Can democracy solve the climate crisis?
13 June 2022
Linda Wedlin, Professor at Department of Business Studies.
Hello Linda Wedlin, organisor and moderator of a panel discussion during Almedalen Week with the theme ‘What knowledge and what kind of democracy is needed for a successful climate transition?’ What are you going to be discussing?
“The environmental debate has sometimes criticised democratic principles for being too slow. At the same time, there is criticism that there is no time to produce the documentation that democratic processes require. We will start with these two criticisms and discuss what is really needed for us to be able to make decisions and cope with rapid climate change. Can democracy manage this? And do we have all the knowledge we need?”
Would you say that democracy is too slow a tool to solve the climate crisis?
“No, I wouldn’t say that. Rather I believe we need to discuss what type of democratic processes we need and the ways in which they are important. Perhaps they need to be amended or practised in a different way.”
Who are you targeting with this seminar?
“We want to open up a discussion about knowledge and the University’s role in relation to democractic processes. We hope that it will attract an audience that is interested in the University, democracy, and major social issues such as the environment.”
Why is this an important discussion to have today?
“It may not be difficult to justify the importance of the climate issue, but I feel it is also important to discuss the components of knowledge and democracy. What role should science and scientific knowledge play in different types of decision-making? This is something that has become relevant in connection with Covid, for example. Our set of rules is not always the same as those of politicians, and they don’t always match up.”
Do you mean that science is not always listened to?
“This could be the case. However, I feel it could be due to the fact that the scientific discussion does not follow the same logic as the political one. The decision-makers and politicians want answers, and ideally fast ones. Science seldom yields immediate answers and it is this clash that I believe can create a problem. After all, we want to have a science-based decision-making process, but then we need to be realistic about what expectations we have and what knowledge we are using as a basis for our decisions.”
What do you hope to get out of participating in Almedalen Week?
“The research programme ‘Democracy and Higher Education’ is arranging the seminar, and our ambition is to stimulate a general discussion about these issues. Quite simply, we want to show that issues concerning the relationship between democratic processes, knowledge and science are relevant in many different contexts, for example the environment.”
What knowledge and what kind of democracy is needed for a successful climate transition?
The discussion about sustainability raises the question as to what type of knowledge and what kinds of decision are actually needed to ensure we successfully make the climate transition. Which democratic principles are important and what knowledge is needed to take democratic decisions in relation to the climate issue? All of this will be discussed by a panel including active climate debaters, researchers and students, including Maria Wetterstrand, CEO of Miltton Purpose and former Swedish Green Party spokesperson, Sofia Näsström, Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University and Lovisa Håkansson, teaching assistant at the Unit for Academic Teaching and Learning at Uppsala University.
Time: Tuesday 5 July, 12:15-13:00
Venue: B Building, Uppsala University, Cramérgatan 3 main entrance, B51
News
-
“Most people can relate to music”
20 juni 2023
Mattias Lundberg’s area of research is liturgical music from the Renaissance. However, as a professor of musicology, he is used to covering the history of music in its entirety, and in recent years he has done precisely this in radio broadcasts fr...
-
Music Professor Mattias Lundberg receives Royal Medal
06 juni 2023
Mattias Lundberg is familiar from several series on Sveriges Radio’s channel P2, most recently “Fråga musikprofessorn” (“Ask the Music Professor”). Now he is being awarded a royal medal. “I’m pleased that musicology and the humanities are receivi...
-
“The public is generally poorly informed”
29 mars 2023
Hello May-Britt Öhman, researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism and expert contributor to the Government's Committee on Reindeer Lands.What is the purpose of this inquiry?
-
From living heritage to zombie churches
22 mars 2023
Churches are preserved by an antiquarian system that risks killing them instead of keeping them alive. The Swedish State and the Church of Sweden therefore need to define new joint visions and goals to enable the ecclesiastical cultural heritage t...
-
Democracy researchers to participate in literature festival
22 mars 2023
War, crime and literature as a path to reconciliation is the theme of the Uppsala International Literature Festival on March 23–25. One of the organisers is the Democracy and Higher Education research programme at Uppsala University. Christina Kul...
-
ERC grant for research into Swedish slavery
03 februari 2023
Fredrik Thomasson, researcher at the Department of History at Uppsala University, has received the ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This grant relates to a project on Swedish colonial history on the island of Saint ...
-
The names given to the clouds, an important part of the university's history
04 januari 2023
The book “Molnspanare– en meteorologisk historia” (Cloud spotters – a meteorological history) tells of the emergence of meteorology as a scientific subject. Among other things, you can read about how the Latin names and classification of the cloud...
-
The history of Easter Island can teach us about sustainability
08 december 2022
Tourism has exploded on Easter Island over the last twenty years – something that has led to both financial gain and major encroachments on the island's environment. Researchers from Uppsala are now studying how history can teach us to build a mo...
-
Nobel Prize-winning literature often published by small publishing houses
05 december 2022
During the Christmas trade period, books written by the latest Nobel Prize laureate tend to sell at least as well as the more traditional bestsellers. It is very important for publishers to have Nobel Prize winners on their lists, according to res...
-
Conference: 30 years of EU citizenship
21 november 2022
This year marks 30 years since European Union citizenship came into being. It will be highlighted at an international, interdisciplinary conference in Uppsala on 22–23 November. Both researchers and all those interested are welcome to attend.
-
New honorary doctors in the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences
03 november 2022
The faculties at Uppsala University have decided on the award of honorary doctorates for 2022. Among the new honorary doctors at faculties in the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences are researchers in economic geography, family l...
-
The vulnerability of surrogate mothers in a global market
17 oktober 2022
A new dissertation on surrogacy highlights Thai women's experiences of having acted as surrogate mothers. The dissertation shows the women's vulnerability in a global surrogacy industry, but also provides a more nuanced picture of what makes women...
-
Historical discoveries as Linnaeus Garden is excavated
07 oktober 2022
Unique pots, eighteenth-century porcelain and the bones of countless fish and birds: archaeologists who have been excavating part of the Linnaeus Garden have come across a wealth of exciting objects that can tell us more about the people and anima...
-
Popular 18th-century medicine in a new form
05 september 2022
Hello to Nils-Otto Ahnfelt, PhD pharmacist and visiting researcher at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences. Together with the historian of science Hjalmar Fors, you have developed a reconstruction of the 300-year-old medicine Hjärnes Testa...
-
Torgny Segerstedt Medal and Geijer Prize winners announced
05 september 2022
This year’s Torgny Segerstedt Medal has been awarded to Mikael Stenmark, professor in philosophy of religion at the Department of Theology. The Geijer Prize goes to Viktor Persarvet and Astrid Wendel-Hansen.
-
Digging from the present down to antiquity
30 augusti 2022
Welcome to the Viking Age! The archaeology students, with their trowels and their scrapers, have dug past the medieval layers and made their way down to the 11th century, approximately 30 centimetres below today's ground level. During the seminar ...
-
The sheep – Gotland’s symbol of sustainability
14 juni 2022
Sheep are the strongest symbol of sustainability on Gotland, according to Gurbet Peker. Not only do real ones graze all over the island, you can even find sheep sculpted in concrete in Visby. Peker researches the day-to-day lives of lamb farmers i...
-
Can democracy solve the climate crisis?
13 juni 2022
Hello Linda Wedlin, organisor and moderator of a panel discussion during Almedalen Week with the theme ‘What knowledge and what kind of democracy is needed for a successful climate transition?’ What are you going to be discussing?
-
Mapping people of the past by means of their bones
09 maj 2022
What is the best way to find out about a human being or animal that has been dead for perhaps several centuries? “Study the bones” is what Sabine Sten, professor of osteoarchaeology, would say. They can reveal an individual's age, body length, DNA...
-
Transforming space and society in Kiruna
24 mars 2022
State and corporate ideas about nature, people and the future played a decisive role in the development of Kiruna as a mining town over a century ago. Since 2004, when 6,000 Kiruna residents were informed that they would have to move because of gr...