‘If we want to contribute to solving sustainability challenges, we cannot stay in our ivory tower’
Stories of Change – a collaboration between students, academics and stakeholders
How do you make abstract sustainability subjects like geo-engineering and soil subsidence understandable for a broad audience? And how do you encourage that same audience to start tackling sustainability issues? We know that just informing people about global issues does not necessarily provoke action for change – the new generation of students has to find a way to tell our stories differently and more powerfully.
80 honours students in the Geosciences faculty did exactly this: under guidance of the Geoscience Honours Programme coordinators Dr. Peter Pelzer, Dr. Inge Loes ten Kate and Dr. Marca Wolfensberger they developed short films about a wide variety of sustainability subjects. They did so as a part of a collaboration between the Geosciences Honours College and the Pathways to Sustainability strategic theme of Utrecht ľϸӰ; academics and stakeholders outside academia functioned as mentors and inspirators.
From the nitrogen crisis to the sustainability of Christmas
The project, ‘Stories of Change’, resulted in sixteen that were shown at its own Film Festival in Kinepolis Jaarbeurs last January. After a debate about the subjects in the films, the audience and a jury chose two winning short films. These two winning short films will play on big screens for participants of the Pathways to Sustainability Conference 2020 on 5 March.
“I was amazed by the creativity, professionalism and imaginative prowess of our students,” says Pelzer. “The main challenge was to make sustainability tangible for a broad audience. This varied from going to an urban farm on a rainy day to film pigs, to making visualisations to explain abstract ideas like geo-engineering or soil subsidence.” Other students tackled matters like the nitrogen crisis, or even the sustainability of Christmas.
Threefold collaboration
The threefold collaboration between students, academics and their societal partners is important in the transformation towards sustainability. It encouraged students and academics alike to break the ivory tower of science and academia. “The interaction with academics and stakeholders proved to be quite different from student’s normal assignments,” says Ten Kate. “Academics and stakeholders provided the context and some guidelines, while the students were the project bureaus – in this role the students had to make important issues themselves. Stories of Change provided an interesting learning experience for the students, and resulted in some excellent movies.”
The winning short films
Two of these student movies won the jury prize and the audience prize. “In our documentary, we want to show that change is usually not straightforward,” say the jury winners, students Droovi de Zilva, Liv Angerer, Julie Thibaudeau and Yana Vijzelman. “Especially concerning changes towards a sustainable world.” Their film shows stakeholders in Overvecht’s energy transition openly talking about the struggles and deadlocks that come with such a transition. “We had to learn to listen, instead of imposing our own ideas and values,” the jury winners say.
The audience winners’ movie portrays what it would be like living in a future where either economic growth or technological innovation is centralised. “We visualised everyday life in a future where the world has warmed 1.5 degrees,” say the audience winners, students Sven Borghart, Matthijs Crouwers, Rebecca Hanke and Sanne Jasker. “We intend the viewer to reflect on current choices and trajectories for the future. By reflecting on the system you are in, you can distinguish possible external factors that hamper you reaching your desired future. If you want something to change, you can reach out to decision-makers to ask for solutions on these issues, and therefore make a difference.”