrir rannsókninni. Verkefnisstjórar hérlendis eru Auður Aðalsteinsdóttir, rannsóknarlektor og forstöðumaður Rannsóknaseturs HÍ í Þingeyjarsveit, og Auður Magndís Auðardóttir, lektor í uppeldis- og menntunarfræði á Menntavísindasviði.
The Icelandic government aims to make Iceland a carbon-neutral country by 2040. Internationally, the main focus has been on ensuring a just transition where the costs and benefits of climate action are not unequally distributed. Actions often overlook the key role of he family unit in society. The research project explores this important factor in climate action in Iceland from an interdisciplinary perspective.
In this project humanities and education sciences join forces to create new knowledge. On the one hand, Icelandic literature and films from 1944 to the present will be analyzed with the aim of exploring ideas about the interaction between families, nature and environmental protection. On the other hand, this same interaction will be examined in the present with 50 families with children from all over the country. The data collection will include family interviews, creative writing by children and young people and the use of family photographs to create discussions about just transitions and the family unit. Data will be collected with families across the country, as the researchers expect that families’ approaches to environmental protection and sustainability may differ somewhat depending on where in the country they live.
The grant comes from the British Academy’s Knowledge Frontiers programme and makes it possible to recruit two additional researchers: Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir, a postdoctoral fellow in childhood, youth and education studies, and Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir, a PhD student of cultural studies. Knowledge Frontiers áætlun Bresku akademíunnar og gerir það kleift að ráða tvo rannsakendur til viðbótar. Annars vegar Rannveigu Ágústu Guðjónsdóttur, nýdoktor í uppeldis- og menntunarfræði, og hins vegar Angelu Snæfellsjökuls Rawlings menningarfræðing.
Knowledge Frontiers aims to strengthen the participation of British scholars in international projects in the humanities and social sciences under the auspices of just transitions. Special emphasis is placed on supporting projects that strengthen the connection between expertise, general knowledge and policymaking at the international level.
A special emphasis will be placed on introducing the results to policy-makers in the field of just transitions in Iceland, and therefore local governments and other policy-makers have been contacted. These connections will be cultivated in parallel with the research work to ensure dialogue between researchers and those working in the field of just transitions.
The project leaders in Iceland are Auður Magndís Auðardóttir, Assistant Professor of Education, and Auður Aðalsteinsdóttir, Research Lecturer and Director of the University of Iceland Research Center in Þingeyjarsveit. Utsa Mukherjee, Associate Professor of Education at Brunel University, leads the research. Two additional researchers have been hired for the project: Angela Snæfellsjökuls Rawlings, Postdoctoral Researcher in Cultural Studies, and Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir, Postdoctoral Researcher in Education.
