Education and Bildung in the Anthropocene

[Network grant from the Swedish Research Council]

The project seeks to consolidate and expand connections between researchers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, to form the Education and Bildung in the Anthropocene (EBAN) research network as continuation and expansion of the UBANnetwork. The network’s joint focus is on how planetary environmental issues affect formal and informal education, as well as different normative notions of what being educated means.

We assume that the anthropogenic impact on planetary boundaries already deeply affects education (Leicht et al., 2018) and will further challenge fundamental ontological and epistemological assumptions and, thus, the Bildung notion as part of Western aesthetic, cultural and societal selfunderstanding.

This network prioritises connecting these broad philosophical and normative
discourses on Bildung to the field of subject didactics. Thus, we focus on questions about how today’s rapid, radical environmental changes affect ideas of education and training.

We aim to:
1. Create a multidisciplinary platform for researchers. Through EBAN's activities, we want to help researchers meet, learn, develop ideas and cooperate. This network is upheld by a multidisciplinary
Nordic steering group and a website, and it will be based on the following activities.
2. Support the co-production of research applications and publications.
3. Establish a web-based, open international
seminar.
4. Establish international research conferences.
5. Develop PhD courses.
6. Offer writers' retreat.